Southern Nevada endangered and threatened species

Friday, May 21, 2010 | 2:01 a.m.

Ash Meadows National Wildlife Refuge

A U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service-run habitat preserve in the Amargosa Valley, about 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas. About 23,000 acres of spring-fed wetlands and alkaline desert uplands are popular with picnickers, wildlife enthusiasts and hunters. Established in 1984, it’s famous for a high concentration of plants and animals found nowhere else in the world. It hosts a greater concentration of endemic life than any other U.S. area and the second greatest in all of North America.

Endangered Species

• Devil’s Hole pupfish. Iridescent blue inch-long fish lives only along one shallow rock shelf in the 93 degree waters of Devil’s Hole, a 400-foot deep pool in the refuge.

• Ash Meadows Amargosa pupfish. Lives in the refuge’s warm spring-fed streams and spring pools. Can survive in a half-inch of water.

• Warm Springs Amargosa pupfish. Lives only in a handful of springs in the refuge.

• Ash Meadows speckled dace. A small fish that lives in the refuge’s warm springs and their outflows.

Threatened Species

• Ash Meadows milkvetch. A low, mat-forming perennial herb with purple flowers. It lives in dry, hard, barren flats, washes and knolls of calcareous alkaline soils of the refuge.

• Spring-loving centaury. Plant lives in moist to wet clay soils along the banks of streams and seepage areas in the refuge.

• Ash Meadows sunray. A gray-green plant with yellow flowers that lives only in the refuge.

• Ash Meadows gumplant. Lives in saltgrass meadows along streams and pools and occasionally in alkali clay soils in drier areas of the refuge.

• Ash Meadows ivesia. A scrubby little perennial plant with tuft leaves emerging from a woody crown. Lives only in the Ash Meadows National Wildlife Refuge.

• Ash Meadows blazingstar. A biennial herb with bright yellow flowers and leaves covered with soft white hairs. Grows only near springs and along canyon washes in salty alkaline soils of the refuge.

• Ash Meadows naucorid. A flightless aquatic insect approximately a quarter-inch in length. Prefers the gravel bottom of very shallow swift-flowing hot springs in the refuge.

Virgin, Muddy and Colorado rivers

The Virgin and Muddy are tributaries to the Colorado River. Both run south to Lake Mead, the Muddy from near Moapa and the Virgin from southwestern Utah. The Colorado begins near Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado and runs through Utah, Arizona, Nevada and California before reaching the Gulf of California at Baja Mexico. It is the main water supply for the southwestern United States.

Endangered Species

• Bonytail chub. Used to live along the entire Colorado River, but as stream flows changed, its habitat shrunk to just Lake Mohave. Evolved to take advantage of the historical ecology and river flows of the Colorado. Has a sleek body and a rounded keel on its back. Can live up to 50 years.

• Virgin River chub. An extremely rare minnow that lives only in the Virgin River system of southwestern Utah, Southern Nevada and northwestern Arizona.

• Moapa dace. A tiny fish that grows up to 3.5 inches long with embedded scales that make it feel like leather. Lives only in the warm spring-fed headwaters of the Muddy River in the Moapa Valley National Wildlife Refuge in northeastern Clark County.

• Woundfin. A silvery, 3-inch long minnow with leathery skin and no scales. Once lived along much of the Colorado and Gila river basins, but dams and water diversions for irrigation eliminated most of its habitat. Now only in the Virgin River from the mouth of LaVerkin Creek in Utah to Lake Mead. Further threatened by a nonnative bait fish called a red shiner.

• Razorback sucker. A brownish-green fish with a yellow to white-colored belly. Name comes from the abrupt bony hump on its back that is shaped like an upside-down boat keel. Can grow to more than 3 feet long and weigh up to 13 pounds. Once widespread throughout most of the Colorado River Basin from Wyoming to Mexico. Population in the upper Colorado River Basin now limited to only a few locations. Most of the lower Colorado River Basin population lives in Lake Mohave, although a few live in the Colorado River below Hoover Dam.

• Southwestern Willow Flycatcher. Lives in dense riparian vegetation along waterways and wetlands throughout much of the Southwest. In Nevada along the Colorado River, at Lake Havasu and Lake Mead. Threatened by habitat destruction, mostly by invasive species such as saltcedar trees.

• Yuma clapper rail. Lives along shallow freshwater marshes dominated by cattail or bulrush. In the lower Colorado River Basin from Arizona to Mexico.

Elsewhere in Southern Nevada

Endangered Species

• Amargosa niterwort. A perennial herb with bright green leaves and small pink or white flowers. It lives in playas and alkaline flats in Southern Nevada. It is found primarily in southwestern Nevada.

• Pahrump poolfish. Only fish native to the Pahrump Valley — but it no longer lives there. About 2 inches long. Historical habitat, the Manse Springs, dried up in 1975 due to overpumping for irrigation. Three populations of Pahrump poolfish have been successfully relocated outside Pahrump, one in Corn Creek Spring on the Desert National Wildlife Range north of Las Vegas; another in Shoshone Springs southeast of Ely; and a third in an irrigation reservoir at Spring Mountain Ranch State Park west of Las Vegas.

• Pahranagat roundtail chub. Native to springs and rivers in the Pahranagat Valley in Lincoln County. Once lived in several springs but now only in Ash Springs and the Pahranagat River near Burns Ranch.

• White River spinedace. A 6-inch-long green and yellow fish found only at the Flag Springs complex in the Southern Nevada area of the Wayne E. Kirch Wildlife Management Area.

Threatened Species

• Desert tortoise. Lives in a variety of habitats from sandy flats to rocky foothills, including alluvial fans, washes and canyons where suitable soils for den construction might be found in the Mojave and Sonoran deserts throughout the southwestern United States and northern Mexico. Have been in the desert for millions of years. Can live more than 50 years. Among the most elusive desert animals, spending up to 95 percent of life underground. Eat wildflowers, grasses and cactuses.

• Railroad Valley springfish. Isolated in six thermal springs in two areas of Railroad Valley in northeastern Nye County. Native to Big Warm and Little Warm Springs as well as Big, Reynolds, Hay Corral and North Springs near Lockes Ranch. Have been successfully introduced into springs in Hot Creek Canyon and Chimney Spring, all in the Railroad Valley.

• Big Spring spinedace. A coolwater fish that lives only in the high velocity waters in the Meadow Valley Wash within Condor Canyon, near Panaca.