Conservation groups seeks Endangered Species Act protections for Nevada desert fish

A conservation group is seeking federal protections for a rare Nevada fish whose habitat is confined to a few groundwater-fed springs in the driest state in the union.

On Tuesday, the Center for Biological Diversity filed a legal petition with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service seeking protection under the Endangered Species Act for the Oasis Valley speckled dace, a rare endemic fish found in about a dozen isolated springs in Southern Nevada’s Oasis Valley near Beatty.

The Oasis Valley speckled dace relies on springs fed by the shallow groundwater system that supplies the Amargosa River with freshwater year round, according to Nevada Current . Those springs are experiencing reduced stream flows and inadequate aquifer recharge due to climate changes in precipitation, snow, and runoff in the Mojave Desert region.

Nevada’s Department of Wildlife lists the Oasis Valley speckled dace as a “species of greatest conservation need.” The Nevada Division of Natural Heritage also lists the fish as “critically imperiled.” Those designations, however, offer very limited protections for the species.

Conservationists warned federal wildlife managers that the rare fish faces a host of threats, including invasive species, cattle grazing, climate change, and groundwater pumping for solar energy development and gold mining operations surrounding the Oasis Valley.

In recent years, the rare fish has benefited from habitat restoration in Oasis Valley and seen population improvements, according to the Nevada Department of Wildlife. However, conservationists fear that progress could be undone by a slew of proposed gold mining projects in the valley.

The legal petition filed by the Center lists the North Bullfrog Mine in Nye County, proposed by Corvus Gold Nevada, as the most pressing threat to the Oasis Valley speckled dace. Once fully developed, the mine would withdraw up to 2,500 acre-feet of water from Oasis Valley annually, and span about 6,300 acres of land.

“The Amargosa River is in the crosshairs of the international gold-mining industry, and the Oasis Valley speckled dace could be its first casualty,” said Patrick Donnelly, Great Basin director at the Center. “If we don’t take immediate action, we could lose this biologically important little fish and the precious, rare desert springs it needs for survival.”

Groundwater drawdown could reach even more troubling levels if the six additional gold mines proposed in the Oasis Valley are approved by federal land managers, according to the petition.

A hydrologic analysis prepared for the Amargosa Conservancy by Roux, an environmental consulting firm, found that the combined impact of multiple mining projects in Oasis Valley would likely deplete springs and groundwater dependent ecosystems, degrading or eliminating Oasis Valley speckled dace habitat.

Thousands of years of isolation in secluded springs have created unique and genetically distinct subspecies of the desert speckled dace, including the federally protected endangered Ash Meadows speckled dace, a close relative of the Oasis Valley speckled dace.

“Water is life in the desert, and we’re lucky to have a lot of it here in the Amargosa River Basin. That’s part of what has made this one of the most biodiverse regions in the country,” said Donnelly.

The Oasis Valley speckled dace itself is one of four distinct populations of the Amargosa speckled dace, and was first identified as a distinct population by the U.C. Davis Center for Watershed Sciences and California Department of Fish and Wildlife. However, the Oasis Valley speckled dace population remains unprotected, partially due to historic uncertainties about their taxonomic status, according to the California Department of Fish and Wildlife.

In the petition, the Center said they also plan to submit separate petitions for two other distinct populations of the Amargosa speckled dace: the Amargosa River speckled dace and the Owens speckled dace.

This article originally appeared on Reno Gazette Journal: Conservation groups seeks Endangered Species Act protections for Nevada desert fish