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AC Blog
Work crew in the Amargosa Basin
Introducing the 2025 Summer Webinar Series!
Amargosa Conservancy has launched the 2025 Summer Webinar Series with presentations from each of our four staff! These sessions will spotlight the specific expertise and work that each of Amargosa Conservancy’s passionate staff are contributing to ensure a sustainable...
Practicing Stewardship and Reciprocity in Tecopa Hot Springs
By Scott H. Williams, Restoration Project Manager “Cultures of gratitude must also be cultures of reciprocity. Each person, human or no, is bound to every other in a reciprocal relationship. Just as all beings have a duty to me, I have a duty to them. If an animal...
We Are Hiring Our Next Executive Director!
Join Our Team as the Next Executive Director! The Amargosa Conservancy is seeking an Executive Director to lead us into the future. The Amargosa Conservancy is a 501(c)3 California and Nevada non-profit organization headquartered in Shoshone, California. For over 20...
Ash Meadows Threatened Once Again: What’s at Stake with the St. Cloud Mining Project Approval
By Mason Voehl Campaigns Director Amargosa Conservancy Over the past few years, the communities of the Amargosa Basin could not have made themselves any clearer: we will not abide by predatory extraction projects that put Ash Meadows at risk in the name of profit. And...
Changes afoot at the Amargosa Conservancy
A message from Mason Voehl: Thanks to the support and generosity of our members and supporters, the Amargosa Conservancy has experienced tremendous growth and success in recent years. Through the expansion of our advocacy work, our Save Ash Meadows campaign, and our...
Reflecting on Phainopeplas in Shoshone
By Morrigan DeVito, Restoration & Plant Stewardship Coordinator When you find a Phainopepla in a mesquite bosque, everything else comes into focus. I search for them in Shoshone Village by scanning the tops of the mesquites with my naked eye, looking especially...
Loving Plants for the Plants’ Sake: Botanical Surveys in the Amargosa
By Morrigan DeVito, Restoration & Plant Stewardship Coordinator 86 degrees– despite our sweat, the botany team and I consider this to be cool weather since we’re only just starting the spring/summer field season of botanical monitoring. I joined AC board member...
Facing Our Shifting Baselines: Introducing Morrigan to Amargosa Conservancy
By Morrigan DeVito, Restoration & Plant Stewardship Coordinator I guess you could say birds brought me to the Amargosa. It was the joy of birding in the urban wetlands of the Las Vegas Valley that opened my heart up to loving the Mojave Desert and seeing a future...
AC and Partners Launch Restoration Projects
By Scott H Williams, Restoration Project Manager In February 2025, our organization entered an exciting new phase with the initiation of two major restoration projects in the California portion of the Amargosa River watershed. I am fortunate to have a new role with...
Brush Fire at the Borehole Spring
By Scott H. Williams At approximately 7:50pm on Tuesday, February 11, 2025, Southern Inyo Fire Protection District (SIFPD) received an emergency tone from dispatch followed by a report of a brush fire at the Borehole hot spring in Tecopa, California. SIFPD responded...
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Local Communities and Tribal Members Secure Win to Protect Ash Meadows and Amargosa Valley
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: JANUARY 14, 2025 MEDIA CONTACT: Mason Voehl, mason@amargosaconservancy.org, (507) 830-0238 Local Communities and Tribal Members Secure Win to Protect Ash Meadows and Amargosa Valley A Critical First Step to Safeguard Sacred Lands and Water...
Amargosa Conservancy seeks qualified individuals for a full-time Restoration and Plant Stewardship Coordinator position
Amargosa Conservancy is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization with over 1,900 members and supporters based in Shoshone, California and has been the leading voice for the conservation of the Amargosa River watershed for almost two decades. The Amargosa Conservancy is...
The Amargosa as Borderlands
By Scott H. Williams I am a Californian. In a lot of places that is a dirty word, not least of all in Nevada. I reside in Tecopa, California now, but I’ve lived in Los Angeles and grew up in rural Northern California. Through my work in the Amargosa region and time...
California Wildlife Conservation Board Awards Amargosa Restoration Projects
By Mason Voehl, Executive Director In a remarkable year for the Amargosa River and Basin, the California Wildlife Conservation Board (WCB) has awarded two critical grants to support the resilience and biodiversity of this unique desert ecosystem. These grants, one...
Hanging in the air: Meditations on an aerial journey over the Amargosa River
By Mason Voehl, Executive Director, Amargosa Conservancy On a clear and windless October morning, I climbed aboard a Cessna 210 plane alongside Tribal and rural community leaders, journalists, land managers, and fellow advocates to experience something...
Pomona College Students Introduced to Conservation in the Amargosa
It's a calm day at Ash Meadows National Wildlife Refuge. A class of undergraduates from Pomona College has gathered at the Crystal Springs boardwalk to hear hydrologist Andy Zdon introduce his tour of the hydrogeology of the Amargosa River Watershed. Zdon has been...
Threats to Groundwater from Open-pit Mining in the Amargosa
Amargosa toad. US Fish and Wildlife photo. By Patrick Donnelly North Bullfrog Mine is the first of a half dozen or so gold mines which are under exploration or permitting near the Amargosa River in Beatty, Nevada. North Bullfrog is owned by AngloGold Ashanti, one of...
New Board Member: Louise Mathias
Amargosa Conservancy is pleased to introduce you to the newest member of our Board of Directors, Louise Mathias. Louise is a 15-year resident of the Mojave Desert, whose interest in and passion for the delicate ecosystem of the Amargosa Basin began in 2014, when she...
The BLM’s New Public Lands Rule: New or More of the Same?
By John Hiatt In June of this year the Bureau of Land Management’s “Public Lands Rule”, also known as the Conservation and Landscape Health Rule was finalized, although the procedures and guidance on implementation are still a work in progress. The rule...
Putting an Oil Derrick on the Sun: Claire Vaye Watkins reflects on extractive, industrial solar in the Amargosa
Claire Vaye Watkins reading to the protest campout at the Yellow Pine solar construction project in Clark County, Nevada. Photo used with permission from Shannon Salter, 2021. mojavegreen.org It’s a beautiful day on the Amargosa River. The heat is predicted to...
SOLAR ENERGY IN THE AMARGOSA RIVER WATERSHED
ACTION ALERT VIRTUAL TOWN HALL on SOLAR in the AMARGOSA RIVER WATERSHED 6PM WEDNESDAY, SEPT. 18TH Join Amargosa Conservancy staff and board members for a virtual town hall to learn about the Bureau of Land Management's new plan for solar siting and development in the...
Extremophilia: Introducing AC Staff Scott H Williams
by Scott H Williams As an environmental scientist, I wonder at times whether the detached, data-driven approach to the scientific study of the natural world inevitably alienates us from having a deep spiritual appreciation for nature. Does quantitatively analyzing the...
Introducing Our Partner in Advocacy: Indigenous Voices of Nevada
by Mathilda Guerrero Indigenous Voices of Nevada The Amargosa Conservancy’s fight for a mineral withdrawal in the ecologically sensitive Amargosa Basin stands as a testament to the power of Indigenous leadership and the amplification of Indigenous voices. This...
2024 SUMMER SPEAKER SERIES
Amargosa Conservancy is pleased to announce our 2024 Summer Speaker Series! This third offering of our virtual Summer Speaker Series will feature dedicated employees from the National Park Service, Bureau of Land Management, and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. These...
A Brief Geologic Tour of the Amargosa Basin, by AC Board Member Bill Neill
A Brief Geologic Tour of the Amargosa Basin By Amargosa Conservancy board member and secretary, Bill Neill ORIGIN OF PALEOZOIC CARBONATE STRATA THAT ALLOWS LONG-DISTANCE GROUNDWATER FLOW By definition, desert areas have little rainfall and natural water sources such...
Executive Director’s Report: Amargosa Desert, a Collision Zone
Folks, it doesn't feel like hyberbole to proclaim that our quiet little river is in a state of uproar. Believe me: I wish it wasn't so. The phrase I keep turning over in my mind to describe the Amargosa River watershed right now, and especially the Amargosa Desert...
A new era of Nevada groundwater management has begun. Here’s what it could mean for the Amargosa River.
Special report from Patrick Donnelly Amargosa Conservancy Vice-President Great Basin director, Center for Biological Diversity A new era of Nevada groundwater management has begun. Here’s what it could mean for the Amargosa River. The Nevada Supreme Court ruled in...
ACTION ALERT: BLM meeting in Las Vegas on the future of solar energy in the West, including the Amargosa River watershed
Tuesday, February 13th 5:00pm-7:00pm PST Red Rock Casino, Summerlin Room CD 11011 West Charleston Blvd, Las Vegas, NV We are writing to alert you about a planning process currently being undertaken by BLM which could have a significant impact on the future of the...
“What is a mineral withdrawal?” Frequently Asked Questions
Not sure what a mineral withdrawal is, or why one is needed for lands surrounding Ash Meadows? This FAQ is for YOU! Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) on Mineral Withdrawal under the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) “What is a mineral withdrawal?” Under mining law,...
Champions of Science: USGS Publishes AC-Funded Study of Evapotranspiration in the Amargosa Basin
Science is and always will be a pillar of of the work our organization does to protect the Amargosa Basin. For the last 20 years, Amargosa Conservancy has worked alongside local governments, state and federal agencies, non-profit partners, and researchers to develop...