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Work crew in the Amargosa Basin
Action Alert: Save Ash Meadows
JOIN THE FIGHT TO SAVE ASH MEADOWS! Letter will be sent as follows: Dear Secretary Haaland and Director Stone-Manning, Ash Meadows National Wildlife Refuge, one of the most critical and vibrant biodiversity hotspots in the United States, is under threat. Ash Meadows...
PRESS RELEASE: Nye County Sends Letter Opposing Mining Activities Near Ash Meadows National Wildlife Refuge
For Immediate Release: January 3rd, 2024 Contact: Mason Voehl, Amargosa Conservancy, (702)900-7589, mason@amargosaconservancy.org Nye County Sends Letter Opposing Mining Activities Near Ash Meadows National Wildlife Refuge PAHRUMP, NV. – The Nye County Board of...
Desert Magic
by Taylor Patterson Tribal Affairs Consultant to the Amargosa Conservancy The desert has always represented magic to me. I would sit wide-eyed while my mom regaled tales of dragonflies at the Shoshone pool and hikes in the Kingston Range. I would daydream about what...
Executive Director’s Report: An Eddy of Reflection
by Mason Voehl The older I get, the more interested I seem to become in the flow of time and how we mark it. Perhaps as a result of my particular occupation, I have come to see time very much as I do a river: as a fluid body in motion. In this modern era where our...
VOLUNTEER OPPORTUNITY: TRAIL STEWARDSHIP EVENT, FALL 2023
Executive Director’s Report: Here come the storms
Storms are blowing into the Amargosa Basin. Some are bringing water to the land, and others are seeking to take it away. A hurricane in the desert After one of the wettest winters in recent memory in parts of California, all hands were on deck bracing for Hurricane...
Amargosa Hydrology: Springs and Current Conditions, by Andy Zdon
Miss out on our 2023 Summer Seminar on Amargosa Hydrology? Watch the recording of Andy Zdon's presentation on the fascinating science and stories of the Amargosa Basin's springs: Love springs, and love the work we're doing to protect them in the Amargosa Basin? Become...
Executive Director’s Report: Exploratory Mining Officially Halted on the Doorstep of Ash Meadows
Folks, I don’t think I have to tell you that these last few weeks have been confusing and chaotic. I first want to thank everyone for being patient with our deluge of communications lately. We strive to send monthly newsletters with relevant updates, but lately the...
SAVE ASH MEADOWS while rockin’ a sweet shirt!
Do you love Ash Meadows? Do you wear shirts? Do you want to help us save Ash Meadows from exploratory mining on its doorsteps? We have just the thing! Support the Amargosa Conservancy's campaign to save Ash Meadows from exploratory drilling by purchasing one of our...
Letter to Leadership: SAVE ASH MEADOWS
On Thursday, July 6th, 2023, the Amargosa Conservancy submitted the following letter signed by 20 local, regional, and national environmental organizations to senior leadership within the Department of Interior: Request for Consultation, Public Scoping and...
Save Ash Meadows Petition
Follow this link to sign our petition to save Ash Meadows National Wildlife Refuge from exploratory lithium mining: https://www.amargosaconservancy.org/saveashmeadows/
I asked ChatGPT to write a blog post about the Amargosa River. Here’s what happened.
by Mason Voehl Executive Director Artificial intelligence's moment has been long in coming, and now it's arrived. Testing the capacities of novel AI engines such as ChatGPT to "outsource" what has long been thought to be the strictly human activity of writing has been...
A Slow Walk On A Long River
by Josh Jackson If I were to tell you I was going to visit a “wild and scenic river,” what kind of images would that conjure up for you? Perhaps a raging rapids of white water careening through large boulders? Or how about a meandering tributary with deep pools and a...
Executive Director’s Report: The Ephemerality of Laughter
by Mason Voehl, executive director Where are these men? Asleep beneath their grounds: And strangers, fond as they, their furrows plough. Earth laughs in flowers, to see her boastful boys Earth-proud, proud of the earth which is not theirs; Who steer the plough, but...
Executive Director’s Report: With a little help from our friends
The story of conservation in the Amargosa Basin has been largely written with the ink of collaboration. Looking back over the 19 year history of our organization, virtually every success we can claim has come from investments in partnerships. When the Amargosa vole...
Enjoy this boring plant, while you can
Despite being part of the rose family, there is really nothing about blackbrush -- Coleogyne ramosissima -- that commands your attention. Even after the rare very wet desert springs when it comes into full bloom, its flowers are pallid yellow, pretty close up but...
Art Auction Fundraiser featuring work by David Michaels
Please join us for a fun social evening of art, education, cocktails, and community in support of the Amargosa Conservancy! Join us in a historic Las Vegas home for a silent auction featuring landscape artist David Michaels who has found inspiration from the Amargosa...
Executive Director’s Report: The Deep Value of our Remaining Wetlands
by Mason Voehl Executive Director Questions of values are the hardest to answer. I was asked recently to put together a brief presentation describing the key features, resources, and values of the Amargosa Basin. There is a straightforward approach to crafting such a...
What is a “Solar PEIS,” and what does it mean for the future of the Amargosa Basin?
Caption: Palen Solar Project in Riverside, CA; determined as suitable under the DRECP by Chris Clarke Amargosa Conservancy Board Member Ruth Hammett Associate Director, California Desert Program National Parks Conservation Association In December 2022, the Us...
Rare Plants of Tecopa
by Naomi Fraga Amargosa Conservancy Board Treasurer Director of Conservation Programs, California Botanic Garden The Amargosa Basin is globally renowned among desert locations for its unique and rich biodiversity. Across the length of this “hide and seek” river, we...
Executive Director’s Reflection: The Road Ahead
Amargosa Conservancy Board of Directors, 2023 Effective conservation work takes vision. And vision takes people. Last weekend, January 21-22nd, the Amargosa Conservancy board of directors and staff met in Shoshone, CA for two days of intensive visioning and action...
Announcing: The Bill Christian Trailhead Project
It is with great excitement that we are sharing our plans for a bold new project in the Amargosa Basin: the Bill Christian Trailhead. For many years, public access to the Amargosa Wild and Scenic River in the Amargosa Canyon has been limited by challenges presented by...
Executive Director’s Reflection: Snowflakes and Springs
Saratoga Springs, Death Valley National Park: photo by Naomi Fraga by Mason Voehl, executive director Standing in the driveway of my home in Las Vegas, I watch cold clouds drag their snow-laden bellies across the high peaks of the Spring Mountains for the first time...
Executive Director’s Report: Reflections on this Monsoon Season
Rainbow over Ancient Lake Tecopa By Executive Director, Mason Voehl It is truly difficult to articulate just what this monsoon season has been like in the Mojave Desert. The last few years have been rough on the Amargosa Basin and the southwest as a whole. The drought...
CDFW News Release: Endangered Voles Begin To Repopulate In Inyo County, With Help From Scientists, Conservationists And Landowner
photo by Nancy Good "Seven years of carefully planned habitat restoration on private land in the Mojave Desert have yielded hope for the persistence of the endangered Amargosa vole. On Aug. 8, a photograph from a wildlife camera placed by researchers from the...
Mountain snowpack: A lifeline to the Amargosa
By AC Member Laura Dye A considerable body of scientific work highlights how climate change alters our landscapes. And while it is important to note the changes within the bounds of the Amargosa River Basin itself – warming temperatures, shifts in vegetation...
Fishes of the Amargosa Basin
By Patrick Donnelly Vice President, Amargosa Conservancy Great Basin Director, Center for Biological Diversity Before the Amargosa Basin was the hottest, driest place in North America, it was relatively moist. Abundant precipitation during the Pleistocene (as recently...
Warm Weather Hiking: When to go, what to bring
Temperatures are on the rise in the Amargosa Basin, which means it's a good time to reevaluate your approach to warm weather hiking. First, to be completely clear: May, June, July and August tend to be extreme in the Amargosa Basin. Temperatures regularly exceed 115...
Summer Seminar Series, 2022
The Amargosa Conservancy is thrilled to launch its first ever Summer Seminar Series! These seminars will feature presentations by our board of directors on the history, ecology, geology, and other fields related to our work in the Amargosa Basin. This is your chance...
Celebrating the Antiquities Act has never been more important.
On June 8th, our nation will observe the 116th anniversary of the Antiquities Act, and there has never been a more important time to celebrate this historic preservation policy and support its current use. When Theodore Roosevelt signed the Antiquities Act into law in...