SAVING THE ASH MEADOWS GUMPLANT

With more than 30 free-flowing springs, Ash Meadows is an oasis in the desert, and over the past century farming has been tried there numerous times. The meadows' salty, clay soils deterred many early homesteaders from their agrarian aspirations, and the area remained largely intact until 1967, when an agricultural corporation and a peat-mining company purchased nearly 20 square miles in the northern and eastern portions of the meadows. In an effort to convert the land to large-scale agricultural use, wetlands were drained, large areas were ploughed under, and pumps were installed at many of the springs. A tremendous amount of Ash Meadows gumplant habitat was destroyed.

In 2000, the Center, Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, and the Sierra Club filed suit against the Bureau of Land Management for the agency’s failure to rein in overgrazing on 10.2 million acres of southern California desert. In 2001, we won a settlement with the agency whereby millions of acres were protected and thousands of miles of roads were closed in the California Desert Conservation Area. The settlement also required the agency to keep cattle and burros fenced off from sensitive riparian habitat — including the salt-grass meadows and marshes in which the Ash Meadows gumplant is typically found. And the Bureau installed protective fencing adjacent to access roads to protect the Ash Meadows gumplant from habitat destruction in California .

NATURAL HISTORY

Contact: Ileene Anderson