To educate and advocate

The Friends of Fish Slough is a grassroots organization committed to the protection of the lands in and around Fish Slough Valley, California.

What we’re about

The Friends of Fish Slough work to protect the natural resources of Fish Slough Valley, the surrounding areas in the Volcanic Tablelands, bluffs and canyons, and the flora, fauna, historic artifacts, and cultural resources found within it.

FISH SLOUGH ACEC

The Fish Slough Area of Critical Environmental Concern (ACEC) is 36,000 acres located in the transition between the Mojave Desert and the Great Basin biomes. There are also three Wilderness Study Areas (WSAs) in the surrounding area and the 188 acre Fish Slough Ecological Reserve, which is managed by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW).

FLORA

It includes a variety of plant communites in wetlands, alkali meadows, and uplands. It provides habitat for rare endemic plants, such as the Fish Slough milk-vetch and the alkali Mariposa lily. Fish Slough represents one of the richest wetland floras in the Great Basin with 126 taxa (species, family, or class) described.

FAUNA

Fauna taxa include birds, raptors, water fowl, fish, mammals, snakes, and lizards. Including some that are rare, threatened, endangered, such as the Owens pupfish and the Owens tui chub. It’s been designated as an Important Bird Area by Audobon.

CULTURAL RESOURCES

They are three designated areas for petroglyph viewing along Fish Slough Road and petroglyphs are scattered throughout the Volcanic Tablelands.

HISTORIC ARTIFACTS

Also along the Fish Slough Road is the old Keogh Ranch and stage stop.

COOPERATIVE MANAGEMENT PLAN

Several agencies manage the ACEC under a Cooperative Management Plan. These include Bureau of Land Management (BLM), Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP), University of California Natural Reserve System, and US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS).

Biodiversity Assets

The area is one of a dwindling number of wetlands in the Owens Valley and provides a climate refugia for a number of rare, endemic, and endangered species.

Just to name a few…

  • Fish Slough milk-vetch
  • Silverleaf milk-vetch
  • Hot Springs fimbristylis
  • Alkali ivesia
  • Inyo phacelia
  • Inyo star tulip
  • Owens Valley checkerbloom
(c) 2008 Gary A. Monroe [Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 (CC BY-NC 3.0) license]
California Department of Fish and Wildlife (Government public domain)

And a few more…

  • Fish Slough springsnail
  • Owens tui chub
  • Owens pupfish
  • Owens speckled dace

“[It’s a] super cool resource that we have out here and we want to make sure it says that way” Sherri Lisius, Field Manager, Bureau of Land Management.”

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