Desert aquatic species evolved via the isolation of their habitats and naturally occupy restricted ranges

This $966,659 Formula Grant, awarded by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service under the State Wildlife Grants (CFDA 15.634) program, supports the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) in implementing a strategic, proactive conservation program for imperiled desert aquatic species in California. The key activities include:

1. Assessing the current distribution and population trends of 16 threatened desert aquatic species, including pupfish, minnows, suckers, salmonids, and amphibians. 2) Identifying causes of species decline and range contraction. 3) Developing science-based management options to promote species recovery. 4) Implementing targeted conservation actions to stabilize existing wild populations and restore these species to their former ranges.

The grant builds upon CDFW's successful previous efforts in the Owens Valley, where they documented species status, prioritized reintroduction sites, and completed large-scale habitat restoration. This regional-scale project aims to replicate that model across California's desert ecosystems to comprehensively address the threats facing these vulnerable aquatic species.

Theirdependence on a limited water supply in an arid climate promotes speciation, but also makes each resultingspecies highly vulnerable to human-mediated extinction. This is particularly true within a populated state likecalifornia, where human demand for limited water resources is high.landscape-scale changes have led to the widespread decline of california desert aquatic species including thethree species of pupfish, eight minnows, four species of sucker, two salmonids, and three amphibians addressed bythis project. All these species have suffered significant range contraction during the previous century, to adegree that threatens (or has eliminated) the persistence of self-sustaining wild populations. Continued actionis urgently needed to stabilize existing wild populations and to restore these species to their former range.to promote the recovery of wild populations of california desert aquatic species, we need to: 1) assess thecurrent distribution and population trends of each species across the landscape, 2) identify causes of decline range contraction, 3) develop science-based management options that promote recovery, and 4) implement sciencebasedmanagement actions. Historically, these steps have been completed in a piecemeal fashion. As a result, thestatus of our imperiled species management ranges from implementation of specific management actions to acomplete lack of information on species distribution or population trends. We propose to implement the four-step approach above at a regional scale. This approach has a proven track recordin desert systems. Between 2016 and 2019, the california department of fish and wildlife (cdfw) initiated asystematic investigation into the status and trends of threatened species within the owens valley. Through theseprojects, cdfw compiled datasets that allowed managers to assess the current status of each species and toidentify conservation actions that could contribute to their recovery. For desert speckled dace, this effortidentified declining and stable habitats (2016) prioritized locations for reintroduction (2017) secured fundingfor reintroduction (2019) and implemented these reintroductions (2022). In the case of the owens sucker, thisproject documented a previously undetected decline, identified its probable causes (2018), and proposed locationsfor reintroduction (2020). And for the owens pupfish, which has been extinct in the wild since 1969, theseefforts have culminated in a landscape-scale habitat restoration (completed 2021). The efforts in owens valleyserve as a successful model for understanding the status of a threatened species and taking effective actions topromote their recovery. However, this project has not yet progressed through its final stages and is narrowlyfocused both in terms of number of taxa targeted and geographical scope.