HI, my name is Julian Lucarelli and I have been with the
Nevada Conservation Corps since the end of August and will be here until August
2015. I enjoy the NCC community and can-do spirit associated with getting
outdoors and completing a new project each week. The NCC has given me a glimpse
of what many federal, state, and local agencies are responsible for on a regular
basis. It has helped see the value in much of what I learned in college and
opened vast horizons to continue to do so. I am here to work hard, learning the
ropes of conservation work. The insight accumulated will follow me as I hope to
later on earn a master’s degree.
I am a part of Crew #1, led by Jess Knowles, and rounded out
by Tyler France, Nick Regalalo, and myself. We enjoy epic three hour dance grooves
to tunes from any era. We’ve tried Nutella on just about any edible matter
waiting to find a match.
Ash Meadows National Wildlife Refuge is in the Amargosa
Valley just over an hour North of Las Vegas. It sits directly east of Death
Valley and is supported by a network of hot springs that sprout out of the
desert at unfathomable rates. These hot springs pool to form fragile wetland
habitat for Ash Meadows pup fish and dace, two endemic species. A third, the
Devil’s Hole pup fish is only known to exist in a singular formation at the
base of a mountain known as Devil’s Hole. The wildlife refuge contains a
diverse range of habitats including desert, dunes, badlands, salt flats,
canyons, wetlands, and mountains. Big horn sheep are seen grazing in the
afternoon on the equally eclectic plant population.
Our crew, fearlessly led by the venerable Jess Knowles,
spent two hitches at the wildlife refuge camping at the US Fish and Wildlife
office onsite. We awoke our first morning to coyotes yelling and hooping over
their early dawn kill. This couldn’t’ve been more than 150 yards from our
campsite. We spent our first tour removing barb wire fences from former
ranchlands swamped by growing marshes. This was done to open these parts of the
refuge from the possibility of larger fauna becoming entangled in fence line
where it may be left to wither. The third day at Ash Meadows we jumped in some
of the flowing springs to remove cattails. In cutting these plants from the
waterways, there is an increase in sunlight that reaches the water promoting
algae growth needed to support populations of dace and pupfish. Our last day
was spent removing invasive coyote willows from various areas.
Our next tour was a nice break from hot weather in the Vegas
valley. The majority of this tour was again spent cutting down coyote willows.
We were still untrained for chainsaw use so we left the thick stuff for USFWS
staff but thousands of invasive willows fell to the understory those three
days. Coyote willows, like salt-cedar use valuable diverted water and choking
out other native plant species.
Earlier in this tour we spent a day repairing a boardwalk we
later took a tour on led by a Great Basin Institute Research Assistant. We
tightened bolts and boards and trimmed back flora too close to the trail
featuring custom ironwork and informative signage.
The last day of hitch we set out to dig up and remove the
last four reptile and small mammal traps that had been built in the refuge for
a study that started with thirty. These traps were spread out between meadow,
salt flat, desert, and dune environment. One of the traps yielded an encounter
with a black widow the only spider of the like I have ever seen.
If you live in Nevada or southern California I advise a trip
to Ash Meadows. The land was saved from development for good reason and is home
to a truly enthralling scope of wildlife.
