About
The Save Ash Meadows campaign is a locally driven effort to protect the lands and waters surrounding Ash Meadows National Wildlife Refuge through the creation of an Ash Meadows National Conservation Area (NCA).
This campaign was sparked by the community of Amargosa Valley, Nevada, which has called for durable federal protections to safeguard groundwater, support responsible development, and ensure long-term stability for the people and wildlife who depend on this landscape.
As currently proposed, the Ash Meadows NCA would seek to protect critical groundwater flow paths from new mining and energy development on approximately 185,000 acres of lands managed by the Bureau of Land Management surrounding Ash Meadows.
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Ash Meadows is sustained by ancient groundwater that supports rare springs and wetlands in one of the harshest deserts on the planet.
Known as “the Galapagos of the desert,” Ash Meadows provides habitat for at least 26 endemic species – species found nowhere else in the world. This is the highest local concentration of endemic life in the United States, and second highest in all of North America.
Ash Meadows is a vital and sacred part of the ancestral homelands of the Timbisha Shoshone Tribe, Southern Paiute, and Chemehuevi Tribes. The Timbisha Shoshone Tribe retain sovereign lands in the watershed where their people still live today, connected spiritually and hydrologically to Ash Meadows through the Amargosa River.
The Amargosa River is a river of groundwater.
Flowing from mountains and basins in Nevada, the Amargosa River runs for over 180 miles through the Death Valley region before terminating in Badwater Basin in Death Valley National Park, California. The oases of the Amargosa River are a string of pearls strung across the Mojave Desert, sustaining wetlands, springs, and riparian habitat with flowing ancient groundwater.
Today, growing development pressure from large-scale renewable energy and mining exploration threaten to harm the ecosystem and deplete groundwater that sustains life in Ash Meadows, eastern Death Valley National Park, and throughout the Amargosa River Basin.
The Save Ash Meadows campaign seeks to ensure that energy and mining projects do not come at the expense of groundwater-dependent ecosystems and communities. Actions such as the designation of the Ash Meadows NCA are necessary to achieve a balanced approach to development and conservation.
WHO IS LEADING THIS CAMPAIGN?
The Save Ash Meadows campaign is led by representatives from a coalition of local rural communities, Tribal governments, conservation organizations, scientists, and regional stakeholders.
For more than two decades, the local conservation organization Amargosa Conservancy has worked to protect the Amargosa River Basin, a globally significant desert ecosystem that connects Nevada and California. Amargosa Conservancy is standing with the local community leaders in pushing for these necessary safeguards for the Amargosa River.
WHY ACTION IS NEEDED NOW
The Mojave Desert is rapidly becoming a center for renewable energy development and mineral exploration.
In recent years, proposals for large-scale industrial development, including new mining exploration near sensitive groundwater systems, have raised serious concerns across the region.
In response to proposed mining and exploratory drilling projects near Ash Meadows, the Save Ash Meadows coalition called for urgent action to be taken. In 2025, a process was set in motion to withdraw up to 309,000 of lands managed by the Bureau of Land Management in the Amargosa Valley from new mining for up to 20 years. Known as a “mineral withdrawal,” this action was proposed to provide temporary safeguards for Ash Meadows and the communities while a more permanent conservation designation could be scoped and ultimately achieved.
While a significant victory, the mineral withdrawal has not yet moved forward, and temporary protections are set to expire in January of 2027.
Without durable land-use planning, groundwater systems that took thousands of years to form could be permanently damaged. This campaign exists because this is the moment to act, before irreversible harm occurs.
WHAT IS A NATIONAL CONSERVATION AREA (NCA)?
A National Conservation Area (NCA) is a type of federal public land designation created by Congress to protect landscapes with important ecological, cultural, historic, and scenic values.
NCAs are managed by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) as part of the National Conservation Lands system.
Each NCA is uniquely tailored to the landscape it protects, ensuring that conservation priorities are clear and long-lasting.
Unlike temporary protections, an NCA provides durable, long-term conservation direction through legislation.
WHY ASH MEADOWS NEEDS PROTECTION
Groundwater is the lifeblood of the Amargosa River Basin.
The springs and wetlands that define this landscape depend entirely on groundwater that has accumulated underground over thousands of years.
This same groundwater sustains Ash Meadows National Wildlife Refuge, supplies drinking water to Amargosa Valley residents and to members of the Timbisha Shoshone Tribe, and maintains fragile desert ecosystems.
Once groundwater systems are damaged, recovery may take generations, or may never occur at all.
Protecting water is the single most important reason this campaign exists.
DISCOVER ASH MEADOWS
Ash Meadows is a place of striking beauty and deep ecological importance.
Here, desert meets water in rare and unexpected ways. Clear springs emerge from beneath the desert floor, creating wetlands that support vibrant life in an otherwise arid environment.
Visitors encounter crystal-clear desert springs, lush wetland habitats, expansive desert landscapes, rare plants and wildlife, and quiet solitude.
This is a landscape shaped by water, time, and resilience. It is held sacred by the Timbisha Shoshone Tribe, Moapa Paiute, Pahrump Paiute, and Chemehuevi Tribes as a vital part of their ancestral homelands.
Ash Meadows is an improbable, irreplaceable, truly one-of-a-kind oasis on the shoulder of Death Valley National Park.