Group aids rare minnow

      Thirty years ago Friday, the federal government listed the Moapa dace as an endangered species because the warm springs at the headwaters of the Muddy River, 55 miles northeast of Las Vegas, was the only place on the planet the rare minnow lives.
      Friday was also the 94th anniversary of the first National Wildlife Refuge -- Pelican Island, Fla., -- established by Theodore Roosevelt to protect herons, egrets and other colonial nesting birds from slaughter by market hunters.
      To mark the anniversaries, volunteers descended on the Moapa Valley Refuge to restore the natural setting where the dwindling population of dace live.
      With the help of volunteers, the 100 to 200 adult Moapa dace that remain might have a chance to sustain the rare population for another 30 years, 94 years or even longer.
      The chances will increase especially if the 32-acre refuge is expanded by another 28 acres, land that awaits transfer into public ownership through a land exchange proposed by Del Webb Corp.
      "If the exchange goes through, that will become part of the refuge," said Marti Collins, a Fish and Wildlife Service spokeswoman who directed the cleanup and restoration effort.
      The project and the land swap are critical to the survival of the dace, a minnow with a troutlike body, dark lateral line and a distinct spot on its tail. They grow as long as four inches and like to hide in shaded, gravelly areas of the warm, clear springs.
      The refuge was established in 1979 solely to protect the dace. For the most part, it has been off-limits to the public, but a defunct resort that is the centerpiece of the land swap also holds Moapa dace in its springs. The plan, according to Collins, is to combine the two into a 60-acre refuge and open it for public access once that interpretative sites, restroom facilities and trails have been developed.
      The Nature Conservative, which is facilitating the exchange, already has a refuge manager, Bruce Lund, who is spearheading the restoration effort.
      A 1994 fire, believed to have been caused by a discarded cigarette, engulfed a stand of 300 palm trees that line the refuge stream and spring pools. The dace population was nearly wiped out after ashes and smoldering palm fronds fell in the water and raised its temperature beyond its normal 90 degrees. Oxygen levels decreased and all but 30 of an estimated 1,000 juvenile and adult dace in a 250-yard stretch of the refuge died.
      The charred palm trees, sprouting new fronds but still with blackened trunks, stood as grim reminders Friday of the fire that ravaged the dace population.
      With shovels in hand, two student volunteers -- Trisha Hastings, a member of a University of Nevada, Las Vegas environmental group, and Brian Oliver, a Clark High School junior -- performed the tedious task of digging up non-native thistles and small palms to prevent a recurrence of the devastating fire.
      "Environmental awareness is something that's really important to me, especially for future generations," Hastings said.
      Even though they are tiny minnows, she said, losing them would affect the life cycle of this unique, Mojave Desert oasis.