Moapa dace population grows after latest count

The results of a Valentine's Day fish count are in, and it looks like the Moapa dace is falling in love with its restored stream habitat 60 miles north of Las Vegas.

The population of protected fish grew by 14 percent over the past year -- from 574 to 654 -- but it still has a long way to go before it will be considered safe from extinction.

"The fish are responding to the restoration efforts that have been done," said Amy LaVoie, who manages the 117-acre Moapa National Wildlife Refuge for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. "We knew in general if we improved the habitat, the fish would respond."

The latest count continues an upward trend for the dace, which has seen its numbers rise consistently since an unexplained die-off about five years ago.

The population also seems to be spreading out a bit after a wildfire in July 2010 that seemed to concentrate the fish in one small stretch of stream on the refuge.

"They're in more reaches now than they were before the fire," Fish and Wildlife Service spokesman Dan Balduini said. "They've spread out more, and that makes them a little tougher to count."

The finger-length fish with a black spot on its tail gets counted one by one by biologists swimming facedown in the shallow headwaters of the Muddy River twice a year. The February counts are lower than the August ones because the dace does a lot of its spawning in the spring and food is more plentiful, but both sets of numbers have been going up since 2008.

The dace has been under federal protection for more than 40 years. It is expected to remain on the endangered species list until at least 75 percent of its historical habitat has been restored and its population is holding steady at 6,000 adult fish.

A single valley in northern Clark County is the only place in the world where the Moapa dace is found. Its entire habitat is confined to the refuge, some adjacent private land and the Warm Springs Natural Area, a 1,218-acre tract the Southern Nevada Water Authority bought in 2007 for $69 million.

The wholesale water supplier for the Las Vegas Valley agreed to help protect the dace under a 2006 federal agreement that cleared the authority to pump groundwater at nearby Coyote Springs.

Recent preservation work has drawn criticism from neighboring residents, especially when it came to cutting down hundreds of palm trees that give the area the feel of a desert oasis.

It was a work crew hired by the water authority to clear trees and brush that accidentally sparked the 2010 wildfire, whichspread onto neighboring property. Several homes and other structures burned, including much of the Warm Springs Ranch, a private, 72-acre recreational area for members of the Mormon church. Damage was estimated at $2.5 million.

Authority officials have said they are done clear-cutting palm trees and are developing some trails and information kiosks so they can start opening parts of the Warm Springs Natural Area to the public.

At the Moapa National Wildlife Refuge across the road, workers just finished putting up interpretive signs and building new trails.

LaVoie said refuge staff members plan to hold an open house for residents of the Moapa Valley later this month.

The refuge is open to the public from sunrise to sunset on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays through the end of May, when it will close for the summer.