Lousy Canyon Gets Endangered Pupfish

  Lousy Canyon, in the newly created Agua Fria National Monument just north of Phoenix, is the newest home in Arizona for endangered desert pupfish.
The Bureau of Land Management (BLM), Arizona Game and Fish Department, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Bureau of Reclamation - with the cooperation of the local rancher - joined forces Oct. 17.  They  reintroduce 71 desert pupfish into this rugged and remote canyon, which is becoming a stronghold for native aquatic species in Arizona.
  Lori Young, a BLM wildlife biologist, said the desert pupfish reintroduction was a "tremendous feat" of multi agency cooperation. "This project shows what we can do for endangered species when everyone works together."
  Desert pupfish are the third native fish to be reintroduced into the area. Gila chubs, a species of special concern, were stocked in the mid-1990s. Endangered Gila topminnows were stocked last year. Leopard frogs have also been observed there. "The remote and rugged Lousy Canyon is quickly becoming a stronghold for native fishes and other important wildlife and riparian vegetation," said Rebecca Davidson, native fish biologist for Game and Fish.
Davidson said that the Lousy Canyon population of pupfish will be monitored in the months to come to ensure that it remains stable. "We will also augment it with additional pupfish as needed," Davidson said.
  The desert pupfish for Lousy Canyon were collected Oct. 16 from captive refugia at the Imperial and Cibola National Wildlife Refuges along the Colorado River. The pupfish came from stock originally obtained by the late W.L. Minckley in El Doctor, Mexico, in the 1970s.
  On Oct. 17, a Bureau of Reclamation helicopter was used to transport the pupfish to the remote Lousy Canyon. The aerated container holding the pupfish was attached to a 50-meter-long cable beneath the helicopter and then lowered to the waiting biologists along the creek in Lousy Canyon.
  "Once the pupfish were placed in the stream, they quickly headed for cover," Davidson said. Davidson explained that desert pupfish were extirpated during the last century from naturally occurring streams, cienegas and springs in Arizona. Desert pupfish populations in the wild are now restricted to only two reintroduction sites in Arizona, plus a few naturally occurring areas surrounding the Salton Sea in California and at scattered locations in Mexico along the Rio Sonoyta, on the Colorado River Delta, and in the Laguna Salada Basin.
  Lousy Canyon is only the second natural site in Arizona where desert pupfish now exist due to reintroductions. Desert pupfish are also raised in a number of refugia in Arizona, including some maintained by schools, zoos,
and wildlife museums. Lousy Canyon is a spring-fed tributary of the Agua Fria River. The rugged canyon contains a pristine riparian vegetative community. "Lousy Canyon is so remote and rugged that it will make a wonderful natural refugium to draw upon in the future for reestablishing these native fishes into other areas," said Young.
  The BLM acquired this land sometime around 1989 as part of the Santa Rita Exchange. Prior to that it was Arizona State Trust Land. In 1992, the BLM initiated efforts to transplant native fish into Lousy Canyon. The Aug Fria National Monument was established through Presidential Proclamation in January 2000.