Marana might have a new mascot on its hands, as El Rio Preserve becomes a sanctuary for one of Arizona’s most critically threatened species: the desert pupfish.
“I guess I could say it’s been a dream of mine, honestly, since I started being involved in being on the team that helps maintain the pond and the rest of El Rio Preserve,” said Jason Grodman, parks and rec natural resources supervisor, who spearheaded the effort to bring the species to the preserve.
“The idea of being in a position here with the town of Marana, that I could possibly maintain a park that would be the home of an endangered species was just super exciting.”
It’s a small fish, about 2 inches in length, brilliantly blue and remarkably resilient; the desert pupfish is known to survive in extreme conditions, including water temperatures over 100 degrees.
Despite its capacity to survive, the desert pupfish has been registered as endangered under the U.S. Endangered Species Act for over four decades, having faced habitat loss, groundwater extraction, stream channelization, agriculture and pesticides, and invasive predators and competitors.
We lost a lot of the habitat where the pupfish would naturally occur,” Grodman said. “That’s probably the No. 1 reason why there are no places where pupfish are occurring naturally, except where Arizona game and Fish are putting them.
“And then also, predators of a lot of non-native fish species have entered our water from one way or another, and that definitely hurts the population.”
Arizona Game and Fish has been working to reintroduce the fish into local habitats through safe harbor agreements with private landowners and non-federal governments.
These agreements allow the department to use the land for conservation, while protecting landowners from penalties and losing property rights.
“That’s really the great thing about the safe harbor agreement, is that we can maintain the space where these endangered fish can be released, and we as the town are not going to be held liable if the species doesn’t survive or doesn’t reproduce.
“It’s kind of like both of these entities are taking a chance on the potential of having these species repopulate, so we can make sure that we don’t lose these species forever, because biodiversity is such an important part of wildlife, but also human existence.”
Once Grodman discovered the 9-acre pond at El Rio Preserve met the right conditions for the desert pupfish, he reached out to Arizona Game and Fish topminnow and pupfish specialist Brett Montgomery, who determined after an assessment that the pond “had potential.”
“So over the next 10 months or so we got the paperwork and the right signatory, which included the mayor of the town and our town attorney and then also the head of Arizona Game and Fish, to sign off on the agreement,” Grodman said.
“Then, just yesterday, Brett came down with 183 pupfish that we got to release into the pond.”
Grodman said he is hoping for a restock in the spring. If the pupfish flourish in the new environment, El Rio Preserve could become an essential site in rehabilitating the species.
“We are definitely hoping that the pupfish take to the pond and find some safe places to reproduce, and eventually, potentially El Rio could be a spot where pupfish could then be taken to other areas and help establish new populations.”
While helping to rebuild the pupfish’s population, the presence of the endangered species will also benefit El Rio Preserve and Marana at large, Grodman explained.
“You know, different species play unique roles in our ecosystem,” he said. “These pupfish will help with mosquito abatement in the pond itself and it’ll help with water quality.”
The natural resources supervisor also had tourism on his mind. The project will boost visitors, both human and avian, he explained, and all equally interested in the pupfish. New birds and bird species will attract enthusiasts to the preserve, which is already well-known as one of the region’s top birding areas.
“I find that doing environmental education and talking to people really, you know, can potentially boost the profile of El Rio Preserve as an amazing birding location. We have a lot of folks that come out to bird watch, and having fish in the pond brings more bird species as well, because there’s a food source there. So if we get a healthy population of these species, they’re really just another link in this food chain as well…”
“And since it’s a really public facing space also, there’s a lot of opportunity to kind of spread the message and spread the word about how important these habitats are to not only this species, but all of the migratory birds. The ability to have water in the desert, in certain places, is a big piece of this overall environmental puzzle that is a big deal for us here in the town and the natural resource group, in trying to protect but also share these open spaces.”
