STILLWATER WILDLIFE MANAGEMENT AREA (NEVADA)

An extensive and diverse wetland area located at the termination of the Carson River and on the edge of the Carson Sink situated approximately ten miles northeast of Fallon, Nevada in Churchill County. In the 1860s, Pony Express riders using this route reported great flights of birds darkening the skies. However, in the early 1900s, with the completion of the Newlands Irrigation Project and the diversion of much of the flows of the Carson River, this wetland area was reduced from deep-water ponds favored by waterfowl to dense jungles of tules and cattails. As the favored habitat all but disappeared, the bird populations dwindled to a remnant. The Stillwater Wildlife Management Area was established to preserve these critical nesting and habitat areas for migratory waterfowl and other birds using the Pacific Flyway in western Nevada. In 1948, in order to preserve a shrinking wetland system, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) and the Nevada Fish and Game Commission entered into an agreement with the Truckee-Carson Irrigation District (TCID) to develop and manage 224,000 acres (350 square miles) of U.S. Bureau of Reclamation (USBR)-Newlands (Irrigation) Project lands, which were then designated as the Stillwater Wildlife Management Area. In 1991, 77,500 acres (121 square miles) of the eastern portion of this area were set aside as the Stillwater National Wildlife Refuge (NWR). The management area also borders on the north with the Fallon National Wildlife Refuge. Today, the Stillwater Wildlife Management Area, along with its two adjoining National Wildlife Refuges, includes a variety of habitats, from freshwater sloughs and marshes to brackish-water marshes and alkali flats. Each habitat hosts a unique assemblage of plants and invertebrates, which in turn attracts more than 160 bird species and many other animals. Also see National Wildlife Refuges (Nevada).