Dawn at Ruby Lake NWR, by Stephen Ingram/USFWS	Shooting Star at Ruby Lake NWR, by Stephen Ingram/USFWS

Important Notice for Boaters - Don't Move a Mussell!!

Please read our information about a potential threat to Ruby Lake NWR wetlands and what steps you can take to help protect our valuable resources - use the link above.

Located in the Great Basin of the West, Ruby Lake National Wildlife Refuge is a wetland oasis in Nevada's high desert. This remarkable refuge lies along the eastern flank of the scenic, snow-capped Ruby Mountains. A pristine marsh, meadows, grasslands, and shrub-steppe uplands provide essential habitat for thousands of nesting and migrating waterfowl, water birds, songbirds, and native wildlife.

Ruby Lake National Wildlife Refuge, which supports the largest population of nesting Canvasback ducks west of the Mississippi River outside Alaska, is a vital waterfowl nesting area. At 6,000 feet in elevation beneath the snow-covered Ruby Mountains, it's 17,000-acre marsh is a remnant of a larger body of water known as Ancient Lake Franklin, which existed during the Pleistocene Epoch. Then it covered about 470 square miles and was more than 200 feet deep. Now Ruby Lake is much smaller, with water depths less than 5 feet.

In 1938 President Franklin D. Roosevelt established Ruby Lake as a "...refuge and breeding ground for migratory birds and other wildlife." Located along migration corridors serving both the Pacific and Central flyways, this refuge is a crossroads for birds migrating west along the Humboldt River to the Owens Valley, east to Utah's Great Salt Lake, northwest to the Klamath Basin, and south to the Colorado River Valley.

Over 200 springs emanating from the base of the Ruby Mountains provide life-sustaining water to the 39,926-acre refuge. The marsh is surrounded by 22,926 acres of meadows, grasslands, alkali playa, and shrub-steppe uplands. Water elevations in some marsh units are controlled to provide nesting and feeding areas for waterfowl and other marsh bird species. Vegetation in the meadows and grasslands is managed to provide nesting cover and feeding areas for wildlife.

Ruby Lake is a unique refuge, set far away from civilization, but the area has held such a great impact on the development of the country.

Contact:
Ruby Lake National Wildlife Refuge
HC 60, Box 860
Ruby Valley, Nevada 89833-9802
Tel: (775)779-2237 Fax: (775)779-2370