Piute Ponds

The largest remaining freshwater wetlands in Los Angeles County,^[2] the site is cited as an important bird area of California,^[3] and a resting ground for over 200 species of migratory birds such as the great blue heron, the great horned owl, the black-crowned night heron, and the western snowy plover.^[4][5] The area covers an area of about 9,600 acres (3,900 ha) and contains a number of claypan ponds such as Big Piute, Little Piute, Teal Pond, Ducks Unlimited Pond and Amargosa Creek and several other smaller ponds, creeks, and low sand dunes.^[6] A dike created the ponds, and they are maintained by treated reclaimed water pumped from Lancaster's sewage treatment plant, with channels augmenting the ponds into two principal sets of large ponds.^[7] Some 170 acres (69 ha) of wetlands were added to the complex of marshes in the late 1980s or early 1990s.^[2] Restricted hunting is permitted with a license in the fall, and the Piute Ponds Tour is conducted for tourists and bird enthusiasts.^[4][8]

The Piute Ponds have been studied extensively by ornithologists such as Kimball Garrett who collected data here over many years.^[9][3] Studies conducted in the late 1990s estimated that the marshes of Piute were home to over 150,000 frogs.^[10] In 1990, vertebrate fossils were unearthed from lacustrine silts and sands at the site.^[11] The Mojave Environmental Education Consortium (MEEC) provides education kits for children for field studies in the ponds, with a night sounds CD, casting kits, owl pellet kits, a field press and dryers, magnifying glasses, vials, and microscopes and other equipment.^[12]