The Ruby Lake National Wildlife Refuge is located in southwestern

Elko County Elko County is a county in the northeastern corner of Nevada, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population was 53,702. Its county seat is Elko. The county was established on March 5, 1869, from Lander County. Elko County is the fourth ...

and adjacent northwestern

White Pine County White Pine County is a largely rural, mountain county along the central eastern boundary of the U.S. state of Nevada. As of the 2020 census, the population was 9,080. Its county seat is Ely. The name "(Rocky Mountain) white pine" is an old ...

in the remote

Great Basin The Great Basin () is the largest area of contiguous endorheic watersheds, those with no outlets to the ocean, in North America. It spans nearly all of Nevada, much of Utah, and portions of California, Idaho, Oregon, Wyoming, and Baja Californi ...

area of the northeastern section of the state of

Nevada Nevada ( ; ) is a landlocked state in the Western United States. It borders Oregon to the northwest, Idaho to the northeast, California to the west, Arizona to the southeast, and Utah to the east. Nevada is the seventh-most extensive, th ...

in the

Western United States The Western United States (also called the American West, the Western States, the Far West, the Western territories, and the West) is List of regions of the United States, census regions United States Census Bureau. As American settlement i ...

. Established in 1938, near the end of the

Great Depression The Great Depression was a severe global economic downturn from 1929 to 1939. The period was characterized by high rates of unemployment and poverty, drastic reductions in industrial production and international trade, and widespread bank and ...

of the

1930s File:1930s decade montage.png, From left, clockwise: Dorothea Lange's photo of the homeless Florence Owens Thompson, Florence Thompson shows the effects of the Great Depression; due to extreme drought conditions, farms across the south-central Uni ...

, under the presidential administration of 32nd President

Franklin D. Roosevelt Franklin Delano Roosevelt (January 30, 1882April 12, 1945), also known as FDR, was the 32nd president of the United States, serving from 1933 until his death in 1945. He is the longest-serving U.S. president, and the only one to have served ...

(1882-1945, served 1933-1945), as of 2023 it encompasses of

wetland A wetland is a distinct semi-aquatic ecosystem whose groundcovers are flooded or saturated in water, either permanently, for years or decades, or only seasonally. Flooding results in oxygen-poor ( anoxic) processes taking place, especially ...

s in

Ruby Valley Ruby Valley is a large basin located in south-central Elko County, Nevada, Elko and northern White Pine County, Nevada, White Pine counties in the northeastern section of the state of Nevada in the western United States. From Secret Pass it runs ...

, just east of the

Ruby Mountains The Ruby Mountains (Shoshoni language, Shoshoni: 'Duka Doya', meaning “Snowcapped”) are a mountain range, primarily located within Elko County, Nevada, Elko County with a small extension into White Pine County, Nevada, White Pine County, in ...

and just south of Harrison Pass. It is long, up to in width, and lies at an elevation of . Once the bed of an ancient deep lake, it is now a network of spring-fed

marsh In ecology, a marsh is a wetland that is dominated by herbaceous plants rather than by woody plants.Keddy, P.A. 2010. Wetland Ecology: Principles and Conservation (2nd edition). Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK. 497 p More in genera ...

es and shallow ponds serving as a

habitat In ecology, habitat refers to the array of resources, biotic factors that are present in an area, such as to support the survival and reproduction of a particular species. A species' habitat can be seen as the physical manifestation of its ...

for hundreds of

species A species () is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate sexes or mating types can produce fertile offspring, typically by sexual reproduction. It is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), ...

of native and migratory

bird Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class (biology), class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the Oviparity, laying of Eggshell, hard-shelled eggs, a high Metabolism, metabolic rate, a fou ...

s and

mammal A mammal () is a vertebrate animal of the Class (biology), class Mammalia (). Mammals are characterised by the presence of milk-producing mammary glands for feeding their young, a broad neocortex region of the brain, fur or hair, and three ...

s. The Refuge is administered by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, a longtime agency unit of the

United States Department of the Interior The United States Department of the Interior (DOI) is an United States federal executive departments, executive department of the Federal government of the United States, U.S. federal government responsible for the management and conservation ...

. A Visitor's Center (located at ) and auto-tour route allow for discreet viewing of waterfowl.

Ruby Marsh

Ruby Marsh is a wetlands area within the national refuge, which serves as a nesting area for "the greater

sandhill crane The sandhill crane (''Antigone canadensis'') is a species of large Crane (bird), cranes of North America and extreme northeastern Siberia. The common name of this bird refers to its habitat, such as the Platte River, on the edge of Nebraska's S ...

and

trumpeter swan The trumpeter swan (''Cygnus buccinator'') is a species of swan found in North America. The heaviest living bird native to North America, it is also the largest extant species of waterfowl, with a wingspan of 185 to 304.8 cm (6 ft 2 in ...

". In 1972, Ruby Marsh, which is located within the Ruby Lake National Wildlife Refuge, was designated as a

National Natural Landmark The National Natural Landmarks (NNL) Program recognizes and encourages the conservation of outstanding examples of the natural history of the United States. It is the only national natural areas program that identifies and recognizes the best e ...

by the

National Park Service The National Park Service (NPS) is an List of federal agencies in the United States, agency of the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government, within the US Department of the Interior. The service manages all List ...

of the

References

External links

*
Refuge website
{{authority control Protected areas of Elko County, Nevada National Wildlife Refuges in Nevada Protected areas of White Pine County, Nevada Great Basin National Heritage Area Wetlands of Nevada Landforms of White Pine County, Nevada Landforms of Elko County, Nevada National Natural Landmarks in Nevada