Comprehensive Conservation Plan Completed For Antioch Dunes Refuge

Public access will be allowed for the first time in 16 years at the Antioch Dunes National Wildlife Refuge under a new Comprehensive Conservation Plan released today by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The refuge in Contra Costa County, California, has been closed to the public since 1986 to protect its rare species.

The plan describes how, over the next 15 years, the Antioch Dunes National Wildlife Refuge can best be managed to conserve native plants and wildlife. The 55-acre refuge just outside the Antioch city limits was the first federal sanctuary in the nation set aside for the benefit of endangered plants and insects. Its remnant dunes habitat supports the last natural populations of the endangered Antioch Dunes evening-primrose, Contra Costa wallflower, and Lange