AMARGOSA VALLEY -- Longstreet Spring at Ash Meadows National Wildlife Refuge will be closed to all public entry beginning Monday, April 20, as construction of a boardwalk, restrooms and other improvements to the parking areas will begin.

Construction for Point of Rocks Spring is expected to start in late August. A closure to that area will be announced before construction begins.

Construction at both sites is expected to go on through the end of the year. Due to safety concerns, no public entry will be allowed in those areas until construction of all facilities on site are complete.

Maps of the closed areas will be available at refuge entrances and at the refuge office/visitor center.

The boardwalks to be erected are part of an effort to make visiting the refuge more accessible to the nearly 70,000 people who make Ash Meadows NWR a destination.

The Point of Rocks area has slowly been restored to a healthy native habitat for the Ash Meadows Amargosa pupfish and other native and resident species of wildlife and plants.

Visitors are encouraged to visit the area but many random foot trails have been created that are fragmenting the habitat such that weed plant species have been able to establish themselves where native plants once were.

By building the boardwalk that guides visitors to all the points of interest, the refuge will be able to rehabilitate the fragmented habitat and better protect it from trampling.

The historic Longstreet Cabin and its nearby warm spring will be highlighted along the boardwalk being constructed at that site. Visitors interested in history and upland game hunters frequent the Longstreet Spring area at various times of the year.

The historic cabin, once owned by Andrew Jackson "Jack" Longstreet, was restored in 2005 after the spring mound against which it was built collapsed, knocking down the whole structure.

The cabin can be entered, giving visitors a sense of what Longstreet's living conditions were at the turn of the century.

The boardwalk will allow for handicapped access to the cabin and the spring.