In 1967, Spring Meadows, Inc. began purchasing large tracts of Ash Meadows, much from the Bureau of Land Management, in anticipation of developing of irrigated cropland. Many wells were drilled from 1967–1970, causing a decline of the water at Devils Hole by 1968. The level continued to drop through 1972, causing alarm as a 1969 study had determined that the shallow shelf was virtually the only feeding and spawning habitat available to the fish. Conservationists and public opinion began to rally for preservation of the pupfish, with a 1970 issue of the magazine "Cry California" stating that allowing it to go extinct would be "comparable to bombing the Louvre to make way for a parking lot". Two organizations were formed in support of the species: the Desert Fishes Council and the Desert Pupfish Task Force.