Independence Valley speckled dace, Rhinichthys osculus lethoporus, face numerous threats to their existence, including habitat degradation, ground water extraction, and climate change. Developing and evaluating optimal sampling designs to assess the status of R. o. lethoporus is critical to ensure conservation and recovery actions are effective. This is particularly important in arid desert environments, where systems are often difficult to sample and can exhibit high environmental heterogeneity, hindering accurate species status assessments. Addressing these challenges requires sampling designs that balance statistical precision with logistical feasibility and cost constraints. Such optimized approaches are particularly critical for monitoring rare desert aquatic species, where traditional intensive sampling may be prohibitively expensive or logistically impractical. In this study, we assessed the current population status for R. o. lethoporus to better understand population dynamics within the Independence Valley Warm Springs system in northeastern Nevada. We sampled dace using minnow traps at multiple locations within the wetland complex over two years and estimated abundance with the Huggins closed capture model. Each site was paired with environmental DNA (eDNA) samples, records of non-native species presence, and standard water chemistry parameters. Preliminary results suggest that eDNA may be useful for assessing the status of R. o. lethoporus, and non-native species presence may negatively influence dace occupancy within the Independence Valley Warm Springs system.