Today's Federal Register has an announcement from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service that they want to list two freshwater mussels, the spectaclecase and sheepnose, as Endangered. The full announcement of the 61 day comment period is here: spectaclecase and sheepnose announcement
Summary:
"We, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service), propose to list two freshwater mussels, the spectaclecase mussel (Cumberlandia monodonta) and sheepnose (Plethobasus cyphyus) as endangered under the Endangered Species Act of 1973, as amended (Act). If we finalize this rule as proposed, it would extend the Act's protections to these species throughout their ranges, including sheepnose in Alabama, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia, and Wisconsin, and spectaclecase in Alabama, Arkansas, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, Ohio, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia, and Wisconsin. We determined that critical habitat for these species is prudent, but not determinable at this time. The Service seeks data and comments from the public on this proposed listing rule."
FWS Proposes Endangered Status For 2 Mussels
Started by
Guest_fundulus_*
, Jan 19 2011 10:24 AM
8 replies to this topic
#2
Guest_farmertodd_*
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Posted 19 January 2011 - 02:36 PM
Proposal went out for rayed bean and snuffbox not too long ago too... I apologize if this was post already. I didn't see it on a quick glance tho.
http://www.fws.gov/m...PropListNR.html
Anyone know if rabbitsfoot and purple liliput are going too?
Todd
http://www.fws.gov/m...PropListNR.html
Anyone know if rabbitsfoot and purple liliput are going too?
Todd
#3
Guest_ashtonmj_*
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Posted 19 January 2011 - 07:39 PM
Wow about time. The rayed bean and snuffbox proposals were in the works as far back as 2003 at least. Its a shame those take so long to come to the point they are even proposed. The rabbitsfoot package was being worked on; I believe they stopped accepting data for the listing packaged sometime in late 2007. I can't recall what office specifically was working on it, somewhere in the SE region. Not sure about purple lilliput. I would just throw out a guess that there is insufficient data for some states and populations.
#4
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Posted 19 January 2011 - 08:21 PM
When I worked on a mussel relocation project on the Tennessee River south of Huntsville 6 years ago, we collected ~6000 mussels. We found one sheepnose and, I think, five spectaclecasese. It would have been primo habitat pre-damn, but that was then...
#5
Guest_farmertodd_*
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Posted 19 January 2011 - 09:11 PM
I was looking at the USFW Region 3 and purple liliput was not among those that were even candidate, which I find confusing. I think they're strong in the Tippecanoe, Green and Duck, but I don't know about anywhere else. The populations in the upper Maumee aren't anything massive, and those lakes are getting more and more development pressure.
Todd
Todd
#6
Guest_ashtonmj_*
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Posted 20 January 2011 - 08:09 AM
I've found them in the Paint Rock and Wabash. I will agree with you Todd, if you look at their conservation status, it is S1, S2, SH, or SX. So if they are gone or almost gone from their entire range...Not sure how they are a G3. I still think lack of data is the hold up.
#7
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Posted 20 January 2011 - 09:04 AM
I think that "lack of data" is widespread with freshwater organisms, both molluscan and piscine. Other formerly common, widespread species like the black sandshell are well on their way to ESA consideration (we found 2 or 3 in the Tennessee 6 years ago).
#8
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Posted 20 January 2011 - 02:17 PM
I gotta get into that Paint Rock one of these days.
Brant Fisher offered the explaination that purple liliput were "Cat 2", which the USFW did away with, and so the species were dropped from status by this method. That doesn't mean they won't be back in the sites once they get through this wave of problem children.
Black sandshell is also having issues up this way. Grabarkiewicz and I have the hypothesis that black sandshell requires miles of river to carry out its population and it need bigger alluvial systems to have the mucky sand accumulation. The Huron River in MI is a good example of this... The river gets just big enough to have that "aerated but mucky sand", you start finding them like crazy (along with purple wartyback) and BAM, there's a dam that breaks the continuum and starves the downstream of sand. Conversely, this is why French Creek is such a good system for them - it's the right size stream with the right sediment and productivity with a very long dam-free segment.
Todd
Brant Fisher offered the explaination that purple liliput were "Cat 2", which the USFW did away with, and so the species were dropped from status by this method. That doesn't mean they won't be back in the sites once they get through this wave of problem children.
Black sandshell is also having issues up this way. Grabarkiewicz and I have the hypothesis that black sandshell requires miles of river to carry out its population and it need bigger alluvial systems to have the mucky sand accumulation. The Huron River in MI is a good example of this... The river gets just big enough to have that "aerated but mucky sand", you start finding them like crazy (along with purple wartyback) and BAM, there's a dam that breaks the continuum and starves the downstream of sand. Conversely, this is why French Creek is such a good system for them - it's the right size stream with the right sediment and productivity with a very long dam-free segment.
Todd
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