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Endangered Mussels Released into the Clinch River, Largest Release in Eastern US
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Biologists from the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries (VDGIF), and partners from Virginia Tech, the Nature Conservancy, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service stocked thousands of mussels into the Clinch River, Russell County. The Clinch River has more species of endangered freshwater mussels than any other river in North America. Elementary school students from Cleveland, VA, participated in the event, and learned about the many functions of mussels, including providing habitat for fish, becoming food for many other animals, and filtering and cleaning the water in our streams and rivers. Over 3,500 federally-endangered mussels were produced at the Department's Aquatic Wildlife Conservation Center in Marion, Virginia.
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Videos and Webinars
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EPA and the Army Corps’ Proposed Rule to Define “Waters of the United States”
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Excerpt from summary : According to the agencies, the proposed rule would revise the existing regulatory definition of “waters of the United States” consistent with legal rulings—especially the Supreme Court cases—and science concerning the interconnectedness of tributaries, wetlands, and other waters to downstream waters and effects of these connections on the chemical, physical, and biological integrity of downstream waters. Waters that are “jurisdictional” are subject to the multiple regulatory requirements of the CWA: standards, discharge limitations, permits, and enforcement. Non-jurisdictional waters, in contrast, do not have the federal legal protection of those requirements.
This report describes the March 25 proposed rule and includes a table comparing the existing regulatory language that defines “waters of the United States” with that in the proposal.
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Climate Science Documents
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Experimental studies of dead-wood biodiversity — A review identifying global gaps in knowledge
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The importance of dead wood for biodiversity is widely recognized but strategies for conservation exist only in some regions worldwide. Most strategies combine knowledge from observational and experimental studies but remain preliminary as many facets of the complex relationships are unstudied. In this first global review of 79 experimental studies addressing biodiversity patterns in dead wood, we identify major knowledge gaps and aim to foster collaboration among researchers by providing a map of previous and ongoing experiments. We show that research has focused primarily on temperate and boreal forests, where results have helped in developing evidence-based conservation strategies, whereas comparatively few such efforts have been made in subtropical or tropical zones. Most studies have been limited to early stages of wood decomposition and many diverse and functionally important saproxylic taxa, e.g., fungi, flies and termites, remain under-represented. Our meta-analysis confirms the benefits of dead-wood addition for biodiversity, particularly for saproxylic taxa, but shows that responses of non-saproxylic taxa are heterogeneous. Our analysis indicates that global conservation of organisms associated with dead wood would benefit most by prioritizing research in the tropics and other neglected regions, focusing on advanced stages of wood decomposition and assessing a wider range of taxa. By using existing experimental set-ups to study advanced decay stages and additional taxa, results could be obtained more quickly and with less effort compared to initiating new experiments.
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Climate Science Documents
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Fact Sheet: Habitat - Forested Stream and/or Seepage
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Forested stream environments are typically found in the buffer zones between forested land and stream banks, often known as riparian zones. Stream headwaters and seepage areas occur where ground water percolates to the surface through muck, mossy rock, and nettles. It can also be found under rocks, among gravel, or cobble where water has begun to percolate in areas near open water. Breeding grounds are commonly found beneath mosses growing on rocks, on logs, or soil surfaces in these types of seepage areas.
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Publications & Outreach
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Fact Sheets
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Fact Sheet: Riparian Restoration Decision Support Tool
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An innovative web-based tool - funded by the Appalachian Landscape Conservation Cooperative (LCC) and developed by researchers from the U.S. Forest Service and
the University of Massachusetts - is allowing managers to rapidly identify high-priority riparian targets for restoration to make more resilient in preparation for changes in future climate. The Riparian Restoration Prioritization to Promote Climate Change Resilience (RPCCR) tool identifies vulnerable stream and riverbanks that lack tree cover and shade in coldwater stream habitats. By locating the best spots to plant trees in riparian zones, resource managers can provide shade that limits the amount of solar radiation heating the water and reduces the impacts from climate change. This well-established management strategy will benefit high-elevation, cold-water aquatic communities.
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Riparian Restoration Decision Support Tool
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First-of-its-kind Interactive Map Brings Together 40 Years of Water-Quality Data
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A new U.S. Geological Survey interactive map provides a comprehensive, long-term look at changes in the quality of our nation’s rivers and streams over the last four decades.
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News & Events
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Fishy Fragments
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These clips are a short snapshot into the many hours of footage captured below the rivers. A longer documentary will be compiled in 2016 including brook trout, stone nest building, colorful darters, and many other interesting species and behaviors. Video by Eric Malone.
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Videos and Webinars
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Flexing Their Mussels - Restoration of the Cheoah River
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The N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission's (NCWRC) mussel breeding program helps augment some declining populations and save others from extinction. There are about 17 places in the United States that grow freshwater mussels, but many of those are for research purposes. The Marion facility has held 17 of the approximately 50 species in North Carolina and has propagated seven species to bolster local populations throughout the state. Biologists Rachel Hoch, David Deaton and Peter Lamb are leading the effort in Marion with the help of the NCWRC's Aquatic Wildlife Diversity Program staff.
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Floating the Conasauga or Just Another Day at the Office
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No, all of our days are not this nice, but this one was a pretty good one! A beautiful July day, not too hot, clear blue sky and pretty good water conditions! The Conasauga is one of our favorite rivers to work! It originates in North Georgia, flows north into Tennessee, then flirts with the state line until finally turning back south into Georgia. Video by Conservation Fisheries Inc.
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Freshwater Mussels of the Powell River, Virginia and Tennessee: Abundance and Distribution in a Biodiversity Hotspot
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Historically, the Powell River had a diverse freshwater mussel fauna of 46 species. Various surveys conducted over the past century have recorded a decline in mussel densities and diversity throughout much of the river, due to historical and on-going anthropogenic impacts. In 2008 and 2009, random timed-search, systematic search, and quadrat sampling of 21 sites were completed to document species richness, relative abundance, density, and size-class structure of resident mussel populations. We recorded 19 species from 18 sites, including 5 endangered species during quadrat sampling efforts. he mussel fauna of the lower Powell River continues to represent one of the most diverse in the United States. Outside of the Powell River, only 2 or 3 populations remain for most of the listed species extant in the river. Given these qualities, the Powell River deserves recognition as a location for focused conservation efforts to protect its diverse mussel assemblage.
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General Resources Holdings
