Partnership conservation efforts preclude need to list rare Kentucky cave beetle

Conservation efforts at Beaver Cave in Harrison County, Kentucky, have enabled the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to remove a Kentucky cave beetle from the list of candidate species under the Endangered Species Act. These conservation efforts will reduce or eliminate threats to the beetle’s survival, precluding the need for listing it under the Endangered Species Act. For the past three years, the Service’s Kentucky Ecological Services Field Office worked with the landowner of a 60-acre dairy farm and several partner agencies, including the Natural Resource Conservation Service, the Farm Service Agency, the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources, the Kentucky State Nature Preserves Commission, and the Kentucky Division of Forestry, to implement conservation efforts to ensure long-term protection for the Beaver Cave beetle. The beetle is only known to live in Beaver Cave, a limestone cave located in the Bluegrass Region of central Kentucky. First discovered in the cave in 1966, the beetle is a small (8 millimeters in length -- about one-third of an inch), eyeless, predatory insect that feeds upon small cave invertebrates such as spiders, mites, springtails, and millipedes. Conservation agreements and contracts for the beetle's protection cover an eight-acre area of the farm that houses the entrance to Beaver Cave and the most sensitive portions of its basin threatened by the farm's operations. The Service’s Partner’s Program for Fish and Wildlife provided $12,500 for construction of a concrete stream crossing and fence installation associated with a livestock staging area near the primary dairy buildings. Partner agencies provided additional funding of $37,000 to build a metal gate at the cave entrance to stop trespassers, establish a forested buffer around the cave entrance, install additional livestock exclusion fencing around the cave and surface tributaries on the property, install a heavy use feeding area, and develop a rotational grazing program for the diary operation. More photos in Photo Album.

Submitted by Michael Floyd, PhD, Ecological Services Field Office, Frankfort, KY

Plicate rocksnails on road to recovery

On October 3, 2006, more than 31,000 artificially cultured plicate rocksnails (Leptoxis plicata- endangered) were released into the Locust Fork of the Black Warrior River near Birmingham, Alabama. This was actually the third release of this species at this site in as many years and is the culmination of an 8-year effort to protect the species. In 1998, the species was reduced to a single population that occupied less than a 30-mile reach of the Locust Fork. Today, the species is recovering, showing signs of recruitment and reproduction, and expanding its range. The culturing and successful reintroduction of this species represents a tremendous positive step for future aquatic recovery efforts in Alabama. It is now up to local, state, and federal water and land management authorities to ensure habitats and water quality are protected. The snails were produced at the newly established Alabama Aquatic Biodiversity Center (AABC), which is a non-game hatchery owned and operated by the Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (ADCNR) that is dedicated exclusively to the restoration of native mussels, snails, and fishes in Alabama’s waters. Kudos to the ADCNR for their efforts to protect and conserve imperiled aquatic species in Alabama. Another photo in Photo Album.

Submitted by Jeff Powel,l Ecological Services Field Office, Daphne, AL