Come join the USFWS Library on Wednesday, November 9, 3 p.m. ET, as we host a book discussion on "Immersion the Science and Mystery of Freshwater Mussels" by Abbie Gascho Landis. Please register in advance for our book discussion. Every creek and river has its story, and many of these are bound to mussels. This lyrical piece of nature writing celebrates the world under the water's surface and invites us to play a part in it.
Immersion is an invitation to see rivers from a mussel’s perspective, a celebration of the wild lives visible to those who learn to search. Mussels have much to teach us about the health of our watersheds if we step into the creek and take a closer look at their lives. Landis brings readers to a hotbed of mussel diversity, the American Southeast, to seek mussels where they eat, procreate, and, too often, perish. She worries what vanishing mussels—70% of North American species are imperiled—will mean for humans and wildlife alike. In Immersion, she shares this journey, traveling from perilous river surveys to dry streambeds and into laboratories where endangered mussels are raised one precious life at a time.
At our book club meetings, we have cultivated a casual atmosphere where we reflect on the reading, answer discussion questions, and enjoy some time together through a conversation on conservation literature.