What We Do
We are working with our state and tribal partners to restore alewife and blueback herring in Virginia.
We partnered with the Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources in 2007, forming the Virginia Fisheries and Aquatic Wildlife Center (VFAWC) at the Harrison Lake National Fish Hatchery where we are raising freshwater mussels to restore populations and species in Virginia, and restore the ecosystem services they provide to rivers. We have released hundreds of thousands of tagged mussels from a dozen different species into Virginia rivers - the Rappahannock, Appomattox, Mattaponi, Pamunkey, Meherrin, Nottoway, South River, and South Fork Shenandoah River.
We also assist others to restore mussels throughout the mid-Atlantic region, including helping the Partnership for the Delaware Estuary restore mussels in the Delaware River basin and helping with mussel restoration efforts in the Anacostia River in Maryland and in the Dan River in Virginia and in North Carolina.