The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has named a multi-agency Mussel Coordination Team and staff at Necedah National Wildlife Refuge as winners of the Midwest Region’s 2014 Recovery Champion Awards for their work to save endangered freshwater mussels, whooping cranes, Karner blue butterflies and Kirtland’s warblers. The teams were among winners from across the country recognized for their work in 2014 to save endangered species.
The interagency Mussel Coordination Team received the Midwest Region’s Partner Recovery Champion Award in recognition of their collaborative work to conserve and restore the endangered Higgins eye, a species of freshwater mussel, in the Upper Mississippi River.
The team, which began its work in 2000, includes members from U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, Iowa Department of Natural Resources, Illinois Department of Natural Resources, National Park Service, U.S. Geological Survey, University of Minnesota, Illinois Natural History Survey and, two private companies.
Service Director Dan Ashe said, “Working innovatively with partners, you have greatly advanced our knowledge of the Higgins eye, refined propagation methods and generated invaluable data for the mussel conservation community. The team’s continued work will benefit imperiled mussels for years to come.”
The team began with efforts to address the threat posed by invasive zebra mussels to the Higgins eye and expanded when it was determined that navigation on the river was also affecting the species. Using a variety of techniques, the team has reintroduced 45,000 mussels at seven sites in the Upper Mississippi River. Monitoring shows that at some reintroduction sites, Higgins eye has begun to reproduce and there is significant potential for some of these sites to recolonize additional areas nearby where habitats have recovered.
Along with their efforts with Higgins eye, the team has branched out to help other endangered mussel species, working with scientists to facilitate studies of freshwater mussel ecology. The effects of the team’s efforts have spread to other regions, and team biologists are now involved with mussel recovery efforts that reach as far as Pennsylvania and Michigan.
Honored with the Service’s Employee Recovery Champion Award were staff members at Necedah National Wildlife Refuge in Wisconsin. The Necedah team supports the eastern migratory flock whooping crane recovery efforts and undertakes extensive habitat improvement projects for the Karner blue butterfly and Kirtland’s warbler, both listed as federally endangered.
“We applaud Necedah Refuge for its whooping crane captive rearing and reintroduction program, as well as its ultra-light led migration strategies that ended the 150-year absence of a migratory flock in eastern North America,” Ashe said.
Refuge staff conducted extensive whooping crane research on Necedah, and with the Whooping Crane Eastern Partnership, have grown the eastern migratory population from eight to approximately 100 cranes.
Ashe also recognized the refuge’s work to create and restore habitat for the Karner blue butterfly, both on the refuge and on private lands, leading to significantly higher Karner blue numbers. In addition, the refuge, through the Partners for Fish and Wildlife program and working with local landowners, has provided improved habitat for Wisconsin’s population of Kirtland’s warblers in Adams County, where more than 80 warblers have fledged since 2008.
More information on the Recovery Champion Awards is available at http://www.fws.gov/endangered/what-we-do/recovery-champions/index.html You can find information about freshwater mussels, whooping cranes and other endangered species in the Midwest at http://www.fws.gov/midwest/endangered/ To learn more about Necedah National Wildlife Refuge, visit http://www.fws.gov/refuge/Necedah/
