Tag: Arkansas

The content below has been tagged with the term “Arkansas.”

Articles

Michael Stroeh receives 2017 National Realty Land Legacy award

October 11, 2017 | 2 minute read

Michael Stroeh, project leader of the South Arkansas National Wildlife Refuge Complex, received the 2017 National Realty Land Legacy award on Sept. 25, 2017. The Land Legacy award is awarded to U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service employees or volunteers outside of the Division of Realty for significant contributions to the Service’s land protection mission. Learn more...
An unpaved road. Photo by Chris Gorski, CC BY-ND 2.0.

The dirt road connection

August 29, 2017 | 3 minute read

Judge Stacey Avey has been serving on the bench for 17 years in Arkansas’ Stone County, a rural county in the Ozarks a little south of the Arkansas-Missouri state line. There are 13,000 people there, and a lot of unpaved dirt and gravel roads. Thanks to a new multi-partner project called the Arkansas Unpaved Roads Program, some of those roads are now in much better shape, which benefits both the residents and the wildlife, including some endangered and at-risk species, that live there. Learn more...
Juvenile fatmucket mussels approximately 6cm in length. Photo by Chris Barnhart, Missouri State University.

There was a mussel called fatmucket…

June 5, 2017 | 3 minute read

A shelled creature called Arkansas fatmucket – yes, you read that correctly – is going to be released into a couple of Arkansas rivers this week. The goal: baby Arkansas fatmuckets. That bivalve’s full name: Arkansas fatmucket, a species of mussel found only in the state from which it derives part of its name. Since 1990, it has been listed as threatened under the federal Endangered Species Act. Scientists with the U. Learn more...
Ouachita madtom. Photo by Conservation Fisheries.

17 more fish, mussels, and other species don’t need the ESA’s protection

February 8, 2017 | 3 minute read

Scientists recently proposed that 17 species including the Ouachita madtom, a whiskery fish found in Arkansas, be removed from a petition that had called for its protection under the Endangered Species Act. Learn more...

News

Hurricane Irma image from space. NOAA/NASA.

Irma aims at Keys, Georgia, Alabama

September 9, 2017 | 2 minute read

Hurricane Irma is headed toward the Florida Keys and the south-central part of the state. Its winds are at 130 mph, but it’s expected to gain strength over the water. Irma should be a category 4 tempest, with winds at 150 mph, when it makes landfall around 8 a.m. Sunday. Hurricane Irma forecasted path. Map by Roy Hewitt, USFWS. Already, say meteorologists at the National Hurricane Center, south Florida is experiencing 30 mph wind gusts. Read the full story...
A tri-color bat in the Avery County with white-nose syndrome. Photo by Gabrielle Graeter, NCWRC.

Fish and Wildlife Service directs money to Southeast to fight bat disease

July 17, 2017 | 3 minute read

Southeastern states from North Carolina to Mississippi will receive nearly $300,000 to study and fight a fatal disease sweeping bat colonies, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service) announced Monday. The Service is disbursing $289,236 to 10 southeastern states to research and battle white-nose syndrome (WNS), an affliction that has decimated bats across about two-thirds of the United States. The allocation represents nearly a third of just over $1 million distributed across 37 states where the disease has turned up, the Service said. Read the full story...
Fishing the Green River. Photo by Katie Theule.

Interior Secretary Zinke announces $1.1 billion in funding for state wildlife agencies; more than $243 million to Southeast U.S.

June 14, 2017 | 2 minute read

U.S. Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke today announced $1.1 billion in annual funding for state wildlife agencies from revenues generated by the Pittman-Robertson Wildlife Restoration and Dingell-Johnson Sport Fish Restoration acts. The 10 states in the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Southeast Region will receive a total of more than $243 million. “For nearly eight decades, the nation’s hunters and anglers have generated billions of dollars to protect wildlife and habitat simply by purchasing items that help them engage in the outdoor activities they enjoy,” Zinke said. Read the full story...
Louisiana black bear cubs. Photo by Brad Young, Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks.

2017 Endangered Species Day Events

May 19, 2017 | 3 minute read

The Service is helping out in many parts of the Southeast Region. Here are a few examples: Alabama In Daphne, Alabama, Service employees will be giving endangered species talks at local elementary schools with a focus on endangered species recovery and a live gopher tortoise for demonstration. Arkansas The Arkansas Ecological Services Field Office, in partnership with Arkansas Game and Fish Commission and Arkansas Natural Heritage Commission, hosted its eighth annual K-12 art contest focusing on endangered and threatened species found in Arkansas. Read the full story...
Yellowcheek darter. Photo by J.R. Shute, Conservation Fisheries, Inc.

Draft recovery plan for endangered yellowcheek darter available

March 6, 2017 | 5 minute read

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announces the availability of the draft recovery plan for the yellowcheek darter, afish federally-listed as endangered. The public is invited to submit written comments concerning the recovery plan through May 5, 2017. The yellowcheek darter grows up to 2.5 inches total length and is only found in the Devils, Middle, South, and Archey forks of the Little Red River in Arkansas. This small darter is threatened primarily by factors associated with the present destruction, modification, or curtailment of its habitat or range. Read the full story...
North Carolina biologist TR Russ holding an sicklefin redhorse. Photo by Mark Cantrell, USFWS.

Endangered Species Act protection not needed for seven Southeastern species

October 6, 2016 | 6 minute read

Responding to requests to add them to the federal threatened and endangered species list, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has concluded that the Louisville cave beetle, Tatum Cave beetle, black mudalia, sicklefin redhorse, Arkansas darter, and highlands tiger beetle do not need such protection. A plant species, Hirst Brothers’ panic grass listing is not warranted as it has been determined that it is not a taxonomically distinct species and does not meet the definition of a species under the Endangered Species Act. Read the full story...