Brittany Barker-Jones

As families across the country celebrate Mother’s Day, freshwater mussels throughout the Southeast Region are busy, working to raise their little ones.

As a trio of kids on inner tubes quietly floated down the French Broad River outside Rosman, North Carolina, a nearby snorkeler broke the river’s surface, disturbing the quiet with a quick clearing of water from his snorkel. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologist Jason Mays was searching the...