The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is seeking public input on a draft recovery plan for the Tumbling Creek cavesnail, a tiny, endangered cave dweller that exists only in one Missouri cave stream. The plan outlines strategies to prevent extinction of the cavesnail and promote its recovery. Only a handful of cavesnails is believed to survive in southwestern Missouri’s Tumbling Creek.
The draft plan is a blueprint for federal, state and local agencies and private interests to achieve recovery of the species. The plan calls for steps to stabilize or increase the cavesnail population, protect habitat, monitor contaminants, conduct research on the species, and raise awareness of the cavesnail and its link to good water quality.
The number of Tumbling Creek cavesnails has significantly decreased over the past few decades; only one individual was found within established survey areas between January 11, 2001, and April 22, 2003. A small population containing approximately 40 individuals exists upstream of the area that is regularly surveyed. Based on the decline of the Tumbling Creek cavesnail, it was listed as endangered in 2002 under the Endangered Species Act.
The Tumbling Creek cavesnail lives on the underside of rocks in areas of Tumbling Creek that have little or no silt. Not much is known about the species and its life history, but it is believed to feed on microscopic animals in the stream. The primary cause for the cavesnails decline appears to be decreased water quality due to increased erosion and pollution in the waters that feed the cave stream, although scientific research is needed to confirm this.
A copy of the draft plan can be viewed online at http://midwest.fws.gov/endangered or obtained from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Columbia, Missouri Ecological Services Field Office, 608 East Cherry Street, Room 200, Columbia Missouri 65201-7712, telephone 573-876-1911. The Service will collect written public comments on the plan for the next 30 days. Comments should be submitted to Field Supervisor at the above address or by email to FW3_Columbia_ES@fws.gov with “cavesnail recovery plan” in the subject line and must be received by August 11, 2003, in order to be considered by the Service in finalizing the plan. The Service’s Midwest website at http://midwest.fws.gov/endangered provides additional information on the Tumbling Creek cavesnail and other endangered and threatened species in the Midwest. TTY users may contact the Service through the Federal Relay Service at 1-800-877-8339.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is the principal federal agency responsible for conserving, protecting and enhancing fish, wildlife and plants and their habitats for the continuing benefit of the American people. The Service manages the 95-million-acre National Wildlife Refuge System, which encompasses 540 national wildlife refuges, thousands of small wetlands and other special management areas. It also operates 69 national fish hatcheries, 64 fishery resource offices and 81 ecological services field stations. The agency enforces federal wildlife laws, administers the Endangered Species Act, manages migratory bird populations, restores nationally significant fisheries, conserves and restores wildlife habitat such as wetlands, and helps foreign governments with their conservation efforts. It also oversees the Federal Aid program that distributes hundreds of millions of dollars in excise taxes on fishing and hunting equipment to state fish and wildlife agencies.
