- What action is the Service proposing?
- Where is the green floater found?
- What are the primary threats to the green floater?
- Why should we protect freshwater mussels?
- What is a critical habitat designation?
- What is the Service proposing to designate as critical habitat for the green floater?
- What is a Section 4(d) rule?
- What actions are exempted under the proposed 4(d) rule for the green floater?
- What is the Service doing to conserve green floater mussels?
- How can I provide comment on the proposal to list the green floater as threatened?
1. What action is the Service proposing?
Based on a review of the best available science, the Service has determined that the green floater, a freshwater mussel historically found in 10 states and the District of Columbia, is likely to become endangered within the foreseeable future due to existing and emerging threats. We are proposing to list the species as threatened under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) with a simultaneous critical habitat proposal and Section 4(d) rule.
2. Where is the green floater found?
The green floater is still found in seven states within its native range: Maryland, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia. There are no recent records of green floater from New Jersey or Washington D.C., and it is considered extirpated from Alabama and Georgia and from some rivers in other parts of its range. While the species has strongholds in places, green floaters are rare in nearly 80 percent of the watersheds where they occur.
3. What are the primary threats to the green floater?
In watersheds where green floaters are common or even thriving, they face high risks of declines based on current land-use patterns. Development, energy production, and agriculture have affected the quality of many streams within the species’ range, and increasing drought, intense storm events, and rising temperatures associated with climate change climate change
Climate change includes both global warming driven by human-induced emissions of greenhouse gases and the resulting large-scale shifts in weather patterns. Though there have been previous periods of climatic change, since the mid-20th century humans have had an unprecedented impact on Earth's climate system and caused change on a global scale.
Learn more about climate change are projected to further degrade aquatic habitats.
As conditions change, green floaters in most places are unlikely to be able to disperse to new habitats— rivers or streams with low to medium flow rates, sand or gravel bottoms, and clean water.
4. Why should we protect freshwater mussels?
Freshwater mussels like the green floater are significant contributors to freshwater biodiversity and a key link in the aquatic food chain. They also provide important ecosystem services. As filter feeders, they help maintain water quality and serve as an important indicator of healthy streams and rivers. At-risk mussel populations are a signal of problems that may also impact fish, wildlife and people. Conserving freshwater mussels and their habitats benefits local communities by protecting water quality for drinking, recreation and other fish and wildlife that all rely on clean, abundant water resources and healthy streams and rivers.
5. What is a critical habitat designation?
The ESA requires the Service, to the maximum extent prudent and determinable, to designate critical habitat in the U.S. that is essential to the conservation of the green floater. Critical habitat helps focus conservation efforts where they are most needed, particularly those of federal agencies, but does not affect land ownership, set aside lands, or establish a park or wildlife refuge.
6. What is the Service proposing to designate as critical habitat for the green floater?
We are proposing to designate approximately 1,600 miles of river in eight units currently occupied by green floater as critical habitat in New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland, West Virginia, Virginia, and North Carolina. Two of these units overlap with designated critical habitat for other listed species, an area totaling 152 river miles.
We have determined that the currently occupied areas of green floater are sufficient to conserve the species, and we are not currently proposing to designate any areas unoccupied by the species as critical habitat.
7. What is a Section 4(d) rule?
Because the ESA does not automatically provide the same prohibitions against take for threatened species as it does for those listed as endangered, Section 4(d) of the act allows the Department of the Interior to issue rules deemed “necessary and advisable” to ensure the conservation the species.
4(d) rules also provide for regulatory flexibility and help streamline ESA compliance for actions that have long-term benefits, despite the potential for low levels of take in the short term and that do not contribute to threats that would jeopardize a species’ continued existence.
8. What actions are exempted under the proposed 4(d) rule for the green floater?
The 4(d) rule for the green floater includes exceptions for incidental take from streambank-restoration projects designed to improve habitat conditions for the species and bridge or culvert replacements that improve aquatic connectivity and stream flow.
To minimize impacts to green floaters, both exemptions require that project managers conduct mussel surveys in the project area before starting, ensure any mussels found during surveys are salvaged and relocated by a permitted biologist, and execute a post-implementation monitoring plan.
9. What is the Service doing to conserve green floater mussels?
The Service has undertaken proactive work to support conservation of the green floater, including by experimenting with raising them in captivity as a tool to bolster natural populations. Biologists at White Sulphur Springs National Fish Hatchery in West Virginia and Harrison Lake National Fish Hatchery in Virginia have successfully propagated and released juvenile green floaters into Virginia rivers and streams.
These efforts have the potential to restore populations of green floater in the future. However, they are currently limited in scope, and long-term population increases in the wild have yet to be documented.
10. How can I provide comment on the proposal to list the green floater as threatened?
Comments on the proposal will be accepted until September 25, 2023, and may be submitted through one the following methods:
(1) Electronically: Go to the Federal eRulemaking Portal: http://www.regulations.gov. In the Search box, enter the docket number or RIN for this rulemaking (FWS-R5-ES-2023-0012 or 1018-BF80). For best results, do not copy and paste either number; instead, type the docket number or RIN into the Search box using hyphens. Then, click on the Search button. On the resulting page, in the panel on the left side of the screen, under the Document Type heading, check the Proposed Rule box to locate this document. You may submit a comment by clicking on “Comment.”
(2) By hard copy: Submit by U.S. mail to: Public Comments Processing, Attn: FWS-R5-ES-2023-0012, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, MS: PRB/3W, 5275 Leesburg Pike, Falls Church, VA 22041–3803.
Comments should be sent only by the methods described above. All comments will be posted on http://www.regulations.gov. This generally means that any personal information provided will also be posted.
