The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service proposes a critical habitat zone to protect endangered freshwater mussels along part of Iowa’s southeastern border.
The plan to protect “spectaclecase” mussels covers four-thousand miles of rivers in 17 states, including a portion of the Mississippi River from the Quad-Cities to Keokuk.
Agency biologist Nick Utrup says the designations are critical for the recovery of the mussel species, but they won’t change agency operations much.
Utrup says, “It gives us another tool in the toolbox, so to speak, so we can look at these specific areas and say, ‘What can we do here in this one very specific critical habitat unit to help recover the species?'”
Setting up what’s referred to as a critical habitat zone for the mussel means any federally funded projects in the area must first be approved by U.S. Fish and Wildlife.
Utrup says mussel harvesting for button manufacturing in the late 1800s was one of the biggest reasons for their population decline in the Mississippi.
“That was a huge problem,” Utrup says. “Once you knock back a species like that, it takes a long time to recreate the numbers and to bring them back to where they used to be.”
The agency is taking public comments on the proposal until February 11th, though Utrup said the proposal may not be approved until fall.
(By James Kelley, Iowa Public Radio)