It will cost an estimated $68.1 million and a half-century’s worth of dedicated work to bring a mussel species found in four Southeastern states back from the brink of extinction, according to a Fish and Wildlife Service proposal.
The agency’s draft species recovery plan for the slabside pearlymussel aims to get multiple benefits from the investment, as future stream habitat improvements designed for one vulnerable species could help others, too.
“We’ve got a lot of other listed mussels that do co-occur, so a lot of the recovery activities that will be carried out for the slabside should very well benefit these other species as well,” Anthony Ford, the lead FWS biologist for the mussel, said in an interview Wednesday.
The service listed the slabside pearlymussel as endangered in 2013, citing habitat damage caused by stream impoundments, gravel and coal mining, and water pollution as among the major threats. FWS reported there were about 2,000 dams of various sizes directly and indirectly affecting the slabside pearlymussel’s favorite streams.
