USGS Home
Contact USGS
Search USGS

Search fish passage bibliography

Anonymous (1998). National strategy for the conservation of native freshwater mussels. Journal of Shellfish Research. 17:1419-1428.

On April 1995, representatives from several federal and state natural resource agencies, the commercial mussel industry (Shell Exporters of America), academia, and The Nature Conservancy met to discuss freshwater mussel declines and gather information on freshwater mussel trends, research, and recovery activities (Appendix I). As a result of the magnitude and immediacy of the nationwide threats to the freshwater mussel fauna, the group agreed that a coordinated effort of national scope was needed to prevent further mussel extinctions and population declines. To address this need, the group decided to (1) draft a National Strategy for the Conservation of Native Freshwater Mussels (National Strategy) and (2) establish a national ad hoc committee with broad-based representation from state, tribal, and federal agencies, the mussel industry, private conservation groups, and the academic community to help implement mussel conservation at the national level. A draft National Strategy was presented at the second Symposium on the Conservation and Management of Freshwater Mussels organized by the Upper Mississippi River Conservation Committee, in St. Louis, Missouri in October 1995. Comments received at and subsequent to the symposium were incorporated into another draft dated September 16, 1996. The September 1996 draft was presented at a February 1997 meeting of the newly formed National Native Mussel Conservation Committee in St. Louis, Missouri. Comments from the February 1997 meeting have been incorporated into this current document.