Mature and juvenile spectaclecase mussels

Last month the US Fish and Wildlife Service added two more freshwater mussel species, the sheepnose and the spectaclecase, as endangered under the Endangered Species Act. Read the press release here. 

According to the press release, sheepnose are currently found in Alabama, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia, and Wisconsin. Spectaclecase mussels are currently found in Alabama, Arkansas, Illinois, Iowa, Kentucky, Minnesota, Missouri, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia, and Wisconsin.

(This is not to be confused with the addition, in February, of two other freshwater mussel species, rayed bean and the snuffbox, to the list as endangered species. That press release is here.)

Also in March, the state of Oregon removed the bald eagle from the state’s Endangered Species List. Read the press release here. (Only the first paragraph is about the de-listing.) The eagle was removed from the federal list in 2007.

Read a (brief) story about it in the Albany (Or.) Democrat-Herald.

Photo by USFWS; Tamara Smith