Northern Riffleshell and Clubshell 2015 Monitoring Results

In 2015, staff from the Illinois Natural History Survey continued to monitor translocated populations of two federally-endangered freshwater mussel species in the Vermilion River basin (Wabash River drainage). Between 2010 and 2014, a total of 2,099 Northern Riffleshell (Epioblasma rangiana) and 1,766 Clubshell (Pleurobema clava) have been translocated to eight sites in the Vermilion River basin, Champaign and Vermilion counties, Illinois. These translocated animals have been monitored seasonally since being moved to Illinois. For the 2015 calendar year, 36% (716) of the 1,991 available Northern Riffleshell were encountered, and of those physically examined, 61% (54 of 88) were alive. Conversely, 77% (1,359) of the 1,758 available Clubshell were encountered, and of those examined, 82% (106 of 129) were alive. The encounter and survival rates from the raw data collected in 2015 were comparable to previous years in Illinois. Throughout the duration of the project, both Northern Riffleshell and Clubshell have had higher encounter rates in the spring and autumn than summer. This relocation project is being funded, in part, by a natural resource damage assessment settlement (Hegeler Zinc—Lyondell Basell Companies) to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and to the State of Illinois, and by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Ohio River Basin Fish Habitat Partnership.IDNR Division of Natural HeritageU.S. Fish & Wildlife Serviceunpublishednot peer reviewe

Northern Riffleshell and Clubshell Reintroduction Project - Summary of Activities for 2017

In 2017, staff from the Illinois Natural History Survey continued to monitor translocated populations of two federally-endangered freshwater mussel species in the Vermilion River basin (Wabash River drainage). Through 2017, a total of 3,699 Northern Riffleshell (Epioblasma rangiana) and 4,166 Clubshell (Pleurobema clava) have been translocated to the Middle Fork and Salt Fork Vermilion rivers in the Vermilion River basin, Champaign and Vermilion counties, Illinois, and these translocated animals have been monitored since being moved to Illinois. This end-of-the-year report summarizes the activities for the 2017 calendar year, and includes two reprints and a galley of a third paper summarizing data from this project. This relocation project is being funded, in part, by a natural resource damage assessment settlement (Hegeler Zinc—Lyondell Basell Companies) to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and to the State of Illinois, and by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Ohio River Basin Fish Habitat Partnership.The Illinois Department of Natural Resources, Natural Resources Damage Assessment, Restoration, and Implementation Project Number: IDNR-NRDA1504unpublishednot peer reviewedOpe

Northern Riffleshell and Clubshell Reintroduction Project Summary of Activities from 2014-2018

Staff from the Illinois Natural History Survey participated in a joint project with the Illinois Department of Natural Resources and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to reintroduce the federally-endangered Northern Riffleshell (Epioblasma rangiana) and Clubshell (Pleurobema clava) to Illinois. A salvage project in the Allegheny River, Pennsylvania provided an opportunity for the translocation of both species. Since the first translocation in 2010, a total of 3,699 Northern Riffleshell and 4,166 Clubshell were collected from the Allegheny River at the U.S. Highway 62 (=Hunter Station) Bridge, Tionesta Township, Forest County, Pennsylvania, and translocated to suitable habitat at eight sites in the Vermilion River basin (Wabash River drainage) in Champaign and Vermilion counties, Illinois. Our monitoring data suggest the Clubshell translocation has been more successful than the Northern Riffleshell translocation. We estimate that Clubshell have approximately 5 times greater survival rates compared to Northern Riffleshell. As a result, very few Northern Riffleshell likely remain. Survival also varied among translocation sites, likely a result of localscale differences such as substrate or gradient. Regardless, high discharge events posed the greatest threat for the long-term success of this project, as survival was significantly decreased following periods of abnormally high flows. Consequently, we believe that repeated translocations of individuals over a period of several years across several sites could be implemented to reduce the overall risk of failure due to high discharge events or local-scale differences. This translocation project is being funded, in part, by a natural resource damage assessment settlement (Hegeler Zinc—Lyondell Basell Companies) to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and to the State of Illinois.Illinois Department of Natural Resources’ Office of Resource Conservation, Contaminant Assessment Sectionunpublishednot peer reviewedOpe

Freshwater Mussels of Money and Six Mile Creeks, McLean County, Illinois

For the past six years, The Lake Bloomington Partnership Project has focused on wetland construction and nitrogen management conservation practices to improve local drinking water quality, environmental protection, and agricultural sustainability in two drinking water supply watersheds of the Mackinaw River, near Bloomington, Illinois (Money Creek and Six Mile Creek). In 2017, a project funded by The Nature Conservancy was completed to establish a baseline for interpreting the impact of water quality modifications on fresh water mussels in these drainages. These surveys will provide comprehensive results for the entire watershed for Six Mile and Money creeks.The Nature Conservancyunpublishednot peer reviewedOpe

Status revision and update for Illinois' freshwater mussel Species in Greatest Need of Conservation

unpublishednot peer reviewe

Modeling historic distributions of Illinois’s freshwater mussels using Maximum Entropy

A component of State Wildlife Grant T-82-R-1 (Defining expectations for mussel communities in Illinois wadeable streams) is to evaluate species’ abundance, distribution, habitat requirements, ecological role and amount of information available regarding the species for all mussel Species in Greatest Need of Conservation (SGNC) in Illinois. This information will be used to update the freshwater mussel SGNC accounts included in the Illinois Comprehensive Wildlife Conservation Plan developed in 2005. This document updates Appendix I and II and Actions for the Streams Campaign for mussel SGNC to include in the 2015 revised Illinois Comprehensive Wildlife Action Plan. Additionally, distribution maps and host fish information for mussel SGNC and other species found currently or historically in Illinois are included.Illinois Department of Natural Resources, State Wildlife Grant/Project Number (T-82-R-1)unpublishednot peer reviewedOpe

Freshwater mussels of the Vermilion and Little Vermilion Rivers in the Wabash River in Illinois

unpublishednot peer reviewedOpe

Using Bayesian decision networks to guide restoration of freshwater mussels in Illinois: a step-by-step guide to creating and using BDNs for ecological applications

We highlight the use of Bayesian Decision Networks to formalize the decision process and suggest a management strategy for restoring Ellipse and Spike to target areas. A BDN is particularly useful in complicated situations like this, because it allows for the combination of prior knowledge of mussel distributions and habitat relationships in Illinois with expected value of management outcomes. To build the Bayesian Decision Network, we used long term mussel presence data paired with a suite of environmental and biotic variables to elucidate important factors for each focal species and structure preliminary models (Chiavacci et al. 2018). We then built multiple versions for each species using three levels of information 1) data subset (target streams, non-target streams, or both; Figure 9), 2) expert opinion values (median, minimum, or maximum), and 3) precision of mussel data (long term presence, 2018 presence or 2018 density). All model versions were compared using sensitivity analyses to determine sources of potential model performance bias and decide whether a need for quantitative mussel density sampling in future model iterations was needed. All models built in this project were created using Netica by Norsys Software Corp., a program specifically designed to create Bayesian networks. Netica is available for download for 285 dollars for an individual application, or for 600 dollars for commercial applications (as of 2019).The 7 following walk-through serves as a step-by-step tutorial of how to build BDNs using Netica, while also detailing the methods and results of the Ellipse and Spike models created for this project. For each step, we outline a “General Description”, which is a broad description for managers to consider for their own projects, and “Applied Project Result” is a detailed explanation of the process completed for this project.Illinois Department of Natural Resources State Wildlife Grant project # T-99-R-1unpublishednot peer reviewedOpe

Freshwater mussel survey prior to the Ellsworth Dam removal, Danville, Vermilion County, Illinois

This report is submitted in response to a request from the Illinois Department of Natural Resources (IDNR) for the Illinois Natural History Survey (INHS) to conduct a freshwater mussel survey in the North Fork Vermilion River (Wabash River drainage) in the vicinity of the Ellsworth Dam, Danville, Vermilion County, Illinois. IDNR proposes to remove this dam, and needs updated survey data prior to the removal per the requirements of Authorization item #7 in the Ellsworth Park Dam Removal Incidental Take Authorization. Freshwater mussels were collected by hand-­‐picking and visual detection (e.g., trails, siphons, exposed shell) in the three zones (Impounded area, Construction zone, and Plunge pool). One live individual was found alive in the construction zone in three person hours, whereas 372 individuals representing ten species were found alive in the impounded area upstream of the construction in approximately 25 person-­‐hours. A total of 46 individuals representing eight species were found alive in the plunge pool in 2.25 person-­‐hours. All species collected are common inhabitants of central Illinois streams that are not listed as endangered or threatened at the state or federal level, and all live individuals were relocated to areas outside the predicted zone of influence.Prepared for Illinois Department of Natural Resources Office of Water Resourcesunpublishednot peer reviewedOpe

Danville Dam 2018 Salvage Report: Results of the fish and freshwater mussel surveys following the removal of the Danville Dam on the Vermilion River

The Danville Dam on the Vermilion River (Wabash River drainage) in the city of Danville, Vermilion County, Illinois, was removed during the summer and autumn of 2018. During the project, 1 fish and 905 live individuals of 23 species of freshwater mussels were relocated. These included : 1 Smallmouth Bass (Micropterus dolomieu); 1 state-threatened Purple Wartyback (Cyclonaias tuberculata); 6 state-endangered Wavyrayed Lampmussel (Lampsilis fasciola); 1 state-endangered Rainbow (Villosa iris); 264 Mapleleaf (Quadrula quadrula); 217 Giant Floater (Pyganodon grandis); 130 Fragile Papershell (Leptodea fragilis); 91 Pink Heelsplitter (Potamilus alatus); 86 Plain Pocketbook (Lampsilis cardium). One side effect of dam removal is stranding, desiccation, and predation of mussels within the former impounded areas. In addition to the live individuals, 116 fresh-dead individuals representing 18 species were observed, including 1 fresh-dead Purple Wartyback; 2 fresh-dead Wavyrayed Lampmusselo1fresh-dead Rainbow; Nearly half of these individuals (e.g., 41 Giant Floater, 7 Mapleleaf, and 3 Plain Pocketbook) were observed during the last sampling eventand were found on the gravel bar that formed at the mouth of the North Fork. Given time, fishes and mussels should naturally recolonize the former impounded areas of the Danville Dam if habitat conditions are optimal and source populations are in close proximity.Illinois Department of Natural Resources’ Endangered Species Programunpublishednot peer reviewedOpe