In response to a petition and lawsuit, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service proposed to protect the round hickorynut and longsolid freshwater mussels under the Endangered Species Act, with more than 2,000 river miles of proposed critical habitat from Pennsylvania to Mississippi.

In this listing, the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service has abandoned any currently unoccupied but suitable habitat by these species, when it comes to designating critical habitat for the species. The agency only wants to designate critical habitat for these two species if the habitat is currently occupied. This creates obstacles to recovery- these species are on the brink of extinction and have been eradicated from most of their range. The USFWS should protect occupied as well as unoccupied habitat by designating it as critical habitat so that unoccupied habitat may be protected in anticipation of the species' restoration.

Join us in pushing back against this paltry and half-hearted approach to designating critical habitat for the 2 proposed species. The agency is required to ensure the protection and recovery of each species listed under the ESA. This requires restoring the species to previously occupied habitat, which requires protecting that habitat.

The once-common longsolid mussel, found in the southern part of the Mon National Forest, has lost 63% of its populations, and only three out of 60 surviving populations are considered to have a high chance of survival. The round hickorynut has now lost 78% of its populations, and only four of 65 are ranked as having high resiliency. Both mussels live in West Virginia river basins.

The Service denied listing for a third petitioned mussel, the purple lilliput, another West Virginia mussel, even though 47% of its populations have already been wiped out and 20% of its remaining populations aren’t expected to survive the next few decades. We will also be contesting their decision not to list & designate critical habitat for the purple lilliput.