(CN) — The 190 miles of stream channels in North Florida and South Georgia that a small freshwater mussel, once feared to be extinct, calls home have been designated as critical habitat by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
The agency announced the designation Wednesday, paving the way for the Suwannee moccasinshell to make a comeback. The mussel was listed as a threatened species in 2016.
The designation comes amid a legal battle launched by the Center for Biological Diversity, which has been fighting to protect the two-inch mollusk since 2010. Its latest lawsuit alleged the federal agency failed to protect several vulnerable species under former President Donald Trump’s administration, including the Suwannee moccasinshell.
“This designated critical habitat should help put the mussel back on the path to recovery,” Jaclyn Lopez, the center’s Florida director, said in a statement. “Florida’s waterways and the critters that rely on them need us to start making their health and survival a priority.”
Species with federally protected critical habitat are more than twice as likely to be recovering as those without it, according to the environmental group.
The moccasinshell has historically been present throughout much of the Suwannee and Santa Fe rivers in Florida, and the Withlacoochee River in Florida and Georgia.
But, in addition to drought, an increase in agricultural irrigation has lowered the Upper Floridan aquifer near the Suwannee River Basin, the environmentalists say. That has severely threatened the mussel by depleting the waters and polluting what’s left.
Other factors leading to the mussel’s decline in population include pollutants discharged from industrial and municipal wastewater facilities. And its habitat is also being threatened by a proposed phosphate mine in Bradford and Union counties in Florida, according to the Center for Biological Diversity.
Recent surveys indicate the mussel has declined in abundance and range and that it may no longer inhabit the Withlacoochee River or upper Santa Fe River sub-basin, according to the Fish and Wildlife Service.
The critical habitat designation, made under the Endangered Species Act of 1973, only affects waterways and does not affect land ownership or establish a wildlife refuge, reserve or preserve, according to the agency. And with 72% of the designated area consisting of private land, it has no impact on individual landowner activities unless federal funding, permits or activities are involved.
The designation will have a potential economic impact of less than $20,000 annually for the Suwannee and Santa Fe river portions and less than $80,000 per year for the Withlacoochee River portion, according to an economic analysis by the Fish and Wildlife Service. The Withlacoochee River’s higher economic effects come from efforts to avoid or minimize impacts to the Suwannee moccasinshell from planned transportation projects in that area.
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