Tag: usfws

Money for Mussels

A million dollar fine will be used in restocking and studying
freshwater mussels. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Lester Graham
reports:

Transcript

A million dollar fine will be used in restocking and studying freshwater
mussels. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Lester Graham reports:


A Japanese-owned company called Tennessee Shell Company has paid the first
installment of the million dollar fine. The company pleaded guilty to
illegally harvesting freshwater mussels in Michigan, Ohio, Kentucky, and
West Virginia. The company places mussel shell material in oysters to grow
cultured pearls. Chuck Traxler is with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. He
says the money from the fine won’t just go into the the agency’s general
account.


“The entire amount will be used for mussel research. This is unique
in that these funds are going to be used to help the species that was
damaged.”


Besides being over-harvested, native mussel populations have declined
because of poor water quality and because of invasive species such as the
zebra mussel.


For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, this is Lester Graham.

Migrating Birds Hurt by Communication Towers

Every year, more than 5 thousand new communications towers
are erected throughout the United States. They’re needed for cell
phones,
television and radio stations and 911 networks. But at this time of
year,
these towers become deadly obstacles. It’s estimated millions of
migrating birds are killed each year when they collide with towers in
their
flight path. As the Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Karen Kelly reports,
there’s a growing consensus that something needs to be done:

Low Water Levels Create New Habitat

There’s been a lot of concern about falling water levels on the
Great Lakes. Some of the lake levels have dropped more than a foot.
However… new wildlife habitat is being formed as the water levels
fall.
The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Lester Graham reports:

Invasive Fish on the Move

An exotic species is making its way toward Lake
Michigan… from Lake Superior. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s
Mike Simonson reports that the Eurasian Ruffe (ROUGH) fish is
multiplying at a rate wildlife specialists can’t control, threatening to
spread to other Great Lakes:

Anglers Face Lead Sinker Ban

The U-S Fish And Wildlife Service is planning to ban lead sinkers in
parts of the national wildlife refuge system. The agency wants to
reduce lead poisoning in loons. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s
Stephanie Hemphill reports:

Biologist Fosters Bald Eagle’s Return

In the 1960’s, the bald eagle was in trouble. There were only about 4
hundred birds living in the U-S And in some states, pollution had wiped
them out altogether. But the bald eagle has made an impressive comeback.
The U-S Fish and Wildlife Service recently announced plans to remove it from
the endangered species list. As the Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Karen
Kelly reports, it’s good news for the scientists who fought to save this
bird:

Battle Lines Drawn for the Round Goby

  • A plan by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is intended to stop invasive species from traveling between the Great Lakes and the Mississippi river and its tributaries.

The government is trying to stop an invader from expanding from the GreatLakes into the Mississippi River system. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’sLester Graham reports… the field of battle is a small channel nearChicago:

Legacy Left by Cormorant Slaughter (Part 2)

The double-crested cormorant has been an enemy of fishermen for centuries.
They’ve eaten salmon on the Atlantic coast, catfish in Missouri and game
fish in the Great Lakes. Fishermen complain the cormorants are bad for
business. And last summer, fishing guides on Lake Ontario made their point
by killing more than two thousand birds. A year later, they’ve been caught
and arrested. In the second of a two part series, the Great Lakes Radio
Consortium’s Karen Kelly reports the effect of those killings is still being
felt:

Cormorant Control

Federal fish and wildlife officials will most likely let New York state
reduce the number of double breasted cormorants on Lake Ontario… but
not by euthanizing the birds. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s
Elizabeth Christensen reports:

Preserving Remnants of the Tallgrass Prairies

There’s an effort underway in western Minnesota to preserve the Midwest’s last remaining acres of northern tallgrass prairie. Once, the grasslands spanned close to 25 million acres through parts of Minnesota, the Dakotas and Iowa. More than 90% of the original tallgrass prairie was plowed under – what remains today are only patches of the early grasslands. Under a new U.S. Fish and Wildlife program the hope is to keep these last few areas intact for years to come. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Gretchen Lehmann reports: