Tag: Endangered species

Freshwater Crayfish in Peril Worldwide

by Zoё Hoyle, SRS Science Delivery Group  • 
In early January, scientists led by the Zoological Society of London (ZSL) published results of a global assessment that shows that almost a third of the world’s species of crayfish are threatened with extinction. U.S. Forest Service aquatic ecologist Susie Adams was a co-author on the report and provided important information about North American crayfish…  More 

Conservation and Management of Eastern Big-Eared Bats

by Zoё Hoyle, SRS Science Delivery Group  • 
Published in 2012, the U.S. Forest Service publication Conservation and Management of Eastern Big-Eared Bats  brings together the latest knowledge about eastern big-eared bats. Edited by Forest Service Southern Research Station (SRS) researcher Susan Loeb, University of Kentucky professor Michael Lacki, and Weyerhauser manager Darren Miller, the publication features proceedings from a 2010 symposium. The publication…  More 

Lampreys, Paddlefishes, and Mooneyes, to Name a Few

by Zoё Hoyle, SRS Science Delivery Group  • 
Johns Hopkins University Press recently published the first volume of a long-awaited reference work on North American freshwater fishes edited by U.S. Forest Service fisheries research scientist Mel Warren and Southern Illinois University professor Brooks Burr. Freshwater Fishes of North America, Volume 1 provides comprehensive details on 10 North American fish families: Lampreys, Whiptail Stingrays,…  More 

Bold Moves Needed to Save North America’s Freshwater Mussels

by Zoё Hoyle, SRS Science Delivery Group  • 
North America’s freshwater mussels are in grave danger of disappearing. Though there’s been progress in learning about freshwater mussel biology and effective techniques developed to propagate mussel species, conservation efforts should focus more directly on bold and aggressive habitat restoration, according to a recently published review paper by U.S. Forest Service researcher Wendell Haag. In…  More 

Bringing Fire Back to the Kisatchie Sandstone Hills

by Sarah Farmer, Science Delivery Group  • 
The hillside bogs, sandstone glades, and woodlands of the Kisatchie Sandstone Hills in Louisiana are potential homes to a number of rare and endangered animals such as the red-cockaded woodpecker and the Louisiana pine snake. However, in much of the Kisatchie Hills, the open woodlands these animals need have vanished amid a dense midstory of…  More 

Driving OHVs through Streams

by Sarah Farmer, SRS Science Delivery Group  • 
Millions of people enjoy nature while riding all-terrain vehicles, utility or recreational off-highway vehicles, or off-highway motorcycles. Collectively, these vehicles are called off-highway vehicles or OHVs, and in the southeastern U.S. – especially in Arkansas – much of this vehicle use occurs on U.S. Forest Service lands or other public lands. In Arkansas, increased off-highway…  More 

SRS Researchers Awarded Grants for Research on White Nose Syndrome

by Zoe Hoyle, SRS Science Communications  • 
U.S. Forest Service Southern Research Station (SRS) researchers and collaborators just received news that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) funded two of their proposals on white-nose syndrome (WNS), a disease that affects hibernating bats. One grant funds research on bat survival, while the other helps set up a program to monitor bats nationwide.…  More 

Indiana Bats and Prescribed Fire

by Zoe Hoyle, SRS Science Communications  • 
A two-day workshop held in western North Carolina provided research results to forest and natural resource managers concerned about maintaining summer habitat for the endangered Indiana bat. Attended by over 60 people from federal and state agencies, nongovernmental organizations, and a private consultant, the workshop focused on identifying summer maternity habitat for the species in…  More 

Moving Harper’s Beauty Off Road

by Zoe Hoyle, SRS Science Communications  • 
The first week of March found a team of plant biologists down on their knees in a highway right-of-way in the Florida Panhandle, searching for Harper’s beauty, one of Florida’s rarest native plants. A perennial lily with a solitary yellow flower and iris-like leaves, Harper’s beauty (Harperocallis flava) is listed as federally endangered and found…  More 

Climate Change Projected to Alter Indiana Bat Maternity Range

by Zoe Hoyle, SRS Science Communications  • 
Research by U.S. Forest Service scientists forecasts profound changes over the next 50 years in the summer range of the endangered Indiana bat, one of many eastern bat species whose numbers are already decreasing due to white-nose syndrome and other factors. In an article published in the journal Ecology and Evolution, Forest Service Southern Research…  More