Neosho Mucket Recovery Program Updates

Neosho Mucket Release Collage
Neosho Mucket Reintroductions and Conservation in Kansas

The Neosho Mucket is a freshwater mussel species that historically occupied large rivers and streams in the Verdigris and Neosho River watersheds of Kansas. Population declines within the state are linked to several factors such as water pollution, fragmentation of habitat by creation of dams and reservoirs, and largescale harvest of mussels for their shells. Currently, the species occurs in scattered pockets of the lower Neosho, Verdigris, Fall, and Spring Rivers. However, pollutant reductions through the Clean Water Act and Surface Mining Control Reclamation Act paired with a cessation of mussel harvest could present an opportunity to reestablish this species into habitats where it used to occur but is now cutoff from other populations by dams. The first efforts to reintroduce Neosho Muckets occurred in 1999 when approximately 19,000 juvenile Neosho Muckets were released in the upper Fall River. Other juvenile stockings occurred at sites on the Verdigris and Cottonwood Rivers.

Today, consistent efforts to reestablish populations are underway through the Kansas Aquatic Species Recovery Program. The first reintroduction of the species through the program occurred at a site on the Neosho River in the fall of 2023. Future stockings are planned in both the Neosho and Verdigris River watersheds in an effort to recover and delist this species from the Kansas Nongame and Endangered Species Conservation Act.