Introduction
It is widely recognized that freshwater mussels have the ability to filter stream water at a prodigious rate, improving water quality, and thereby potentially keeping local streams, rivers, and receiving estuaries cleaner. Within urbanized settings such as Reston, the possibility of utilizing mussels to improve both local water quality and that of larger receiving systems is quite intriguing. The basic issue and associated research question for this RFP is whether or not newly stocked freshwater mussels are able to survive (and potentially reproduce) in these urban streams prior to deploying a larger scale effort that would also measure associated water quality effects. This project was conducted by Virginia Commonwealth University and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service from 2020 to 2022.
Request for Proposals
Original Request for Proposals: Mussel Introduction into an Urban Stream Environment, 2020
Amount awarded: $148,675
Research Reports
- First Quarter Report: Mussel Introduction into an Urban Stream Environment, September 2020.
- Second Quarter Report: Mussel Introduction into an Urban Stream Environment, March 2021
- Third Quarter Report: Mussel Introduction into an Urban Stream Environment, April 2021
- Forth Quarter Report: Mussel Introduction into an Urban Stream Environment, June 2021
- Fifth Quarter Report: Mussel Introduction into an Urban Stream Environment, July to September 2021
- Sixth Quarter Report: Mussel Introduction into an Urban Stream Environment, September to December 2021
- Incorporating Freshwater Mussels into the Chesapeake Bay Restoration Efforts, Chesapeake Bay Scientific & Technical Advisory Committee (STAC) Workshop Final Report, March 2020.
Final Research Report
Assessing the Potential for Restoring Freshwater Mussels to Urban Streams. Paul A. Bukaveckas, Rachel Mair, John-Reid Ryan and Rachel Duval, Virginia Commonwealth University, Center for Environmental Studies and US Fish & Wildlife Service, Harrison Lake National Fish Hatchery, Report to Resources Protection Group, February 2022
Articles
- Pipkin, Whitney. Mussels, ripe for investment, could power cleaner rivers. Bay Journal, October 5, 2021.
- Bukaveckas, Paul A., John-Reid Ryan, Rachel Mair. 2022. Assessing the potential for restoring freshwater mussels to urban streams. Aquatic Conservation: Marine Freshwater Ecosystem. 2022; 1–13.
