Shade River Habitat Assessments

BioSurvey Group assisted the USFWS in determining the current status of the proposed federally listed Round Hickorynut (Obovaria subrotunda) in the Shade River watershed in southeastern Ohio.

Habitat assessments were conducted in ten miles of the East Branch Shade River and six miles of the Middle Branch Shade River.

These sections were divided into half mile segments prior to the initiation of field work and uploaded to a mapping application.

The streams were traversed with a combination of canoeing and wading.

Within each half mile segment, one survey reach was selected based on mussel habitat suitability.

The reach size was delineated using a laser ranger finder, stream morphology was classified, dominate substrates were noted, and a 30-minute search for mussels was completed.

Live Round Hickorynut were located in both branches of the Shade River.

Additional intensive surveys will be conducted in 2023.