Kyle Herdina, Prairie Island Indian Community, releases Endangered Higgins eye mussels into tribal waters. - FWS photo by Gary Wege.

For the past seven years, a multi-agency group known as the Mussel Coordination Team (MCT) has worked to recover and protect the federally endangered Higgins eye pearlymussel in the Upper Mid-West. 

At this time, the members of the MCT, including two federal agencies, four state departments of natural resources, and several academic institutions, have faced many ups and downs in their propagation efforts of the Higgins eye. 

September 2007 marked both the highest and lowest points for the MCT.  The MCT’s high point marked the end of a three season grow out period of over 20,000 Higgins eye mussels from a single year class.  With such a large number of mussels that needed to be prepared for release, the MCT put out a call for help and the Prairie Island Indian Community responded by sending their staff biologist Kyle Herdina to lend a helping hand. 

Herdina assisted in the harvesting of cages, cleaning of mussels, the tagging, and the stocking of nearly 2,500 mussels in and around the Prairie Island reservation.  Not only did the Prairie Island tribe provide help for the high point they also provided hope during one of the MCT’s low moments. 

As the team harvested the first couple of cages it became very clear to everyone that the invasive zebra mussel had colonized the propagation site that the MCT was using in Lake Pepin, Minnesota. 

Subadult Higgins eye mussels were covered with 100’s of zebra mussels per mussel.  As the MCT checked on the 2007 year class, they noticed that the production was all but wiped out due to zebra mussels. 

With zebra mussel numbers rising in Lake Pepin, the MCT has begun searching for new places to house the production efforts for Higgins eye that has low numbers of zebra mussels.  Talks between the MCT and the Prairie Island Indian Community have started about using portions of the Mississippi River that flows through the reservation as a possible production site. 

These talks will continue between the MCT and the Prairie Island Indian Community to explore the possible partnership that will continue the advance of Higgins eye recovery in the Midwest.