<< That photo of the Barrens topminnow is absolutely beautiful. I can't
believe
that it enjoys no Federal protection status, and that it is only listed as
Threatened by Tennessee with only 4 present wild populations. J.R.,do you
agree with Tennesse's listing?
>>
The Tennessee listing has just changed to Endangered. The federal status is a
very complicated story, but the really short version is.......There are some
good things going on with local landowners. They're really scared it will be
listed. Of course, they've been told that if it gets listed, they'll have no
more control over their property (not true) and may even loose their land
(definitely not true). The Nature Conservancy and Fish and Wildlife get
better cooperation from the landowners as long as it's not listed. In
addition, listing the fish would probably not help the situation much. So
anyway, while everyone's working together to protect the fish, the F&WS is
going to put off trying to list it.
Right now, one of the primary threats seems to be the proliferation of
Gambusia on the Barrens plateau. Anyway, things don't look very good for
Barrens topminnows!
J.R. <_at_}}}}}}}><
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