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Von Oettingen, S. and D. Mignogno (1997). National strategy for the conservation of native freshwater mussels. Journal of Shellfish Research. 16:327.

The continental United States contains the world's greatest diversity of freshwater pearly mussels, nearly 300 species. This faunal group has been characterized as 6 percent extinct, 19 percent threatened or endangered, and 23 percent as potentially warranting federal protection. No other widespread group of animals in North America approaches this level of faunal collapse. At an April 1995 meeting of representatives from several federal and state natural resources agencies and the commercial mussel industry, the magnitude and the immediacy of threats, nationwide, to our native freshwater mussel fauna was recognized. The group agreed that a coordinated effort of national scope was needed to prevent further mussel extinctions and population losses. To address these needs, the group decided to: 1) draft a national strategy for the conservation of native freshwater mussels; and 2) establish a national ad hoc committee with broad based representation from state, tribal and federal agencies, the mussel industry, private conservation groups, and the academic community to help implement mussel conservation at the national level. A draft national strategy was presented in October 1995 at a national mussel symposium in St. Louis, Missouri. I will discuss the strategy and the results of the first ad hoc committee meeting scheduled for February 1997.