U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Grant for Protecting the Iowa Pleistocene Snail

The Driftless Area National Wildlife Refuge (DANWR) and the Rock Island, Illinois Ecological Services Field Office in cooperation with Luther College and the Iowa Department of Natural Resources (IA DNR) monitored IPS populations at 12 sites in 2013. The DANWR, Rock Island, Illinois Ecological Services Field Office, and Jo Daviess County Conservation Foundation are currently negotiating the purchase or easement of an IPS occupied site on private land from a willing seller. Partners for Fish and Wildlife (PFW) biologists contacted private landowners with known IPS colonies on their property in Fall 2013 to gauge interest in conservation easements and IPS population monitoring.

Our confidence in discovery new IPS colonies is high because many of the slopes that are thought to be unoccupied or not known are in adjacent drainages to occupied drainages or within occupied watersheds. Extensively searching drainages of occupied watersheds have generated additional occupied slopes in the past (e.g. the string of slopes now owned by The Nature Conservancy in Buck Creek Watershed, Iowa). Most slopes were only searched once and have not been visited since the 1980¿s. The IPS is very patchy in its distribution across slopes and migrates vertically through the soil, requiring thorough search efforts to confirm its presence or absence.

The goal of this project is to recover the IPS. This goal will be accomplished by completing the following objectives:

1. Locate one to five new IPS colonies on ATS that are already protected (public lands or private lands under existing conservation agreements) through systematic search efforts.

2. Permanently protect one to five known IPS colonies on private land via conservation easements or acquisitions.

3. Achieve sufficient geographic dispersal of protected IPS colonies via finding at least one new colony on an already protected ATS in the southeast extent of its range or by providing financial assistance to the Jo Daviess County, Illinois Conservation Foundation to acquire the known IPS occupied slope in this area.

4. Document the population status of all known IPS colonies through monitoring for species presence (occupancy). Priority will be given to the protected colonies and to colonies on private land where permission is given and conservation easements are a possibility.

The Driftless Area National Wildlife Refuge (DANWR) and the Rock Island, Illinois Ecological Services Field Office in cooperation with Luther College and the Iowa Department of Natural Resources (IA DNR) monitored IPS populations at 12 sites in 2013. The DANWR, Rock Island, Illinois Ecological Services Field Office, and Jo Daviess County Conservation Foundation are currently negotiating the purchase or easement of an IPS occupied site on private land from a willing seller. Partners for Fish and Wildlife (PFW) biologists contacted private landowners with known IPS colonies on their property in Fall 2013 to gauge interest in conservation easements and IPS population monitoring.

Our confidence in discovery new IPS colonies is high because many of the slopes that are thought to be unoccupied or not known are in adjacent drainages to occupied drainages or within occupied watersheds. Extensively searching drainages of occupied watersheds have generated additional occupied slopes in the past (e.g. the string of slopes now owned by The Nature Conservancy in Buck Creek Watershed, Iowa). Most slopes were only searched once and have not been visited since the 1980¿s. The IPS is very patchy in its distribution across slopes and migrates vertically through the soil, requiring thorough search efforts to confirm its presence or absence.

The goal of this project is to recover the IPS. This goal will be accomplished by completing the following objectives:

1. Locate one to five new IPS colonies on ATS that are already protected (public lands or private lands under existing conservation agreements) through systematic search efforts.

2. Permanently protect one to five known IPS colonies on private land via conservation easements or acquisitions.

3. Achieve sufficient geographic dispersal of protected IPS colonies via finding at least one new colony on an already protected ATS in the southeast extent of its range or by providing financial assistance to the Jo Daviess County, Illinois Conservation Foundation to acquire the known IPS occupied slope in this area.

4. Document the population status of all known IPS colonies through monitoring for species presence (occupancy). Priority will be given to the protected colonies and to colonies on private land where permission is given and conservation easements are a possibility.