Ohio Ecological Services Field Office

Each year, we implement recovery actions for a number of listed species. For example, we recently:

• Completed Species Status Assessments for the Rayed Bean and Snuffbox mussels
• Completed a 5-Year Review for the Rayed Bean mussel
• Completed a 5-Year Review for the Snuffbox mussel
• Completed a Draft Recovery Plan for the Rayed Bean, Snuffbox, Sheepnose, and Spectaclecase mussels
• Completed formal consultation with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for removal of the Six Mile Dam on the Walhonding River and assisted with the salvage and relocation of over 12,000 live mussels, including almost 900 federally listed mussels
• Concluded three wind power habitat conservation plans that address Indiana and northern long-eared bats
• Collected copperbelly watersnakes to add to our captive propagation effort at The Toledo Zoo, bringing the total snakes in the program to 9. During 2024, the first generation of offspring from the program will be released!
• Completed a 5-year review for the purple cat’s paw pearly mussel
• Transplanted 292 lakeside daisy plants and dispersed 2 pounds of seed on the recent addition to the Lakeside Daisy State Nature Preserve
• Conducted annual monitoring of eastern prairie fringed orchid and running buffalo clover
• Collaborated with Service Staff from OH, IN, MI and GA, as well as Ohio DNR, Ohio DOT, and Indiana DNR to survey for state and federally endangered mussels in Fish Creek, which borders the OH and IN state line. 11 FWS biologists, 4 ODNR biologists, 2 ODOT biologists, and 2 IDNR biologists participated in the surveys in 2023.  This is the third year of collaboration on this project, during which time 39 sites were surveyed and 4,500 mussels were detected, including 4 federally listed species and 7 state listed species.  

We also recently finalized Ohio’s first Candidate Conservation Agreement for the monarch, between the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Ohio Department of Transportation. The Ohio Department of Transportation will implement conservation measures and monitoring at 50 sites totaling 20,152 acres to benefit pollinators.

We work with partners to conserve wildlife on their lands. We've conducted several species surveys at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in recent years, including for bats, moths and butterflies, and snakes. We assisted in managing Huffman Prairie, Ohio’s largest remnant prairie and restored stream and wetland habitat at Wright-Patterson, replacing non-native invasive plants with native vegetation, benefitting pollinators and water quality.

We assist in the assessment and restoration of contaminated sites through the Natural Resource Damage Assessment and Restoration (NRDAR) program and the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative (GLRI). Through both NRDAR and GLRI, coastal, wetland, stream, forest, and other upland habitats can be restored and protected. Restoration projects resulting from 2 NRDAR case settlements, Nease Chemical and Ottawa River, restored and preserved nearly 620 acres of riparian riparian
Definition of riparian habitat or riparian areas.

Learn more about riparian , wetland, and coastal Lake Erie habitat. Settlement of the Duck and Otter NRDAR case will contribute to the restoration of islands in the Maumee River and funds from the Dover Chemical Corporation settlement will conserve habitat for the eastern hellbender and other aquatic and riparian dependent-species. In addition, Great Lakes Restoration Initiative funds from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and Ohio Environmental Protection Agency have contributed to the establishment of fish habitat in Lake Erie tributaries and native plantings of trees and shrubs in the watershed.