Mike Lewis met with Maxwell Hartman, Crayfish Ecologist with the Arkansas Game & Fish Commission (AGFC) in Saddle, AR. Together, they did some crayfish sampling on the Southfork River in Fulton County in Arkansas. They visited three different sites to determine how far the invasive Gap-Ringed Crayfish had made it downstream.
They also wanted to see how many Spring River Crayfish (Faxonius roberti) they could catch. Maxwell had previously observed that the farther they went upstream they saw more Gap-Ringed Crayfish and less Spring River Crayfish. Maxwell is alarmed that the Gap-Ringed will keep pushing south and take over the habitat of the Spring River Crayfish.
The Arkansas Wildlife Action Plan has ranked the Spring River Crayfish with the highest priority.
