7863

• UCREFRP Catalog Number: 7863
• Author: Nature Conservancy, T.
• Title: Candidate Species Reports from the Natural Heritage Central Database.
• USFW Year: 1996.
• USFW - Doc Type: \
• Copyright Material: NO

GRANGE:
GRANGECOM:

GTREND:
GTRENDCOM:

GPROTEOS:
GPROTCOM:

GTHREAT:
GTHREATCOM:

B
Formerly widespread in western tributaries of the
Mississippi River, from central Missouri to southern
Minnesota, west to southeastern South Dakota and western
Kansas (Phillips et al. 1982, Vandel 1982); extirpated in
many localities; now restricted to small areas in Kansas,
Missouri, Iowa, Nebraska, South Dakota, and Minnesota; most
of the remaining populations are in Kansas (Cross and
Collins 1995); generally uncommon (Page and Burr 1991, Lee
et al. 1980). ^In South Dakota, formerly was common in the
Big Sioux, Vermillion and James River drainages but is now
rare (Eddy and Underhill 1974, Vandel 1982). In Iowa,
limited to the upper Des Moines River, upper Iowa River, and
the Cedar River. In Minnesota, restricted to Rock Creek and
its tributaries (Phillips et al. 1982). Formerly widespread
in Missouri but now confined to four counties in the
northwest and central portions of the state (Pflieger 1975) .
Formerly inhabited all major drainages in Kansas; now
restricted to the Flint Hills headwater streams in the
Cottonwood and Kansas River drainages (Kerns 1982, Tabor
1993, Minckley and Cross 1959, Cross 1967, Schwilling 1981);
locally common in some of these streams (Cross, pers. comm.;
Kern, pers. comm.).

A
Trend varies across range: declining rapidly in Kansas and
Missouri; elsewhere declining or stable. Historically, has
experienced >80% population loss,. with approximately 50% of
this loss occurring within the past 25 years.

C
Flint Hills prairie (TNC) , Kansas; Pipestone National
Monument, Minnesota; Blue Mounds State Park, Minnesota;
Three Creeks State Forest, Missouri.

A
The major threats are land and water practices that alter
the physical and biological characteristics of streams.
Fairly resistent to natural, short-term stresses. Sensitive
to permanent changes in habitat such as reduced water
quality and increased water temperture. Detrimental land
practices, such as cultivation, clearcut logging, building
projects, and intensive, .continuous grazing, increase the
amount of silt and sediment in streams (Platts 1979; Gorman,
pers'- comm.; Pflieger, pers. comm.). Sedimentation in
streams reduces instream cover, covers fish eggs, and covers
food-producing gravel and rubble (Platts 1979). Grazing
livestock can directly damage a stream by eating stream-edge
vegetation and trampling that causes erosion, and through
defacation that pollutes water (Tabor, pers. comm.).
^Several types of water projects can eliminate shiner
populations. Channelization can alter the water temperature
and flow rates and change the stream morphology. The
lowering of the water table level is drying out some streams
(Gorman, pers. comm.). The building of impoundments stocked
with predatory game fishes is a major threat in some areas
because the shiners are eaten by the predators and because
impoundment alter stream hydrology and act as barriers to
fish dispersal (Cross, pers. comm.; Kerns, pers. comm.).