John Wigginton, machete at the ready, chopped his way through the thick understory of privet, sumac and blackberry brambles one recent June afternoon. Logging trucks, bunchers and skidders rumbled in the distance. It had rained heavily; mosquitoes and deer flies accompanied Wigginton on his march through the forest.
“This,” he said upon reaching a sandy overlook populated with well-aged hardwoods, “is Tallatchee Creek. It is a great stream. And we are protecting it in perpetuity. There’s not much more we can do for the channel, except put more species in it.”
Wigginton works for the Westervelt Ecological Services, a division of the Westervelt timber company that owns 400,000 acres across Alabama, including this 3,000-acre pine plantation along Tallatchee. Westervelt, along with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, placed 335 federally threatened orangenacre muckets — mussels — into the creek with hopes of revitalizing a near-extinct species.
So far, the conservation efforts look promising. The service credits Westervelt, in particular, for its role in conserving at-risk species and habitats. The Tuscaloosa-based company, through its ecological services business, buffers streams, restores creek beds, educates contractors on environmental precautions and runs for-profit mitigation banks to conserve large swaths of land.
“The majority of Alabama is in private ownership so large landowners like Westervelt play an important role in protecting and recovering species,” said Anthony Ford, the service’s recovery biologist for the orangenacre mucket. “We can’t do it without them.”
Read more on this from Mother Nature Network at https://www.mnn.com/earth-matters/animals/blogs/saving-mussel-alabama-partnership-timber-company-federal-government?utm_source=Forest+Business+Network+email+newsletter&utm_campaign=7bbb0fdb95-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2018_07_04&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_3a629cb392-7bbb0fdb95-111950185.