Upper savannah land trust (uslt) is requesting funding from the USFWS partners for fish and wildlife program to be used to build on the previous and ongoing efforts to protect and conserve the…

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) awarded a $205,000 Cooperative Agreement under the Partners for Fish and Wildlife program (CFDA 15.631) to the Upper Savannah Land Trust (USLT), a non-profit organization in South Carolina. The purpose of the award is to enhance habitat for the Carolina heelsplitter, a federally endangered freshwater mussel, in the Stevens Creek watershed. USLT will implement habitat restoration activities such as stream bank contouring, improved road crossings, native plant establishment, and invasive species control. The project will also develop educational materials to increase public awareness of the heelsplitter and the importance of clean water. This work complements USLT's broader mission to conserve natural, historic, and scenic lands in the region. The award period runs from September 1, 2023 to August 31, 2028.

Upper savannah land trust (uslt) is requesting funding from the USFWS partners for fish and wildlife program to be used to build on the previous and ongoing efforts to protect and conserve the heelsplitter in the stevens creek watershed. Uslt has over 22 years of experience in the area with extensive contacts in the landowner and land management community. As partner in this project, uslts goal is to enhance heelsplitter habitat in and along the waterways of the stevens creek watershed, especially turkey creek, cuffeytown creek, and their tributaries where the heelsplitter has been documented to occur. This would be accomplished by the implementation of restoration activities and or increasing public perception and awareness of the carolina heelsplitter and the importance of clean water, all of which complements our primary mission to conserve natural, historic, and scenic lands of south carolinas western piedmont. Activities would include, but would not be limited to, stream bank contouring, stream channel modifications, improved road crossings, removal or mitigation of impoundments, native plant establishment, control of invasive species, better management of domestic and feral livestock intrusion into streams and streambanks, and the development of informational and educational activities and materials to disseminate through uslts landowner network and community functions. This funding will also benefit downstream robust redhorse (moxostoma robustum) breeding habitat by reducing sediment transport in the upstream tributaries that feed into the savannah river, as well as overall ecosystem and watershed health associated with project sites.