The great State of Ohio is serious indeed about protecting its mussels. It is one of the most progressive USA states in recognizing their importance - in some of your lesser States (and you know whom you are), you can still shuck them for bait. Ohio's laws may seem Draconian, but I would rather have an agency that cares too much rather than too little. Ohio's Division of Wildlife funded this book 100% - no small amount of money. How many other States would do that? They fund salaries, research, and surveys on mussels. Permits to collect generate money and require an annual report, so we know (more or less) what people found and where - as compared to a system where people collect without permits and no one ever knows what they found.

----- Original Message ----- From: "BARCLAY, DON" <barclay@CONSOLIDATED.NET> Date: Friday, October 30, 2009 9:47 am Subject: Re: [CONCH-L] The Freshwater Mussels of Ohio To: CONCH-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU

> I received my copy last weekend, so I've almost had time to

> memorize it...maybe not quite, but I have actually read every

> page already.  I love the fact that multiple images are

> shown for the variable species, and I think the scheme for

> coding historical records vs. recent records is an excellent

> idea.  There's a lot of info to digest, and I found all of

> it interesting.  With such a fantastic collector's

> reference, it made me a bit sad to read that only those with a

> scientific permit can collect any mussels, at all, presumably

> dead or alive, in the entire state of Ohio.  I understand

> the reasoning behind such regulations, but I hope that making

> them untouchable doesn't insulate the next generations of

> potential KSC's and GTW's from becoming fascinated with

> unionids.  There's power in numbers, and when the number of

> interested indivuals is large, it's a lot easier to accomplish

> things like protecting and restoring habitat and preventing mass

> mortality events.  If I hadn't hel! >  d ! > ! > a lot of mussels in my own hands, and had the chance to examine

> them and wonder about them, I doubt I'd have ever attempted to

> learn their names, or probably even bought the new and excellent

> book, "The Freshwater Mussels of Ohio." >

> My congrat's, too, and thanks for a great addition to my library. >

>

>

> Don >

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G.Thomas Watters, PhD Curator of Molluscs Department of Evolution, Ecology & Organismal Biology The Ohio State University 1315 Kinnear Rd. Columbus, OH 43212  USA v: 614-292-6170 f: 614-292-7774