Freshwater Life Quarterly Update 2020 #1
Dear Advisory Board, friends, and partners,
We hope you are all healthy and safe in this difficult time. Here is Freshwater Life’s first quarterly update for 2020 (you can also download it here). Thanks to each of you for helping us save endangered freshwater species.
PROJECTS:
Mexico, Lagunas de Zempoala National Park
Threatened species: Zempoala axolotl, Aztec chub, Dark-edged splitfin; Invasive: Rainbow trout, carp
Partners: Center for Biological Research, University of Morelos; local Chichinautzin indigenous community
Funders: National Geographic, Mohamed bin Zayed Species Conservation Fund
Status: Baseline data collection, training of local students and community members started, but is on COVID-19 hold. Eradication tentatively planned for fall 2020.
Students start training at Lagunas de Zempoala
Argentina, Strobel Plateau
Threatened species: Hooded grebe; Invasive: rainbow trout
Partners: Asociación Ambiente Sur, Aves Argentinas
Status: Project cancelled until we can find a way to safely eradicate invasive fish. Gill nets pose too much risk to hooded grebes, rotenone is not yet acceptable to our partners.
United States, Colorado
Threatened species: Cutthroat trout; Invasive: Rainbow, brook and brown trout
Partners: Colorado State Parks & Wildlife, US Forest Service
Status: developing several introduced trout eradication projects to restore native cutthroat trout.
Europe
Developing potential projects with partners in Croatia, Greece and Turkey.
ORGANIZATIONAL UPDATES:
Please welcome Myrna Cunningham to our Advisory Board. Myrna is the Chair of the Pawanka Fund, and an indigenous rights activist and medical surgeon from Nicaragua. She has served with the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, UN World Conference of Indigenous People, Global Fund for Women, Permanent UN Forum on Indigenous Issues, and The Hunger Project. She is President of the Board for the Latin American and Caribbean Indigenous People Development Fund, and Chairperson of the Center for Autonomy and Development of Indigenous People.
Advisory Board member Myrna Cunningham
Argentina, Strobel Plateau
Threatened species: Hooded grebe; Invasive: rainbow trout
Partners: Asociación Ambiente Sur, Aves Argentinas
Status: Project cancelled until we can find a way to safely eradicate invasive fish. Gill nets pose too much risk to hooded grebes, rotenone is not yet acceptable to our partners.
United States, Colorado
Threatened species: Cutthroat trout; Invasive: Rainbow, brook and brown trout
Partners: Colorado State Parks & Wildlife, US Forest Service
Status: developing several introduced trout eradication projects to restore native cutthroat trout.
Europe
Developing potential projects with partners in Croatia, Greece and Turkey.
FUNDING:
Pending
UCMEXUS, $25,000
Project: Zempoala axolotl
Partners: Center for Biological Research, University of Morelos; Erika Zavaleta, UC Santa Cruz
Photo: Juan Antonio Reynoso Moran
National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, $377,000
Project: Cutthroat trout
Partners: Colorado Parks & Wildlife; US Forest Service
Photo: William Hughes