SHORELINES

All Hail the snails Tulotom a, hornsnail nurtured back from dangerous plight out with a small net attached to a 3-foot and Wildlife Service (USFWS), the Hetherington turns over rocks along stick and gathers a small object barely Environmental Affairs team conducted the waterline of the Coosa River – discernable from the dark mud strewn studies observing the response of two occasionally stuffing what looks like with the tracks of clam-sized mussels federally listed snail species during drops small dark rocks in a bag attached to following the dropping waterline. She, in habitat water levels. his belt. Turn, stuff, repeat – until he too, has a bag on her side where she has turned over every rock between him places her finds. In knee-high waders, Cole and a wooden yardstick laying a foot With different tactics and tools, The four-day effort – manned largely by Alabama Power Environmental Affairs employees up the bank. He then picks up the stick the two members of Alabama Power's under the guidance of ADCNR and and moves it one length down the bank Environmental Affairs team are USFWS – surveyed populations of the – starting again. working toward the same goal – tulotoma snail (Tulotoma magnifica) gathering threatened and endangered and rough hornsnail (Pleurocera Anderegg carefully scans a muddy bank snails. Partnering with the Alabama foremani) along the waterline as water as her yellow kayak slowly coasts in the Department of Conservation and Natural levels dropped a foot a day on Lay current. Every now and again she reaches Resources (ADCNR) and the U.S. Fish Lake. Using the final day as a control, A couple of miles downstream, Angie Above: Photo by M arvin Gilmore — Alabama Power and other organizations are working to create lake conditions to help tulotoma snails thrive. 20 S hor el i ne s | 2013 Vol:4

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