ASHLAND, Va. (CN) — Volunteers splashed and waded while planting 750 mussels as part of a larger project to revive a Chesapeake Bay tributary after it was dammed for a century.
They worked Friday alongside the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, the Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to plant the shellfish in the South Anna River, around 15 miles north of Richmond, in hopes of increasing filtration and decreasing excess nitrogen.
The event marked the return of the alewife floater species to the river two years after the demolition of a dam opened up more than 100 miles of streams and rivers to migratory fish…