The Arkansas darter is no longer on the endangered species list. It is extremely rare in its namesake state (actually, its name comes from the Arkansas River after discovery in a tributary in Kansas in the 1800s). It was first found in The Natural State in 1979 in Wilson Spring near Fayetteville, and the darter has been found in a few spring runs in the Illinois River basin of Benton and Washington counties.
A genetic study being conducted by Michigan State for the state of Kansas will determine if the examples of the Arkansas darter in Arkansas are, in fact, genetically the same as the Arkansas darters in Kansas, Colorado, Oklahoma and Missouri or if it is a subspecies or a separate species.
Meanwhile, another rare darter, the yellowcheek darter, is on the endangered species list. But the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has issued a draft plan for saving this particular darter, which is only found in Arkansas and in forks of the Little Red River.
Brian Wagner, the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission’s Nongame Aquatics Biologist, was involved in generating the yellowcheek darter’s recovery plan for the USFWS. The plan is in the public comment stage. The Arkansas Natural Heritage Commission, the U.S. Geological Survey, the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff and The Nature Conservancy, Arkansas also assisted on the recovery plan, he said.
The only thing in common between these two darters, besides how rare they are, is sharing the same genus. “At the simplest level, other than being darters, they are not much more closely related,” Wagner said.
The yellowcheek darter prefers fast-running water and rocky terrain. The Arkansas darter likes slow-flowing, silty water with vegetation. Some of the northwest Arkansas sites where the Arkansas darter has been found are in cattle pastures. “It prefers water where the trees are cut back, plants growing in the stream, lots of silt and soil getting in there.”
Wagner hopes the genetic testing can reveal more about the Arkansas darter. He had requested for several years a range-wide study of the Arkansas darter with agencies in the other states where it is found. Researchers with the study being funded by the state of Kansas contacted Wagner and provided a great opportunity: cost-free research. “They said, ‘Since we’re doing this, if you can get us some samples from the Arkansas populations, we’ll include those as well and that can maybe answer some of these broader questions,’” Wagner said. “So we’ll just hang out and wait until they share their results with us. I was really tickled when that came out as a possibility … and we didn’t have to put any money into it.”
The USFWS plan for the yellowcheek darter was drafted in December and opened for public comment March 6. The comment period closes May 5. No one outside of the USFWS is obligated to undertake any tasks with the plan, Wagner said.
The yellowcheek darter was classified as endangered in 2011. The Middle, South, Archey and Devils forks of the Little Red are classified as its critical habit area. Wagner said the yellowcheek darter likely lived where Greers Ferry Lake is now. There are populations in different sections of the Little Red that are now cut off by the lake, where it doesn’t survive.
The recovery plan can be viewed at https://ecos.fws.gov/ecp0/profile/speciesProfile?sId=7871. It calls for protecting the yellowcheek darter’s habitat and promoting voluntary actions to reduce or prevent pollution to the habitat. USFWS has a “safe harbor” program in which it enrolls landowners to help with species’ survival. A priority in the darter’s survival will be stabilizing riverbanks from erosion.
Darters are small fish, reaching only about 2½ inches long, whose condition can often serve as an indicator of the quality of the water source serving as its home.
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