As for artificial refugia- it would not be that difficult to build them
or reclaim old barrow pits and quarry holes and introduce species that
live in still water habitats. You could maintain lots of viable
populations that way. Actually they would maintain themselves pretty
much. This is sort of like a colony tank approach that I read about in
an recent issue of an aquarium magazine. A much larger population that
most captive breeding programs using glass aquariums and random mating
which maintains a greater degree of genetic diversity.
There was a project started in Illinois that I learned about at the 1999
Convention at Champaign-Urbana where a refugium was created using two
ponds which were cleared of existing fish life- mainly staple stocked
fishes like blugills etc and restocked with some state listed species-
two shiners, Iowa Darters and Western Banded Killifish. It's been a
while so I think I will follow up on the progress of that project and
report back to the list.
Jeff
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