Background, Threats, and Conservation for a Local Endangered Fish

Team Candy Darter

Advocate partners: The Allegheny Blue Ridge Alliance

Published 2/21/2023

Purpose

Candy darters are an endangered species at risk from current and future construction projects. Our goal in writing this white paper/one page was to create a one-stop resource that would not only provide background on the species, but also point out the newest research and projects that are relevant to them. With more information available we hope that managers and policy makers will be better equipped to ensure the protection of this charismatic fish.

Methods:

Reviewed and summarized latest peer-reviewed research and publicly available documents on the candy darter’s life history, threats, and conservation actions reported by academic institutions and government agencies.

Results

Candy darters are under a great threat of extinction (past problems have made them more vulnerable to private and public projects). However, their endangered status listing and the subsequent work and funding that has gone into protecting the species gives some cause for hope.

Broader Impacts

Advocating for the candy darter can be a springboard for advocating for the protection of other endemic and/or endangered species. Because everything is connected, when the candy darter is protected, other species living in the same habitat are also protected.
Additionally, projects with far reaching impacts such as the Mountain Valley Pipeline have had to drastically alter their plans in order to reduce potential ecological damage due to the new legal protections candy darters have received.