Watershed selection to support freshwater mussel restoration: an open-loop decision guide

USGS researchers at the Massachusetts Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit are using an open-loop decision guide to help practitioners when selecting potential watersheds for population restoration. The questions follow an open-loop process in a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ format, whereby the options are to either proceed to the next question if the disturbance in question is negligible to mussel persistence or end the loop; each question ignores previous answers. Many posed questions may be associated with a high degree of uncertainty because of insufficient information, and thus answering each question as ‘yes’ or ‘no’ could be considered an extreme simplification of complex information. Abstract source: USFWS Cooperator Science Series