It's also home to a number of those in trouble, including the sheepnose, scaleshell and elephantear. The Gasconade provides a glimpse of the wider problems facing mussels. Within minutes of launching their boat, Bruenderman and Faiman are eye to eye with one of the problems. A black Angus cow is standing belly-deep in the river. Cattle trails denuded of all grass crisscross the bank.
Cattle increase soil erosion and damage habitat when they wade in streams.
Their waste also adds nutrients that increase algae blooms and deplete oxygen in the water, harming or killing aquatic animal and plant life. Along this section of the Gasconade, the right bank is covered with sycamores, cottonwoods and other growth that stabilize the bank. Treeless grazing pasture runs right up to the bank on the opposite side. Where pasture and river bank meet there is only a sheer 15-foot wall of exposed soil. Eroded soil is clearly pouring into the stream.