Green River Bioreserve

Green River
© Lynda Richardson

Learn more about this project with the Online Field Guide.

Why the Conservancy Selected This Site
The Green River is Kentucky's crown jewel of river systems and a national treasure of biodiversity. Located in south central Kentucky, the Green River Bioreserve consists of the upper Green River, its tributaries, and portions of Mammoth Cave National Park, comprising a watershed of about 1,350 square miles.

The Green River is home to 71 of the state's 103 known mussel species. Nearly 60 of these, including the state's only endemic mussel, have been collected from the bioreserve. The area's significance is heightened by the presence of a number of rare mussels, and the Green is also home to 151 fish species. A number of rare, threatened or endangered plants and other animals are also native to the bioreserve.

The mineral dissolution of the watershed's underlying limestone bedrock makes the Green River a natural companion to nearby Mammoth Cave, the world's largest known underground cave system.

Threats
Key threats include dams that alter the natural river flows, non-point source pollution from agricultural runoff, and incompatible rural land development.

Rare and endangered plants found in the area include:

Adiantum capillus-veneris - Southern Maidenhair-fern

Aureolaria patula - Spreading False Foxglove

Carex decomposita - Epiphytic Sedge

Carex straminea - Straw Sedge

Circaea alpina - Small Enchanter's Nightshade

Dodecatheon frenchii - French's Shooting Star

Gentiana puberulenta - Prairie Gentian

Glyceria acutiflora - Sharp-scaled Manna-grass

Gratiola viscidula - Short's Hedgehyssop

Helianthemum bicknellii - Plains Frostweed

Helianthus eggertii - Eggert's Sunflower

Juglans cinerea - White Walnut

Liatris cylindracea - Slender Blazingstar

Ludwigia hirtella - Hairy Ludwigia

Podostemum ceratophyllum - Threadfoot

Pontederia cordata - Pickerel-weed

Potamogeton pulcher - Spotted Pondweed

Rhynchospora macrostachya - Tall Beaked-rush

Silene regia - Royal Catchfly

Silphium pinnatifidum - Tansy Rosinweed

Symphyotrichum pratense - Barrens Silky Aster

Trifolium reflexum - Buffalo Clover

Ulmus serotina - September Elm

Viola septemloba var. egglestonii - Eggleston's Violet

Some of the rarer animal species in the area include several federally listed Threatened or Endangered species. These include several mussels: the Fanshell (Cyprogenia stegaria [E]), Northern Riffleshell (Epioblasma torulosa [E]), Ring Pink (Obovaria obtusa [E]), Clubshell (P. clava [E]), Cracking Pearlymussel (Hemistena lata [E]), Rough Pigtoe (Pleurobema plenum [E]), Pink Mucket (Lampsilis abrupta [E]), Mammoth Cave Shrimp (Palaemonias ganteri [E]), Indiana bat (Myotis sodalis [E]), and the Gray bat (M. grisescens [E]).

Our Conservation Strategy
The Conservancy is working to improve water quality and aquatic habitat through community-based conservation efforts and various local, state, federal and private partnerships.

What the Conservancy Has Done/Is Doing
A strategic plan was completed in August of 1998 to protect the Green River's abundant mussel and fish species, stressing the importance of reducing threats to the Greer' s water quality through best management practices.

Thanks to an extraordinary agreement reached in July 2002, The Nature Conservancy is working with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers alter their operation of the Green River Dam, located at the river's critical headwaters, to restore natural flow regimes to benefit wildlife. This effort is the pilot project of the Conservancy's Sustainable Rivers Project, a partnership with the Corps that has the potential to alter flows of 600 dams across the U.S.

Read about the latest Army Corps of Engineers and Conservancy project on the operation of the dam.