A regional Victorian environmental group is working to secure the future of a critically endangered native mussel after sediment from bushfires in the area threatened the species.
The Glenelg Hopkins Catchment Management Authority has received $180,000 from the Federal Government to improve the habitat of the endangered Glenelg River mussel.
The freshwater mussel used to be widespread around the Glenelg River, which flows along the South Australian and Victorian border, but now only a few populations remain.
Glenelg Hopkins CMA river health planner Stephen Ryan said the money would go towards livestock fencing, revegetation and weed control to protect known populations and aquatic surveys to look for new populations.
"We'll identify some areas where the mussel is doing quite well and we'll protect those areas," Mr Ryan said.
"They're really susceptible to sedimentation from all different forms, but usually from when livestock get into the rivers and things like that, they stir up the mud on the bottom.
"So one of our jobs is actually just fencing off the rivers and making sure that they're secure so livestock can't get in there."
Mr Ryan said the CMA will partner with the Arthur Rylah Institute for Environment Research and Gunditj Mirring Traditional Owners Aboriginal Corporation to complete the project.
He said the work included planting to slow down the movement of sediment into the river, and aquatic surveys.
"We will make sure we get all the areas that they're known to be in, and we'll do some surveys that will actually look for new populations of the Glenelg River Mussels."
Mussels evacuated after bushfires
Bushfires earlier this year caused significant concern for the survival of the species, with run-off potentially impacting the waterway's health.
"It was really important that we got in and tried to help the Glenelg freshwater mussel before the effects of the fires through run-off from rain events took hold," Mr Ryan said.
"Arthur Rylah Institute actually got in straight after the fires and recovered some of Glenelg River Mussels and took them back to into Melbourne and kept them in some aquarium up there."
The mussels were returned to the water near Dartmoor in September.
"So the next step is now to future-proof the Crawford River so that any other fire impacts won't have as big an impact as they could," Mr Ryan said.
Important for 'good river health'
Mr Ryan said the species was imperative for maintaining the health of the waterways.
"Mussels play a really important part of our ecosystems, and especially in stream ecosystems - they help clean the water and also they're part of what good river health looks like.
"We all know about fish and we all know about crayfish, like yabbies and spiny crayfish, but the mussels play a really important role as well, and they're just part of the ecosystem that we need to protect.
"The good news about protecting the mussel is we're protect all those other species as well...it helps in the long run with a lot of other species as well," he said.
