Lack of suitable habitat is a common plight for a lot of species that depend on fresh water for survival. Pollution, sedimentation and damming are affecting a lot of the freshwater supplies in the country. In Minnesota, the newest addition to the Endangered Species List is the Topeka Shiner Minnow. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service made the final ruling to list Notropis topeka as Endangered in 1998, citing populations known from Minnesota, Kansas, Iowa, South Dakota, and Missouri.

The Topeka Shiner Minnow... Not Just Bait

For the staff at the Twin Cities Ecological Field Services Office, this means another species added to a long list of special concerns that already includes such species as the Higgins’ eye pearlymussel, Dwarf Trout Lily and the Piping Plover. It also means it’s time to gather information about the Shiner in order to plan the best protection strategies. For members of the public, especially property owners whose holdings include part of the Shiner’s habitat range, an Endangered Species listing for the minnow could mean changes in policy toward their land and what they can do to it or with it or on it. In addition, there are others interested in conservation who want information in order to identify where their efforts are best spent. In order to facilitate communication with those concerned, I have designed a pamphlet for distribution to the public which contains the basic information necessary for a first look at this newly recognized (in Minnesota) endangered species.

Notropis topeka is a small fish that rarely reaches a length of three inches. It is silver colored with a dark stripe on its side. Topeka Shiner minnows move in schools and have a wide range of population size.

Historically, the Shiner ranged across the Midwest, occurring in Minnesota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Missouri, and Iowa. Now, the Shiner is limited to areas of the Missouri and Mississippi River basins and parts of Kansas. Topeka Shiner Minnows live in small, high order prairie streams with high water quality. They are found in pool and run areas at mid-water and surface depths.

The Topeka Shiner Minnow, Notropis topeka, has recently been placed on the Endangered Species List by the US Fish and Wildlife Service. This followed action in Kansas and Missouri that protected the species under state law, and recognition in Minnesota, Nebraska and South Dakota of the Shiner as a species of concern.

The listing of a species under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) is an effort to prevent its extinction. The ESA protects the species from “taking.” This means that members of the species may not be killed, collected, wounded, harassed, or harmed.

In Minnesota, Topeka Shiner Minnow populations exist in Pipestone Creek in Pipestone National Monument, in Blue Mounds State Park, and in the Rock River watershed.

Due to the Topeka Shiner minnow’s need for high water quality, the species is extremely susceptible to changes in that quality. Soil runoff increases sediment loads in streams that the Shiner inhabits. Concentrations in polluting substances are increasing as well, as people remove vegetation to convert land to other uses the ability of watersheds to filter contaminants decreases. These factors contribute to decreasing the water quality in many areas of the Shiner’s habitat.

Another contributing factor is development of reservoirs and dams that limit the flexibility of the Shiner to migrate to suitable, predator-free habitat during dry seasons. The pamphlet I designed includes most of the above information, as well as listing whom to contact for additional information. I did most of my research on the internet, though information from the Twin Cities Ecological Field Services Office also went into the finished product.

For more information…

Twin Cities
Ecological Field Services Office:

Russ Peterson (Field Supervisor)
4101 East 80th Street
Bloomington, MN 55425
Phone: (612) 725-3548 x201
Fax: (612) 725-3609

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service:

Region 3, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
1 Federal Drive
BHW Federal Building
Fort Snelling, MN 55111