The latest issue of Nature Conservancy magazine has an excellent article on the magnificence of the Altamaha River here in Georgia. I’ve interacted with some of the dedicated folks mentioned in the article, and a number of other biologists through our lab’s work in the salt marshes at the mouth of this river and the freshwater mussels upstream, into the Ocmulgee, Ohoopee, and Oconee Rivers (the last one runs through Athens; they all have fantastic names). Especially in political seasons, Georgia can get a black eye for its somewhat-backward ways (evolution education and so on), but its a pretty place to live and this river is a gem of biodiversity that we’re pretty excited to be working on. Following up on Scott Small’s work on population biology and phylogeography of mussels in this river, current grad Katie Bockrath is snooping through the genome of Elliptio for genes that may be useful for exploring the high diversity of this genus in the southeast. Stay tuned!