Kansas biologists are bringing back rare mussels, fish and turtles to our rivers

Up From Dust Humans broke the environment — but we can heal it, too. Up From Dust is a podcast about the price of trying to shape the world around our needs, and the folks who are fixing our generational mistakes.

Animals that disappeared from some rivers because of pollution, dams and overharvesting are getting a new lease on life that could have ripple effects for other wildlife and for humans.

COFFEY COUNTY, Kansas – On a warm day last spring, wildlife biologist Trevor Starks squatted in a few feet of water and felt the riverbed with his hands in search of one specific mussel species.

Starks wanted to find native, endangered Neosho muckets . More than 600 of them had been released eight months earlier at this spot on the Neosho River, about 60 miles south of Topeka.

After about