The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service last Thursday announced its plan to add the eastern hellbender salamander to the nation’s list of endangered species in a victory for environmental groups that worked for over a decade to force the agency’s action.
The announcement comes as the species — native to 15 eastern U.S. states – faces urgent threats in North Carolina and Tennessee, where Tropical Storm Helene in September decimated rivers and streams, destroying salamander habitats that environmental groups and local communities have worked for years to restore.
The eastern hellbenders — at two-feet long, the largest salamander in North America — are considered “living fossils” because they are believed to have undergone little change in the last 160 million years.
They thrive in clear, oxygen-rich water and their presence is a key indicator of a river’s health, according to the Center for Biological Diversity, a leader in the fight to gain protections for the salamanders.
“Protecting these giant salamanders will give umbrella safeguards to thousands of other species that rely on clean rivers,” Tierra Curry, senior scientist at the Center for Biological Diversity, said in a statement.
Lawsuit seeks endangered species protection for rare east Tennessee salamander
The Center and other groups first petitioned the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to protect hellbenders in 2010, scoring a narrow victory a decade later when the service extended protections to a species from the Missouri River.
But the agency denied protections for other hellbenders, leading to litigation that resulted in a court-order forcing the service to redo its analysis of the species’ need for protection.
“The eastern hellbender is in danger of extinction due to the severity and immediacy of threats currently impacting the subspecies,” the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service concluded in the resulting analysis.
Thursday’s decision kicks off a 60-day public comment period before a final determination is made that the hellbender salamanders are an endangered species.
The Endangered Species Act provides specific legal protections for plants and animals on the brink of extinction, including protecting habitats that sustain them — a boon to other species that share their environment.
The act also requires the federal government to create a plan for protecting the species and a legal mechanism for citizens to challenge any action that could adversely impact the endangered species’ environment.
Read More Details
Finally We wish PressBee provided you with enough information of ( Eastern hellbender salamander, native to Tennessee, could soon gain federal protections )
Also on site :
- Get an email about a ‘Lopez Voice Assistant Class Action Settlement'? Here's why
- Did India target Pakistan's nuclear site at Kirana Hills? IAF reacts
- PHOTOS: Travis Kelce Spotted Heading to Taylor Swift's Apartment