Public comment urged by Feb. 11: Susquehanna basin hellbender experts weigh in on proposal for species protection, critical habitat and what is next

​Riverkeeper note: The following story was compiled by and written by Middle Susquehanna Riverkeeper John Zaktansky. He can be contacted via email at [email protected]

When the US Fish and Wildlife Service announced on Dec. 12, 2024, that it formally would propose an endangered status for the Eastern Hellbender, the news caught many off-guard, including Lycoming College Clean Water Institute Director and hellbender researcher Matthew Kaunert.

“I was just talking to my PhD advisor, asking him if he felt this was really going to ever happen, and he said it wasn’t likely, especially with the new administration coming in,” Kaunert said. “But then, the news broke, and I was amazed.”

Peter Petokas, who has studied hellbenders in the Susquehanna River watershed for more than a decade, agreed that the heightened status was beyond his expectations, and an indicator of just how bad the species’ situation has become.

​“It was a step above what I thought they might do, which was consider a threatened status,” he said. “The fact that the service is proposing them for endangered species consideration instead is a signal that the salamander is in much greater danger than previously thought.”

Beyond the initial surprise, the announcement also came with little upfront detail on what the endangered status would mean in terms of protections, especially since the agency is not recommending declaration of critical habitat, allegedly due to concern that it would lead more people to finding, collecting and illegally selling hellbenders.

“I’m not clear on the critical habitat designation, as I have no official experience with it in past species status assessments,” said Petokas. “I am not sure if there are different aspects of critical habitat, but one thing seems certain, and that is there won’t be any effort to acquire and protect hellbender habitat in relation to the endangered species listing – at least I don’t see that happening in Pennsylvania. Maybe it will somewhere else in the hellbender’s range.”

According to Kaunert, “The longstanding thing with hellbender work has always been to not say where they are at. We don’t want publicly broadcast that.

“I see both sides of it, but I don’t know how (protections) are going to work, but hopefully without critical habitat, we still have protections across a certain range,” he added. “I don’t know what scale they consider when designating critical habitat, but I would hope that if they did do something related to that, it would at least be across a bigger subsection, like listing, perhaps, the upper Allegheny or a specific watershed. It is definitely a sticky situation.”

According to a fact sheet from the US Fish and Wildlife Service, critical habitat is “the specific areas within the geographic area, occupied by the species at the time it was listed, that contain the physical or biological features that are essential to the conservation of endangered and threatened species and that may need special management or protection. Critical habitat may also include areas that were not occupied by the species at the time of listing but are essential to its conservation.”

In addition, the fact sheet states that: “Critical habitat designations affect only Federal agency actions or federally funded or permitted activities. Critical habitat designations do not affect activities by private landowners if there is no Federal ‘nexus’ — that is, no Federal funding or authorization.”

Federal agencies are required to avoid “destruction” or “adverse modification” of designated critical habitat. On its critical habitat page, you can search a database of species in which critical habitat has been determined.

Pennsylvania falls within Region 5 for the US Fish and Wildlife Service, which covers the Northeast section of the country and includes Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia and West Virginia.

Within that region, the only endangered or threatened species with critical habitat designation include the Virginia big-eared bat, Piping plover, Plymouth redbelly turtle, Maryland darter, Purple bean, Rough rabbitsfoot, West Virginia spring salamander (proposed), Green floater (proposed), Big sandy crayfish, Diamond darter, Candy darter, Rufa red knot (proposed), Atlantic salmon and Guyandotte River crayfish.

“In a lot of the specific tributaries of the Allegheny and Susquehanna, there is already knowledge hellbenders may be there, but I am careful to not say anything about which streams I have found them in during various talks,” Kaunert said.
According to Petokas, most states already have “some sort of protection against capturing and possessing them without a special permit.”

The Eastern hellbender's range, per the US Fish and Wildlife Service, includes: (1) Missouri (MACU), (2) Ohio River-Susquehanna River drainages (OACU), (3) Tennessee River drainage (TACU), and (4) Kanawha River drainage (KACU).

According to the US Fish and Wildlife proposal for listing, the eastern hellbender is protected under state endangered species laws in many states within the range.

“Illinois, Indiana, Maryland, Missouri, Ohio and Tennessee have listed the subspecies as endangered, while Alabama and Georgia have listed it as threatened. New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Virginia have identified the eastern hellbender as a species of special concern, and Mississippi and West Virginia consider the subspecies imperiled. Kentucky identified the eastern hellbender as a species of greatest conservation need,” according to the US Fish and Wildlife Service.

“In some states (e.g., Ohio, Indiana, Missouri and New York), these laws prohibit killing, sale, and/or possession of any eastern hellbenders but do not always address habitat-related threats, such as sedimentation, which is the primary threat affecting the eastern hellbender.”

In addition to state regulations, the Eastern hellbender is also protected by the Lacey Act, which prohibits interstate transportation and sale of fish, wildlife or plant species that were collected in violation of State law or regulation.

“Specifically, it is unlawful for any person to import, export, transport, sell, receive, acquire or purchase any fish or wildlife or plant taken, possessed, transported, or sold in violation of any law, treaty, or regulation of the United States or in violation of any Indian Tribal law (16 U.S.C. 3372(a)),” according to the US Fish and Wildlife Service.

The proposal for endangered status is currently in the middle of a 60-day public comment period that runs through Feb. 11. Afterward, the agency proposal and public comment will be factored into the final decision.

“I am not sure who is signing off on this, but I’m guessing it is the Secretary of the Interior,” said Petokas. “Not sure what the new Secretary will do (once the new administration is in place). Hopefully, they’ll just say it has been going on for a while, they sign off on it and move on to the next thing. The Monarch Butterfly (which is up for protection) could face a similar situation.”

Petokas feels that ultimately, it will fall on the individual states to take initiative on the species, “because if the federal government doesn’t do anything, it falls back to the states.”

Ultimately, however it shakes out, Kaunert is hoping that it leads to minimizing further degradation of habitat, that it puts on more restrictions on what agencies can do.

“Hopefully, it leads to the development of recovery plans and that it causes more collaboration not only between states, but within each state, because that is sorely needed,” he said. “There are some definable recovery actions we can do in Pennsylvania, and maybe this will even lead to a species recovery team in our state, which is something I have been hoping for for years.”

He is also hoping the designation will lead to an increase in federal funds that will help improve research and restoration.

“I don’t know how much or where it may be allocated, but there haven’t been a lot of options to apply for specific hellbender work,” he said. “Hopefully this devotes more resources to this specific species.”

However, from what Petokas has heard in sections of Missouri where the Eastern and Ozark hellbenders are already listed, that hasn’t been the case.

“I haven’t really heard of it bringing in more money for those who are doing conservation work, and it doesn’t change the way that people are doing their conservation practices,” he said. “However, it may impose upon agencies to apply conservation practices when they do things like bridge replacements and highway work and things like that.”
Of course, that brings the conversation back to habitat issues.

The Eastern hellbender is the largest salamander species in our country and requires clean water for optimal survival, as well as a streambed filled with large rock structures or other crevasses that it uses for its home. Sedimentation and erosion can quickly eradicate those features and the hellbenders that depend on them.

The species also breathes directly through their skin, using wrinkles on its side to further increase surface area and aspiration. So, when pollutants become present in a waterway where hellbenders are present, they can be one of the first species to be impacted negatively.

In addition to sedimentation and water quality degradation, the US Fish and Wildlife service lists habitat destruction/modification, direct mortality or permanent removal of animals, disease, habitat disturbance, increased abundance of predator species (such as raccoons, river otters and even certain fish species stocked for recreation), climate change and conservation efforts/regulatory mechanisms as other factors leading to the decline of hellbenders nationally.

Due to these factors and more, Petokas has estimated that “95 percent of the species’ habitat in the Susquehanna River basin has been lost.”

On a national level, according to the US Fish and Wildlife Service, historically 626 hellbender populations are known to have existed across 15 states. Of those, an estimated 371 (59 percent) are still in existence. And of those, 59 percent (218) are notably in decline. That is especially notable considering the US Fish and Wildlife Services goes on to report that “Eastern hellbender survey effort has increased substantially since 2003.”

The US Fish and Wildlife Service, in 2019, suggested that the hellbender was not in need of protection despite all these factors. A joint litigation effort by the Center for Biological Diversity, Middle Susquehanna Riverkeeper Association, Waterkeeper Alliance, Waterkeeper Chesapeake and Lower Susquehanna Riverkeeper Association in 2021 led to a federal judge ruling in September 2023 that the US Fish and Wildlife Service needed to reconsider its stance on protections for the Eastern hellbender.

“There was just too much information out there that suggested this species was in great decline, especially in our watershed,” said Middle Susquehanna Riverkeeper John Zaktansky. “As a nocturnal species with incredible camouflage, there is still a lot we don’t know about them and their habits. We needed protections that allow us to better understand them and the multitude of factors that are causing their decline, including the cocktail of contaminants that flow through our streams, from abandoned mine discharge to PFAS and microplastics.”

Of course, a listing only is a temporary fix … the bigger goal if they are considered endangered is to reverse the damage to habitat that will allow them to be delisted in the future.

“For that to happen, it is going to take a lot,” said Petokas. “Applied conservation and population augmentation would be key, but with the augmentation, it isn’t like restoring breeding populations of bald eagles by removing DDT as a pesticide. It takes quite a bit of time for these animals to be capable of becoming an integral part of the natural breeding process.”

Ultimately, however things go in terms of helping the hellbender reverse its downward spiral, Kaunert admitted that the US Fish and Wildlife Service’s recent change to advocating an endangered species is a “watershed moment.”

“It is interesting because 20 years ago, hellbenders were obscure, with really little research and understanding. However, just within my lifetime, I’ve seen them gain public notoriety as well as a growth in understanding of their ecology and now perhaps a listing to protect the species,” he said. “So, it has been very exciting to see that process over the past 20 or so years and be involved like we have.”

Submit public comments by Feb. 11, 2025

​People are encouraged to make a public comment on the US Fish and Wildlife Service's proposal on the Eastern hellbender receiving endangered status. It is recommended to use some of the information shared from our local experts in your response. 

You can make a public comment at www.regulations.gov, searching specifically for case FWS–R3–ES–2024–0152. Or, you can click here. Comments must be made by 11:59 p.m. on Feb. 11, 2025. As of Jan. 2, 2025, there were nearly 500 public comments listed on the proposal. 

If you need help in navigating the system or have comments or questions, you can contact Riverkeeper John Zaktansky directly at [email protected]