"A first-of-its-kind project brings down a dam with an eye toward a vulnerable salamander"

"The Watauga River below Shull’s Mill Dam in Western North Carolina flashes with synthetic fabrics on a sunny June morning. Bodies in black and blue scuba wetsuits float face down in the cool water; one snorkeler wears a bright pink fanny pack. Mesh bags of red, teal, and orange pop against the gray stones on the riverbed.

But inside each of those colorful bags is a creature as unassumingly organic as can be: an eastern hellbender.

North America’s biggest salamander looks like a French omelet of animated mud, stretching about two feet long in mottled brown and dull orange. The so-called “lasagna lizard” fits in perfectly with its preferred habitat, the undersides of large rocks in rivers or streams, where it preys on crayfish and hides from predators like snakes and otters.

Michael Gangloff, a biology professor at Appalachian State University in nearby Boone, stands knee-deep in the Watauga as his team keeps hunting for hellbenders. The bagged beasts will go into coolers for a quick ride through picturesque Watauga County farmland before being released a few miles downstream. Their home, he explains, is about to get a lot less hospitable."

Daniel Walton reports for Sierra magazine August 6, 2024. [2]