but it is gonna be a long road to recovery of many riverine habitats. I hate to see the damage, but hopefully they will get the endangered classification.
“I think the thing that has been driving their decline the most is sedimentation, which is really water pollution — it’s just dirt going in the streams,” said J. J. Apodaca, executive director of the Amphibian and Reptile Conservancy, a nonprofit in Louisville, Kentucky, that supports conservation in the U.S. “Many aquatic creatures need these tiny interstitial spaces between rocks for their young to survive and thrive, and once they get filled up with dirt and silt, the next generation doesn’t survive. When you lose reproductive ability, the population starts crashing pretty quickly.”
Helene caused extreme sedimentation as the floodwaters ripped up trees and shrubs, tore up the riverbed, and carried along loose particles for deposit downstream. These particles included pollution from fuel oil, sewage and chemical runoff from industrial sites, much of which likely settled in the waterways that hellbenders and other aquatic wildlife depend on for survival. Meanwhile, wind and water damaged an estimated 822,000 acres of forest in the region, according to a North Carolina Forest Service estimate, amplifying the acreage susceptible to ongoing sedimentation. Some of these vanished forests once grew alongside streams and rivers, shading the water and keeping it within the cooler temperature range required by species like the hellbender.
“The scars of Helene are going to keep impacting these waterways for decades,” Apodaca said.
Damage from Helene: Hellbenders may get endangered species listing
By now, the story of Hurricane Helene is a tragically familiar one: the endless rain, the swollen rivers, the angry water indiscriminately destroying lives and homes. The storm killed more than 230 people across five states, including 104 confirmed dead in North Carolina and 18 in Tennessee.&nb...
smokymountainnews.com
“I think the thing that has been driving their decline the most is sedimentation, which is really water pollution — it’s just dirt going in the streams,” said J. J. Apodaca, executive director of the Amphibian and Reptile Conservancy, a nonprofit in Louisville, Kentucky, that supports conservation in the U.S. “Many aquatic creatures need these tiny interstitial spaces between rocks for their young to survive and thrive, and once they get filled up with dirt and silt, the next generation doesn’t survive. When you lose reproductive ability, the population starts crashing pretty quickly.”
Helene caused extreme sedimentation as the floodwaters ripped up trees and shrubs, tore up the riverbed, and carried along loose particles for deposit downstream. These particles included pollution from fuel oil, sewage and chemical runoff from industrial sites, much of which likely settled in the waterways that hellbenders and other aquatic wildlife depend on for survival. Meanwhile, wind and water damaged an estimated 822,000 acres of forest in the region, according to a North Carolina Forest Service estimate, amplifying the acreage susceptible to ongoing sedimentation. Some of these vanished forests once grew alongside streams and rivers, shading the water and keeping it within the cooler temperature range required by species like the hellbender.
“The scars of Helene are going to keep impacting these waterways for decades,” Apodaca said.
