wes_von_papineäu
Our Roving Correspondent
- Joined
- Apr 21, 2006
- Messages
- 494
- Reaction score
- 10
- Points
- 0
- Location
- Vancouver, British Columbia
- Country
- Canada
- Display Name
- Wes von Papineäu
DAILY GUIDE (Waynesville, Missouri) 20 September 07 Hellbender habitat causes bridge concerns (Darrell Todd Maurina)
While the endangered Hellbender salamander habitat near the Highway 17 bridge has received extensive media attention in Pulaski County, MoDOT District Engineer Tom Stehn said he’d rather not emphasize the Hellbender problem.
“Any option we do, we have to address the Hellbender issue,” Stehn said. “The only way we don’t do it is the no-build option.”
According to a MoDOT pamphlet, all of the proposed options would create stream disturbance problems and related environmental issues.
That’s a problem for the Hellbenders, which need clear water and unsilted streams to survive. Missouri Department of Conservation personnel said earlier that the Gasconade River under the Highway 17 bridge has some of the best habitat remaining for the Hellbender salamander, whose populations have rapidly declined in recent years. Conservation officials propose trapping the Hellbenders, feeding them while the bridge is under construction, and returning them to the water after the bridge repair work is finished.
Hellbenders are sometimes confused with mud puppies, a smaller salamander that’s plentiful in the area. However, the Ozark Hellbender subspecies is seriously threatened throughout southern Missouri and northern Arkansas and could face extinction if nothing is done to preserve its habitat.
Crocker resident Michael Sloan asked who will pay for preserving the Hellbenders found near the bridge in the Gasconade River. Stehn said conservation employees will use their regular work time to trap and preserve the Hellbenders, but MoDOT’s budget will pay for food and housing of the Hellbenders during the bridge construction project.
“Whether we agree with the environmental action or not, we have to be environmentally responsible,” Stehn said.
Sloan didn’t like that answer.
“Why are we spending our highway dollars to protect fish?” Sloan asked.
Sloan’s wife, Shelly Sloan, agreed.
“Are there that many thousands of dollars worth of Hellbenders under this bridge?” she asked. “If so, I’m a teacher and I’m in the wrong business.”
Orvena Sloan of Iberia said humans living north of the bridge should be considered just as valuable as the salamanders living in the water under it.
“If you take sympathy on those fish or whatever they are, please have sympathy on the poor people who have to drive on that bridge,” she said.
http://waynesvilledailyguide.com/articles/2007/09/20/news/news02.txt
DAILY GUIDE (Waynesville, Missouri) 20 September 07 Hellbenders won’t halt bridge work (Darrell Todd Maurina)
Delays for motorists from Crocker and Iberia could be annoying. However, a Missouri Department of Transportation project manager assigned to the Highway 17 bridge says an environmental assessment by the Missouri Department of Conservation shows the bridge replacement could be deadly to a declining species in Missouri: the Ozark Hellbender, a regional subspecies of large salamander that is unique to south-central Missouri and northern Arkansas.
“From what they have told me, they said the largest population (of hellbenders) on the Gasconade River is under this bridge,” said MoDOT project manager Robby Rakestrom.
“There is a concern that there are very few of them that remain, so the responsible thing to do is make sure they survive,” Rakestrom said. “I understand that any kind of work on the stream that stirs up silt will destroy their habitat.”
Rakestrom provided documents from the Missouri Department of Conservation’s Hellbender Conservation Team showing that the reclusive salamanders, which can reach up to 29 inches but usually range from 11 to 20 inches, have suffered a severe population decline of more than 70 percent in recent years.
The reasons for the population crash are not known.
The Ozark Hellbender population is listed as threatened in Missouri and is a state-protected species; it’s a candidate for federal listing under the Endangered Species Act.
Hellbenders mostly feed on crayfish but also eat other small fish and aquatic insects; they’re relatively long-lived and some have survived up to 55 years.
Finding and saving the Ozark Hellbender population under the Gasconade River Bridge could be a problem, Rakestraw said.
“What will end up happening is we will pay (Missouri Department of Conservation personnel) to catch them and keep them somewhere; they will feed them through the period of time we build the bridge,” Rakestraw said. “MoDOT will foot the bill on it; we don’t see it as being a big deal compared to the price of the bridge.”
Mike Smith, the policy coordinator for the Missouri Department of Conservation, said he’s been familiar with the Highway 17 bridge project for years since the initial environmental and archaeological assessments revealed the presence of Ozark Hellbenders. That wasn’t a problem early on, but as hellbender numbers have plummeted, state conservation officials became concerned that one of the Gasconade River’s strongest populations could be harmed by the bridge work.
“We may take some extraordinary measures because of the uniqueness of these creatures, but I am confident the bridge will get built,” Smith said. “We want safe roadways, we want safe bridges and we want the same things as MoDOT.”
Smith said he understands the dangers of the existing bridge from personal experience.
“It’s a very challenging location,” Smith said. “The closest I ever came to personal injury on the job was when a trailer came unhitched on that bridge, came down off the bridge and landed in front of my work crew.”
The Ozark Hellbenders were noticed during a routine environmental review of the area in the 1990s, Smith said — a review that also located a section of Native American burial mounds that made some road routes which had been under consideration impossible.
Smith said he isn’t sure how much it would cost to capture and relocate the Ozark Hellbenders, but agreed that it won’t be a large sum in relation to the total cost of the bridge project.
http://www.waynesvilledailyguide.com/articles/2007/09/07/news/news05.txt
While the endangered Hellbender salamander habitat near the Highway 17 bridge has received extensive media attention in Pulaski County, MoDOT District Engineer Tom Stehn said he’d rather not emphasize the Hellbender problem.
“Any option we do, we have to address the Hellbender issue,” Stehn said. “The only way we don’t do it is the no-build option.”
According to a MoDOT pamphlet, all of the proposed options would create stream disturbance problems and related environmental issues.
That’s a problem for the Hellbenders, which need clear water and unsilted streams to survive. Missouri Department of Conservation personnel said earlier that the Gasconade River under the Highway 17 bridge has some of the best habitat remaining for the Hellbender salamander, whose populations have rapidly declined in recent years. Conservation officials propose trapping the Hellbenders, feeding them while the bridge is under construction, and returning them to the water after the bridge repair work is finished.
Hellbenders are sometimes confused with mud puppies, a smaller salamander that’s plentiful in the area. However, the Ozark Hellbender subspecies is seriously threatened throughout southern Missouri and northern Arkansas and could face extinction if nothing is done to preserve its habitat.
Crocker resident Michael Sloan asked who will pay for preserving the Hellbenders found near the bridge in the Gasconade River. Stehn said conservation employees will use their regular work time to trap and preserve the Hellbenders, but MoDOT’s budget will pay for food and housing of the Hellbenders during the bridge construction project.
“Whether we agree with the environmental action or not, we have to be environmentally responsible,” Stehn said.
Sloan didn’t like that answer.
“Why are we spending our highway dollars to protect fish?” Sloan asked.
Sloan’s wife, Shelly Sloan, agreed.
“Are there that many thousands of dollars worth of Hellbenders under this bridge?” she asked. “If so, I’m a teacher and I’m in the wrong business.”
Orvena Sloan of Iberia said humans living north of the bridge should be considered just as valuable as the salamanders living in the water under it.
“If you take sympathy on those fish or whatever they are, please have sympathy on the poor people who have to drive on that bridge,” she said.
http://waynesvilledailyguide.com/articles/2007/09/20/news/news02.txt
DAILY GUIDE (Waynesville, Missouri) 20 September 07 Hellbenders won’t halt bridge work (Darrell Todd Maurina)
Delays for motorists from Crocker and Iberia could be annoying. However, a Missouri Department of Transportation project manager assigned to the Highway 17 bridge says an environmental assessment by the Missouri Department of Conservation shows the bridge replacement could be deadly to a declining species in Missouri: the Ozark Hellbender, a regional subspecies of large salamander that is unique to south-central Missouri and northern Arkansas.
“From what they have told me, they said the largest population (of hellbenders) on the Gasconade River is under this bridge,” said MoDOT project manager Robby Rakestrom.
“There is a concern that there are very few of them that remain, so the responsible thing to do is make sure they survive,” Rakestrom said. “I understand that any kind of work on the stream that stirs up silt will destroy their habitat.”
Rakestrom provided documents from the Missouri Department of Conservation’s Hellbender Conservation Team showing that the reclusive salamanders, which can reach up to 29 inches but usually range from 11 to 20 inches, have suffered a severe population decline of more than 70 percent in recent years.
The reasons for the population crash are not known.
The Ozark Hellbender population is listed as threatened in Missouri and is a state-protected species; it’s a candidate for federal listing under the Endangered Species Act.
Hellbenders mostly feed on crayfish but also eat other small fish and aquatic insects; they’re relatively long-lived and some have survived up to 55 years.
Finding and saving the Ozark Hellbender population under the Gasconade River Bridge could be a problem, Rakestraw said.
“What will end up happening is we will pay (Missouri Department of Conservation personnel) to catch them and keep them somewhere; they will feed them through the period of time we build the bridge,” Rakestraw said. “MoDOT will foot the bill on it; we don’t see it as being a big deal compared to the price of the bridge.”
Mike Smith, the policy coordinator for the Missouri Department of Conservation, said he’s been familiar with the Highway 17 bridge project for years since the initial environmental and archaeological assessments revealed the presence of Ozark Hellbenders. That wasn’t a problem early on, but as hellbender numbers have plummeted, state conservation officials became concerned that one of the Gasconade River’s strongest populations could be harmed by the bridge work.
“We may take some extraordinary measures because of the uniqueness of these creatures, but I am confident the bridge will get built,” Smith said. “We want safe roadways, we want safe bridges and we want the same things as MoDOT.”
Smith said he understands the dangers of the existing bridge from personal experience.
“It’s a very challenging location,” Smith said. “The closest I ever came to personal injury on the job was when a trailer came unhitched on that bridge, came down off the bridge and landed in front of my work crew.”
The Ozark Hellbenders were noticed during a routine environmental review of the area in the 1990s, Smith said — a review that also located a section of Native American burial mounds that made some road routes which had been under consideration impossible.
Smith said he isn’t sure how much it would cost to capture and relocate the Ozark Hellbenders, but agreed that it won’t be a large sum in relation to the total cost of the bridge project.
http://www.waynesvilledailyguide.com/articles/2007/09/07/news/news05.txt
Its too bad there will be a bridge built there in the first place. I don't know how saving hellbenders will ever happen with all the things like this going on. It really is too bad.