The U.S. Forest Service will restrict in-stream activities in Missouri's Mark Twain National Forest that could harm the habitat of the endangered Ozark hellbender and other species, according to a news release from the Center for Biological Diversity of Tucson, Ariz.
The Forest Service on Tuesday finalized amendments to its management plan for the National Forest, which is home to about one-third of all Ozark hellbender locations in the wild, according to the release. The 2,344-square-mile national forest includes nine separate tracts of forest land throughout southern Missouri.
The Ozark hellbender can grow to more than 2 feet in length, which makes it the largest salamander in North America.
Under the amendments, the Forest Service must modify or relocate projects -- such as bridges or boat ramps -- that could disturb hellbenders or their habitat, according to the release. And because of concerns about sedimentation, heavy equipment cannot be used in occupied habitat.
There are about 800 Ozark hellbenders left in the wild -- 600 in Missouri and 200 in Arkansas, said Kelly Irwin, a herpetologist with the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission. The only Ozark hellbenders left in Arkansas are in the Eleven Point River in Randolph County, he said.
The changes in the Mark Twain National Forest were in response to a notice of intent to sue filed last year by the Center for Biological Diversity and Missouri Coalition for the Environment. The filing prompted the Forest Service to analyze effects of forest management on newly listed endangered species, according to a news release from the center.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service added the Ozark hellbender to its endangered species list in 2011, saying its population had declined by 75 percent since the 1980s.
"These changes mean healthier waterways, and that's good news for the Ozark hellbender," said Collette Adkins Giese, a biologist and attorney at the center. "To save the hellbender, we have to protect the rivers that people treasure, too, for drinking water, fishing and boating."
Giese said the center wasn't working on attempts to protect hellbenders in Arkansas.
Hellbenders live in crevices between rocks and under boulders in flowing rivers. There are two subspecies: Ozark and eastern. Ozark hellbenders live only in Missouri and Arkansas. Eastern hellbenders live in 16 states from Missouri and Mississippi to New York. The eastern hellbender isn't endangered but its status is under review.
Management of the Mark Twain National Forest is guided by a plan prepared in 2005.
Last year, in response to the notice of intent to sue under the Endangered Species Act, the Forest Service and Fish and Wildlife Service agreed to revisit the plan to consider impacts on newly designated endangered species and critical habitat, including the listing of the Ozark hellbender and two mussels -- called the "spectaclecase" and "snuffbox" -- as endangered and the designation of critical habitat for the Hine's emerald dragonfly and Tumbling Creek cavesnail.
"The changes are necessary because new species have been listed, new critical habitat has been designated, and new populations have been found on Mark Twain National Forest since the plan was finalized," according to a news release from the Forest Service.
"We're glad to see the Forest Service taking steps to protect our waterways because what happens to the Ozark hellbender happens to us," said Heather Brouillet Navarro, executive director of the Missouri Coalition for the Environment.
Forest plans are never "completed" or "final," according to the Mark Twain National Forest website. "The National Forest Management Act of 1976 requires Plans to be maintained, amended and revised."
A phone message left at the Mark Twain National Forest office in Rolla, Mo., wasn't returned Wednesday.
Metro on 11/29/2014