FREE PRESS (Burlington, Vermont) 09 March 06 Who would be born a mudpuppy? (Candace Page)
Waterbury: Consider the hapless mudpuppy: Ugly, short-sighted, slimy and secretive.
And those are its luckier attributes.
Vermont's largest salamander can't help its unappealing name, perhaps. But couldn't the amphibian have used better political judgment when it came to choosing a home?
Scientists say in Vermont the foot-long mudpuppy lives almost exclusively in the lower reaches of rivers leading to Lake Champlain.
That's precisely the habitat of the sea lamprey, an eel-like nuisance species that sucks blood from lake trout, salmon and other Lake Champlain fish -- and enrages anglers who say it is damaging efforts to restore fish populations in the lake.
To kill lampreys, the state Fish and Wildlife Department periodically treats Lewis Creek and the Winooski River with a pesticide. The chemical usually kills some mudpuppies, too.
That has some scientists worried about the big salamander's future. Wednesday, a scientific advisory group told the state Endangered Species Committee it cannot endorse a permit for a new round of lamprey control on Lewis Creek this year or next.
"The members of the Reptile and Amphibian Scientific Advisory Group continue to be very concerned about the potential impacts of lampricides on Vermont's population of mudpuppies," the group wrote.
There is no chance these objections will halt the use of lamprey-killing chemicals, history suggests. Fishing groups, state regulators, Gov. Jim Douglas and the state's congressional delegation are committed to reducing lamprey predation in Lake Champlain.
Too low a profile?
The mudpuppy has a batting average close to zero in the regulatory arena.
In 2002, Scott Johnstone, then secretary of the Natural Resources Agency, rejected an Endangered Species Committee recommendation to put the mudpuppy on the official list of threatened species because it can be killed by lamprey-killing chemicals.
The mudpuppy might have had only itself to blame for Johnstone's decision.
"This is a very shy creature that seems to go out of its way not to be seen. As a result, it was very difficult to know how many of them there are. No one had good counts" to conclusively demonstrate the salamander's rarity, Johnstone recalled this week.
Biologists increased their efforts to find mudpuppies after Johnstone's decision. They failed. No one has come up with a good way to trap the creatures. Unlike most salamanders, mudpuppies spend their whole lives in the water, hiding under rocks or in weeds.
Johnstone said some anglers passionately opposed putting mudpuppies on the list, fearing that would make it harder to obtain permits to treat streams with lamprey-killing chemicals.
He said there was "no doubt" he took the state's promise to control lampreys into account in refusing to put mudpuppies on the "threatened" list. Johnstone said he tried to balance that decision with a requirement to lower the concentration of pesticide used in Lewis Creek.
No dead mudpuppies were found after the 2002 treatment of the creek -- but there's disagreement about whether that's good news or bad news.
"I find the decrease in mudpuppy mortality disturbing -- it could suggest there aren't any more in the stream," biologist Pete Wimmer told the Endangered Species Committee on Wednesday. Other biologists cite the record of mudpuppies killed after other stream treatments in Vermont, New York and elsewhere.
Common or rare?
On the other hand, state wildlife biologists point out the 100 percent survival of 16 young mudpuppies put in cages in the river during the 2002 Lewis Creek treatment.
"They haven't found any ill effects," said Richard Greenough of Essex, a fisherman, charter boat captain and supporter of lamprey control. "There are probably thousands of mudpuppies in there." He said he believes mudpuppies can be found in dozens of ponds and streams around Vermont.
On Tuesday, the Agency of Natural Resources will hold a hearing on the proposed 2006 treatment of Lewis Creek. The mudpuppy will have no formal standing, since it did not win a spot on the list of threatened species.
Instead, the Endangered Species Committee will focus on four endangered species of mussels in Lewis Creek, and whether enough is known about the long-term effect of lamprey-killing chemicals on those populations.
Jim Andrews, a Middlebury College research biologist and chairman of the Reptile and Amphibian Scientific Advisory Committee, said he knows the mudpuppy would lose any popularity contest. He said he only hopes for more efforts to track the health of the salamanders.
"We have a legal obligation to maintain biodiversity," he said. "All species play some role in their ecosystem. A system stays healthy when it has all its working parts."
Contact Candace Page at 660-1865 or e-mail cpage@bfp.burlingtonfreepress.com
Meet the mudpuppy
SCIENTIFIC NAME: Necturus maculosus
WHAT IT IS: Vermont's largest salamander
HABITAT: Lives only in water, at the bottom of streams and weedy ponds
WHERE IN VERMONT?: Lower reaches of rivers feeding Lake Champlain; Connecticut River
APPEARANCE: A foot long or longer, with feathery external gills; blunt snout; flat tail
LIFE SPAN: 25-30 years
DIET: Small fish, crayfish, aquatic insects, worms, fish eggs
BEHAVIOR: Elusive bottom dweller, most active at night. Lamprey hearing WHAT: Hearing on proposed pesticide treatment of Lewis Creek in Ferrisburgh to control sea lamprey
WHEN: 7 p.m. Tuesday
WHERE: Ferrisburgh Central School, 56 Little Chicago Road
ISSUE: Lewis Creek is home to four species of endangered mussels, so the use of lamprey-killing chemicals requires an Endangered and Threatened Species permit.
Who would be born a mudpuppy