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.
Hellbender habitat causes bridge concerns