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Advancing Conservation for the Eastern Hellbender on Private Lands in the Southeast

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Defenders of Wildlife is a national, nonprofit membership organization dedicated to the protection of all native animals and plants in their natural communities. Our vision is that diverse wildlife populations in North America are secure and thriving, sustained by a network of healthy wild lands and waterways.�

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Legislative

Legal

Grassroots

Policy

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WHAT IS POLICY?

“A course of action or principle adopted or proposed by a government, party, business or individual.”

“A definite course or method of action selected from among alternatives and in light of given conditions to guide and determine present and future decisions.”

“Prudence or wisdom in the management of affairs.”

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Why the Farm Bill?

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Approximately 75% of the land base of the Southeastern United States is devoted to farming, ranching and forestry.
(NRCS Farm Census Data)

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Agriculture Threats to Aquatic Systems:

Herbicides
Pesticides
Animal Waste
Stream channelization
Infilling/Backfilling
Siltation
Bank erosion
Farm and forest road runoff
Loss of riparian habitat (and with it shade and water temp.)
Etc.

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The farm bill is a package of legislation passed roughly once every five years, which has a tremendous impact on farming livelihoods, how food is grown, and what kinds of foods are grown. Covering programs ranging from crop insurance for farmers to healthy food access for low-income families, from beginning farmer training to support for sustainable farming practices, the farm bill sets the stage for our food and farm systems.

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Title II to the Rescue!

Largest source of federal funding for private lands conservation.

Dedicates about $30 billion over five years for conservation.

Funds go towards addressing many concerns, of which wildlife is only a small percentage

ALL NRCS PROGRAMS ARE VOLUNTARY.

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SEHCI is a long-term, multi-state collaborative partnership. It brings together a large and diverse group of partners to invest in education, outreach, habitat restoration and monitoring on private lands throughout the Southeast.

We’ve talked about the fact that ag is really bad for biodiversity and aquatic species. We’ve talked about the fact that there is lots of potential within the Farm Bill to address some of the problems that agriculture causes. Now in the spirit of putting my money where my mouth is, now I’m going to shift gears and talk to you about an effort that Defenders is spearheading called SEHCI.

SEHCI is: a long-term, collaborative effort that is bringing together a large and diverse group of partners to invest in education, outreach, habitat restoration and monitoring on private lands throughout the Southeast, starting in middle and east Tennessee, western North Carolina and western Virginia.

Operative term being PRIVATE lands. The only places hellbenders are doing well is on public lands. For practical reasons, public lands also get more research and sampling effort, they have greater resources for habitat protection and restoration, etc. To me, that’s not where the need was greatest

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No really because umbrella species and water quality.

The historic range of the hellbender occurs overwhelmingly on private lands.
And that private land is overwhelmingly agricultural.
Here is a once wide-ranging species that has suffered severe declines across the majority of its range except on public lands, to the point where it is now listed on the state T&E species list in every state in which is occurs, and some populations are even federally listed.
Because they are so sensitive to water quality impacts, hellbenders are a “poster child” for stream health, and many of the watersheds in which it historically occurred are among the most biodiverse in the country. Habitat improvements for them will benefit a myriad of other rare, endemic, and state and federally imperiled aquatic species.
But also it’s just so darn cute! Closest thing I have to charismatic megafauna. I don’t have to tell you how important that is. I tried really heard to get fundraising going for my “orangefoot pimpleback mussel campaign” and it just went nowhere.

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5-8 y to reach sexual maturity

Long-lived (25+ years)

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Nickerson et al. 2003

Habitat assembly matters
Macrohabitat: geology and stream order
Microhabitat: embeddedness, rock size, and substrate composition
Shelter size is correlated with total length
Embeddedness – good in moderation

I always hear this “oh, we have big rocks, so its good habitat for hellbenders”. Sure, big rocks are ONE component and a limiting factor of occupancy, but large rocks only do not make a habitat suitable for hellbenders neither does it constitute high quality habitat. Habitat assembly matters. In a macrohabitat scale, geology and stream order are limiting factors for species occupancy. In a microhabitat level, embeddedness, rock size, substrate composition, and water quality all play a role on habitat suitability – with embeddedness and water quality being important limiting factors.

Shelter size is correlated with total length – Bigger animals use bigger rocks. Small animals also use bigger rocks, but big animals do not use small rocks. Therefore, substrate heterogeneity is important so that all age classes have cover.

Embeddedness – Too much sediment will fill interstitial spaces and decrease habitat availability, but some sediment is necessary because they use rocks that are slightly imbedded with entrance holes facing downstream. Low embedded rocks are rocks that have less than 50% of their side embedded. When over 50% of rocks in a stream segment fall within that category, we have higher change of occupancy. See next slide.

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X

↓

?

↓ 80 %

Some pop.

stable

Some pop. stable

Some pop.

stable

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Da Silva Neto et al. 2019 – unpublished data

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Causes of Hellbender Declines

❑Habitat Degradation

❑Pathogens

❑Persecution/Harvest

❑Introduced Predators

❑Dams

❑Climate Change

Duck River near Centerville

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Local Riparian

Area

Entire

Catchment

Which extent of land do biota respond to??

We considered 3 possibilities...

Sampling reach

Catchment-wide

Riparian Area

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Catchment-wide riparian areas appear to be critical habitat for hellbenders

Loss of forest cover (or some correlate) appears to negatively influence recruitment

Hellbenders can persist at low densities for multiple years while recruitment suffers

Study Results....

Range = 53-83% Forest

Needless to say this is important info for us because it emphasizes the need for forested riparian buffers, and unfortunately cutting down these buffers a lot of other traditional agricultural practices seem to be really incompatible with the habitat needs of this critter. Without buffers you get:

cows in streams (waste and erosion)

bank destabilization

changes in conductivity, water temp

increased intrusion of fertilizers and pesticides.

So here we have this very clear agriculture/water quality/riparian habitat nexus, and this sort of iconic species, and it just strikes me that maybe this critter could be the pathway into addressing what I mentioned earlier: NRCS money is out there but it is not pointed in the best direction for wildlife.

Through better utilization of Farm Bill programs, at least some of these detrimental practices can be reversed. And very importantly, with those farm bill dollars, it can even be profitable to the farmer to make changes. That notion; that habitat improvements for hellbenders on private lands could provide a win-win for wildlife and landowners alike; is the driving force behind what we’re now calling SEHCI.

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Major threats to this species are major threats to us all. The good news is, all of those detrimental practices can be reversed. And with farm bill dollars, it can even be profitable to the farmer to make changes. That notion; that habitat improvements for hellbenders on ag lands can provide a win-win for wildlife and producers alike; is the driving force SEHCI.

which brings us back to SEHCI.

The specific goal of SEHCI is to improve water quality and habitat by supporting landowners who restore riparian buffer zones, keep livestock away from streams, remove barriers to passage such as dams and culverts, and improve soil health on agricultural and other private lands. That doesn’t have to mean purely on ag lands, but in an effort to supposedly not bite off more than I can chew, that’s where I decided to start with all of this.

When I first approached NRCS staff about this, the literally asked me what on earth a hellbender was.

That did actually happen several times. And I guess that’s illustrative of my earlier point about the lack of emphasis on aquatic species.

I was basically told: NRCS wants to help. We are really interested in protecting imperiled wildlife, especially when doing so protects or benefits farmers. And we’ve been getting more and more strategic about how we do that in recent years. But we don’t have all the resources we need to do the job. Our mission is to deliver conservation services to farmers. That’s it. To do the rest of the job takes PARTNERSHIPS. If somebody isn’t going to show up and drive, it’s not happening.

The fact that I was there beating down their door with a laundry list of other interested parties was apparently really novel. I can’t emphasize that enough. I’m now working in 3 states with NRCS and about to push into a 4^th and in every state, the staff are just like, “who is this crazy woman” and scratching their heads for a little while, but within a few months they’re showing off about their partnership with Defenders at statewide and national gatherings. I didn’t not do anything special except show up.

But they don’t have all the resources they need to do the job alone (species expertise, staff/funding, capacity for things like outreach and monitoring). Their mission is to deliver conservation dollars to farmers. That’s it. To do the rest of the job takes PARTNERSHIPS. (They are extremely keen on partnerships.)

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But the partnership aspect is key. I think I’ve already made it abundantly clear that I’m no scientist. So for help in determining where we should prioritize our efforts and resources, education about the most important habitat concerns for the animal, support in reaching the broader landowning community, etc, I needed help.

We’ve brought in NRCS, local SWCD’s, zoos, academia, state wildlife agencies, local conservation NGO’s, federal utilities. We can’t restore habitat if we can’t reach and educate landowners, and we can’t claim success if we don’t measure our impacts. We even got a green-minded environmental engineering firm to commit to providing their services to farmers who restore hellbender habitat at a reduced rate.

I started trying to build out this idea by reaching out to the academic/research community. Help me target watersheds where investments are most likely to generate a return. Help me figure out what actions will be the most effective. Help me figure out how I will measure the outcomes of this work. Tell me what else I should be focusing on to be effective.

Reached out to state wildlife agencies for expertise and access to landowner assistance programs. Reached out to the private sector to explore mutually beneficial partnerships (highlight Anchor QEA). Reached out to smaller localized watershed protection NGO’s to see if they would help with outreach and maybe volunteerism.

There was a lot of cold calling at first. But there is tremendous interest and will within the herp conservation community to get behind any effort that seems like it will move. And that’s really the key to successful collaborations. Someone needs to be able to pick up the torch and really run with it. When other groups see that you are willing to take the initiative to carry a project forward, they’ll jump on board faster than you’d imagine.

Eventually I was able to pull together a couple dozen different individuals and organizations of all different sizes and from all different sectors, who were willing to help support an effort to get those Farm Bill dollars on the ground for hellbenders.

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So now for some brass tacks. Like I mentioned we are focusing first on agricultural lands because I want to get things done on the ground and NRCS has lots of money to restore habitat and I don’t have any. So we spent a lot of time working with NRCS, one state at a time, to try and figure out how best to point that money at hellbenders.

Several folks from the research community helped us identify high priority watersheds in need of habitat improvements, and where investments in agricultural conservation would be most likely to generate a return. Folks from local NGOs and soil conservation district agreed to help us get the word out to farmers and even committed to supporting restoration projects with some volunteer hours. We’re even talking to a green-minded environmental engineering firm interested in commiting to providing their services to farmers who restore hellbender habitat at a reduced rate.

And because we are bringing all these pieces coming together, NRCS ultimately agreed to make hellbender conservation a special priority for Farm Bill funding by adding it to their Working Lands for Wildlife Partnership. This means that from now on, in every state that joins the partnership, NRCS will set aside a certain amount of funding that will go directly to support farmers who improve hellbender habitat through their agricultural practices. Over time this project will have the ability to restore hundreds of miles of the most vulnerable stream habitat on private lands.

Funding just became available this year, first projects will be installed early next year.

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Working Lands for Wildlife is an approach to imperiled species conservation on private agricultural lands developed by the USDA's Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS). Through WLFW, NRCS provides both financial and technical assistance to landowners who are willing to install conservation practices that benefit certain species, including the hellbender. Landowners who enroll will implement practices that protect and restore hellbender habitat, such as cattle exclusion fencing and forested riparian buffers. NRCS will provide up to 75 percent cost share for farmers to install those practices.

It’s basically a commitment on the part of the states to set aside part of their existing annual budget for hellbender projects provided that other partners support with outreach, ed, monitoring, etc. This means that from now on, in every state that joins the partnership, NRCS will set aside a certain amount of funding that will go directly to support farmers who improve hellbender habitat through their agricultural practices. Over time this project will have the ability to restore hundreds of miles of the most vulnerable stream habitat on private lands.

Key practices we’ll cover:

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NRCS Conservation Practices

Access Control – 472 Aquatic Organism Passage – 396 Channel Bed Stabilization – 584 Conservation Cover - 327 Cover Crop – 340 Critical Area Planting - 342 Fence - 382 Field Border - 386 Filter Strip – 393 Grade Stabilization Structure – 410 Grassed Waterway – 412 Heavy Use Area Protection – 561 Hedgerow Planting – 422 Lifestock Pipeline – 516 Mulching – 484	Nutrient Management – 590 Residue and Tillage Mgmt, No-Till – 329 Restoration of Rare and Declining Habitats - 643 Riparian Forest Buffer – 391 Riparian Herbaceous Cover – 390 Sediment Basin – 350 Spring Development – 574 Streambank and Shoreline Protection – 580 Stream Crossing – 578 Stream Habitat Improvement and Mgmt – 395 Water Well – 642 Watering Facility – 614

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SEHCI Private Lands Biologists

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And we’re not stopping there! I know I’ve talked a lot about agriculture and that’s because a lot of this work very importantly focuses on agriculture. But way back at the top we talked about habitat loss being driven by conversion to agriculture AND development. Cities may not capture the same geographic scope as rural lands, but their density of infrastructure, impervious surfaces and human inputs has an outsized impact on freshwater systems. And a private landowners may be farmers, or they may own a postage stamp sized lot in East Asheville.

The next big frontier for SEHCI is to begin to engage in major municipal areas across the hellbender’s range and work with landowners to support adopting practices that will improve water quality for their communities and for habitats downstream.

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Shade Your Stream!

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Don’t!

Mow your lawn all the way to the creek edge
Use more than the recommended amount of lawn fertilizer or pesticide
NEVER put any kind of household waste in your creek
Let rainwater from your driveway run off into your creek
When you visit public lands, don’t move rocks!

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Do!

Plant native trees and shrubs along your waterway.
Avoid using fertilizers and pesticides as much as possible.
Consider resurfacing driveways and patio areas with pervious surfaces.
Conserve water in your household.
Support your local watershed protection organization
Buy from farmers who are using environmentally sustainable practices!

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Thank you for listening!

Kat Diersen

Defenders of Wildlife

1 Rankin Ave, 2^nd Floor

Asheville, NC 28806

kdiersen@defenders.org

Cell: 850-980-2313

Office: 828-412-0980