Lori Williams

Center for Cultural Preservation

 

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00:00:01 - Lori Williams introduces herself and gives a little background.

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Partial Transcript: I’m Lori Williams; I’m a Wildlife Diversity Biologist with North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission. I focus on the western region of the state and I primarily work with amphibians.

00:00:26 - Lori explains why Western North Carolina is a very important place for amphibians.

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Partial Transcript: In Western North Carolina, we have the most salamander species in the world. A lot of that has to do with our Appalachian Mountains, just how old they are. A lot of different kinds of habitats and Eco-systems, and what we call “niche space” for different species to develop. You know, some species are isolated by different mountain ranges and we get speciation that way, but we are blessed with just a lot of good protective habitat as well, in our mountain region.

00:01:04 - Lori describes how the amphibians are doing these days.

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Partial Transcript: We think that the majority are doing OK. We are interested in studying not only the rare things and the state listed species, the ones we’re really concerned about, but also just gathering occurrence data and distribution data on our common species as well. Because you never know one day when something you think is common may suddenly become rare or have an emerging threat. We’re seeing that with some of the amphibian diseases cropping up. But certainly some of our rare things, we’re seeing declines, and it’s cause for concern.

00:01:44 - Lori talks about some of the species there are concerns about.

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Partial Transcript: Eastern Hellbender is one that we’re seeing declines in some areas, not everywhere. We are fortunate to have some of the best populations left for this species in the country. But that’s one we’re concerned with, with water quality issues and habitat degradation in particular. Another species we spend a lot of time with, studying, is the green salamander. That’s a state threatened species and is being petitioned for federal listing, just like the hellbender is. And it’s the same story. It’s about habitat and habitat degradation, possibly climate change effects, with that species in particular. Deforestation, development. Just some of the same common themes that we see for salamanders that are becoming more rare.

00:02:43 - Lori describes activities that are a threat in the southern Appalachians.

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Partial Transcript: The biggest threat is probably development. Just a lot of people want to come here and live here, understandably, so there’s just more road building, more residential building, more commercial development as well. It’s probably not, we’re not seeing the threat like we did 50-60 years ago with wide-scale clear-cutting, logging, deforestation, in that regard and certainly what happened at the turn of the century. It’s more of just human development and human growth that’s driving some of these threats.

00:03:35 - Lori describes a typical day.

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Partial Transcript: On a typical day this time of year, which is their breeding season, we put on our wet suits and our river gear and we take cameras, video equipment into the water, GPS units and our notebooks and we’re monitoring, just monitoring animals that are active and moving around…maybe engaging in fights with one another during the breeding season. We’re looking for nest rocks and other shelters where there might be nesting, so we can document those. So at the end of the day it’s a lot of trying to go through our photographs and videos to organize that material, record data in our notebooks, and then we try to decontaminate our wet suits and our gear. We don’t want to hop from one watershed to another in case we might bring pathogens and invasive species with us.

00:04:39 - Lori explain how the Hellbender can be an indicator of the water quality.

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Partial Transcript: Yeah, the hellbender is a species we consider a bio-indicator of the health of the environment. It is a sensitive animal in the sense that it breathes through its skin. So you can imagine if there are pollutants in the water or toxins in the water, it just absorbs that through its body. It would be the same as if we wore our lungs on our backs, exposed to everything in the environment. So if that were us, we’d be sensitive to the environment too. By the fact that they breathe through their skin primarily, that’s one reason they’re declining. Again, it goes back to poor water quality and poor habitat.
We can consider this species a barometer of how healthy the water is. And where it’s missing, where it once was, that’s a cause for concern. And where we have really healthy populations, that’s a good sign. It can really tell us the health of the river.

00:05:58 - Lori explains why it is crucial to protect the enviroment the amphibians live in.

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Partial Transcript: I would assume you could find hellbenders everywhere once upon a time. As you mentioned, some of our best populations are protected, really, because we have so much public land that’s protected in WNC. Especially at our headwaters streams. It’s really crucial to protect those headwaters, keep them forested, keep wide riparian buffers on them to protect that water quality. And then that clean water feeds everything downstream. And that’s what makes us different from a lot of other states. States where they’re really losing hellbenders very quickly, they don’t have those features; they don’t have the protected land; they don’t have the headwaters protected. I imagine way back in the day, they were likely in just about every single water body that we’ve got. Their distribution is known from the west to the eastern continental divide, so drainages that eventually go to the Gulf of Mexico. So not those that go to the Atlantic Ocean, but those that drain to the Gulf. You can kind of look to where we have trout. They need the same kinds of things trout need, you know, lots of oxygen, good flow, lots of cover, lots of food, clean water. And we’ve got probably a couple thousand trout streams, possible, in the western part of the state, so you can kind of imagine hellbenders were in all those at one time.

00:07:37 - Lori talks Appalachian trout vs Hellbender

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Partial Transcript: That’s probably a good estimate. We don’t have good numbers on comparison of native brook trout vs hellbenders. A lot of the brook trout are kind of these days are relegated to the very high headwaters. So they’re kind of small streams and hellbenders may use those areas, but they prefer streams that are a little bit wider, a little larger.

00:08:13 - Lori shares some facts about the Hellbender.

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Partial Transcript: Yeah, so more facts about the hellbender: It eats primarily crayfish. It has really strong muscular jaws and it can crunch through a crayfish shell no problem. It’s also a good scavenger, so it scavenges for dead fish, discarded bait, things like that. Small hellbenders eat more aquatic insects, maybe some minnows, tadpoles, smaller salamanders. That kind of thing. One message we try to get out to people is, “If they encounter a hellbender, consider it a unique opportunity, but leave it alone. Don’t harm it; don’t collect it. It’s illegal to do those things. But we would also like to know if you see a hellbender. We’re getting lots of good reports from the public and from fishermen, in particular. And it really helps us to put a dot on the map, to know where the species is distributed in our mountains.
Some of the other misconceptions that get passed down through peer groups or passed down through generations that are just not true is that some people believe that they’re poisonous or venomous. That’s not true at all. They do have kind of a slimy coat to their skin. That’s their defense, against predators. And that may taste bad to predators, but it’s totally harmless to us. Some people think that they’re just bad luck. Or if you catch one on your fishing pole that you have to throw away all your gear; that it’s ruined forever. That’s just not true. I would argue that it’s a sign of very good luck if you see one in the stream that you’re trying to fish, because if you see one that means it’s good hellbender habitat, which means it’s good fish habitat. It goes together; it’s all connected.

00:08:14 - Lori describes how the Hellbender got its name,.

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Partial Transcript: "How’d the hellbender get its name?” is a question we get asked a lot. And there’s actually some literature out there they sort of pins it to the early 1800’s. It may have originated in SW Virginia among certain slave communities. That they looked at this animal and thought that it was a creature from hell, where it was “bent on returning”, because of its movements and kind of a scary appearance. So that’s probably how it got its name. There are lots of theories out there, but that one is actually in the literature.
I would again encourage the public if you see a hellbender, report it to our Raleigh office or go on line and go to our website and find my email and phone # and report it. It’s been a huge, huge help and we thank everybody for participating so far.