My Fall Conservation Project

[Rick]

Well I've had a busy Fall in 2015 with some interesting herpetological activities.

Starting at the end of September, I got called in to conduct a stream survey to determine the absence/presence of the endangered Nashville crayfish (Orconectes shoupi) in a little, mostly dry, tributary of the only known location of this species (Mill Creek in the Nashville basin).

I didn't find any shoupi but found some common crayfish species such as this very similar Orconectes durelli.


But I also came across a salamander that I was not familiar with. I knew it was an Ambystoma (mole salamander) of some kind, but couldn't ID to the species. I passed the photo around to the salamander experts and they tentatively ID'ed it as the Streamside salamander A. barbouri.


This pic is actually a big female we found in subsequent trips, not the little juvenile I found in my first survey.

Turns out that A. barbouri is pretty rare in TN and never been found in the Mill Creek system (so this discovery was a range extension). In Tennessee it seems only to be found in ephemeral (dry most of the year) limestone bottom creeks, often with sinkholes so fish passage is precluded during the wet season. Adults spend the bulk of the dry season underground in burrows in adjacent field and forests.


Here's a couple pics with the professors from MTSU and NST that came out for surveys in November and December to verify the finding and determine the status of the population.

The Streamside salamander breeds in the winter. After meeting up with males in the stream channel, the females lay eggs on the bottom of rocks.
Here's a pic of some eggs getting ready to hatch.

You can see in the habitat photos that even in December there's not much water in the channel, and most of the egg laying sites barely had any water flowing under them. This makes them susceptible to both drying out or freezing when we have a dry winters. Both conditions seem to be more frequent with present climate change conditions.

Also the places where A. barbouri are left seem to be popular for housing development.


Anyway its been a busy last 4 months.

 

[Denver]

very cool, thanks for sharing

 

[My Green Pets]

Nice work!

 

[NYEric]

Very interesting, thanks for sharing. Sorry to hear about the missing crayfish.

 

[Rick]

Very interesting, thanks for sharing. Sorry to hear about the missing crayfish.

I've found them in other surveys in more established locations. The Nashville crayfish prefer sites with permanent year round water, so it was a bit of a stretch to expect them at this site. But the State regs require a survey for any designated stream in the watershed be conducted by permitted scientist prior to any development of the site.

So this developer lucked out for lack of crayfish, but now under scrutiny for the salamander. The salamander is not officially T&E (just " deemed in need of management" ) by the state. At this point very few have paid attention to it since most of the known locations have been out of harms way.

There's a lot of talk among the officials to make it a T&E candidate, so we'll see.

 

[goods]

This is pretty cool Rick! I helped out on a crawfish survey once when I was in school, and it was fun work. Never was lucky enough to find something as cool as that salamander, though.

 

[Rick]

This is pretty cool Rick! I helped out on a crawfish survey once when I was in school, and it was fun work. Never was lucky enough to find something as cool as that salamander, though.

Was that in LA Goods?

Prof. Brian Miller has been all over the A. barbouri work in TN. He's had a bunch of cool grad student projects spun off of his work (including DNA analysis, and travel/migration studies with micro telemetry devices). But the grunt work is just labor intensive driving around to find sites for legal entry, and flipping rocks in the middle of winter.

 

[goods]

Was that in LA Goods?

It was. Two of my former professors do some crawfish work in rivers near Baton Rouge and the Florida Parishes and also in the Atchafalaya Basin.

 

[SlipperFan]

Sounds like a dream job!

 

[Rick]

Sounds like a dream job!

Well the paid part was only the crayfish survey back in September. All the rest (with the salamander) has been pro bono publico on personal time/weekends.

It has been fun so far, and maybe I'll get to turn it into some paid consulting work for the developer if they get interested in a "sustainable development program".

Otherwise it will be a shame to watch all the habitat (with salamander) get converted to subdivision.

 

[SlipperFan]

Well the paid part was only the crayfish survey back in September. All the rest (with the salamander) has been pro bono publico on personal time/weekends.

It has been fun so far, and maybe I'll get to turn it into some paid consulting work for the developer if they get interested in a "sustainable development program".

Otherwise it will be a shame to watch all the habitat (with salamander) get converted to subdivision.

Preventing that from happening would certainly be "pay." Good luck.

 

[naoki]

Very cool, by any chance, is the professor from MTSU Matt K. (I can't tell because the photo is too small)? He is a herpetologist there, and I went to a grad school with him. He took me a couple times for herping (for salamanders and rattle snakes).

 

[Linus_Cello]

What are the threats to the salamander besides habitat loss?

 

[abax]

Whatever one can do to provide some protection
for any species should be appreciated and often
isn't. I appreciate the work you did and do. Thank you.

 

[KyushuCalanthe]

It is always exciting to see a species' range be extended rather than the opposite. It doesn't surprise me about the development though. At some point even America will run out of "undeveloped" land to build on, or at least desirable land. Then what? High density housing seems antithetical to many, though I can tell you from experience that is the reality for most folks in the world - Japan being no exception.

 

[Clark]

Jobs.
We need jobs more than salamanders and crayfish.

 

[Rick]

Jobs.
We need jobs more than salamanders and crayfish.

Yes common argument.

I can rearrange the house and road layout that leaves a decent buffer, operational hydrology, with the same number of houses for the site. They may loose the extra soccer field, but expected property values would go up for those with backyards adjacent to a protected area. A bit of creativity wouldn't hurt, and that's what people get paid for.

I think we can still make space for a few other species:wink:

 

[Rick]

Very cool, by any chance, is the professor from MTSU Matt K. (I can't tell because the photo is too small)? He is a herpetologist there, and I went to a grad school with him. He took me a couple times for herping (for salamanders and rattle snakes).

Haven't met Matt Naoki. Brian Miller is the prof from MTSU and Bill Sutton from TSU ("Nashville State U"). Where did you go to grad school? Bill Sutton came from North Carolina (I think Clemson). Brian has been at MTSU since the mid 90's

There's a herp based NFP conservation group called the Orianne Society founded on the conservation of Indigo snakes in the SE. It's expanded to general T&E herps but still focused on SE geography. Southern Appalachia, Florida-SC-GA sandy pine forest.

Its a small herp world, and everyone seems to know each other.

 

[Rick]

What are the threats to the salamander besides habitat loss?

Extremes of low rainfall and cold events. In TN there are some recently protected cedar glades with decent / stable populations. These sites are so rocky and relatively dry they were unsuitable for timber and agriculture development so were relic surviving habitats.

Other good sites were generally wiped out in TN for timber and agriculture as far back as the 1800's. Middle TN was a timber hub until about 1920. It's pretty amazing when you look at pictures of the area from that period and the place looked like the moon!! Agriculture and timber in Tennessee dropped way off for at least the last 75 -100 years, and actually seeing some restoration of hydrological function to these old blitzed farm streams that have been fallow for quite some time.

But land is the farmers 401K in TN, Most folks consider these ephemeral creeks as wet weather conveyances (storm water ditches), so would not be protected under the Clean Water Act. Agricultural operations are (and always have been) exempt from CWA provisions so they can put them back under plow at will. However, the Army Corp and multiple states have been recently enforcing criteria for characterization of "streams vs. ditches" to offer minimal protection to these ephemeral sites that are used by some specialized critters (often amphibians). Mining operations and relestate development are not exempt from most of the CWA provisions, but they can often petition the State on the classification of the stream designation and get it overturned (back to wet weather conveyance) and do what they want after that.

Finding the salamander makes it hard to overturn the stream classification, so instead of completely burying the stream, they can build up to with 50' of the banks and will have to get special approval of plans for road crossings/culverts.

 

[Clark]

I'm siding with the developers on this one.
Its so hard to make a buck these days, I wish them the best.