The following is a column by Middle Susquehanna Riverkeeper John Zaktansky in response to the recent federal court ruling overturning the 2019 US Fish and Wildlife Service decision to deny the eastern hellbender protection under the Endangered Species Act. Sometimes, revisiting a little bit of history can provide quite a bit of context. For example, in 2018, our corner of the state was busy cele- brating the Loyalsock Creek as Pennsylvania River of the Year, which included promoting the mysterious, awkward and widely misunder- stood eastern hellbender, still a resident in certain deep pools of the Loyalsock at that time. In 2019, the US Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) determined the east- ern hellbender, nationwide, was not in need of any protections under the Endangered Species Act despite feedback to the contrary by hell- bender experts the FWS brought in for advice on the matter. Among them was Dr. Peter Petokas, of Williamsport, who studied hellbenders throughout the Susquehanna River basin, including Loyalsock Creek. Undeterred, Petokas partnered with the Chesapeake Bay Founda- tion and a variety of students in championing the hellbenders’ plight through the state governmental ladder with the help of Senator Gene
Yaw, leading a few months later to Senate Bill 9 being signed into law by then-Governor Tom Wolf naming the hellbender as our state amphibian. Again, that was 2019. The Loyalsock Creek was still in its River of the Year honeymoon, the FWS determined hellbenders had nothing to worry about in terms of long-term existence and Pennsylvania was celebrating them as state celebrities. Except just three short years lat- er, on Sept. 5, 2022, a coffer dam on the Loyalsock Creek washed out during a flood event, scattering a sediment plume that coated miles of the waterway with a thick layer of debris. The incident was later included as one of multiple Clean Streams Law violations handed down by the regional Department of Environmen- tal Protection to Pennsylvania General Energy at a natural gas pipeline construction site along the creek. So, there was a bit of poetic justice earlier this week in the timing of United States District Judge Lewis J. Liman’s 53-page summary judgement ruling of overturning the FWS’ 2019 decision to deny the eastern hellbender protection under the Endangered Species Act. It is signed September 5, 2023 – a year to the day of the Loyalsock Creek coffer dam washout.
34
Powered by FlippingBook