Restoring Degraded River Habitat for Eastern Hellbenders
Restoring aquatic habitat in streams degraded by past human activities is an important component of conservation strategies for Eastern Hellbenders across the Appalachian Mountains of eastern North America. Recent work in Virginia’s Middle Fork Holston River found that restoration efforts placed heavily-degraded reaches of this waterway on similar habitat trajectories to nearby reference reaches with confirmed hellbender presence. These similarities remained following severe flooding from Hurricane Helene and an additional significant flood event in Winter 2025, indicating that restoration efforts may also help improve resilience to future disturbance events in impacted waterways.
Publication Date: 2025
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