It was in the South Mills River that Will Harlan’s son first saw an eastern hellbender. The largest salamander in the Americas, the hellbender — known colloquially as “mud puppy,” “water dog” or “snot otter” — can reach up to two feet in length.
Although this species has been around for about 150 million years, its population is in significant decline due to habitat loss, climate change and water pollution, bringing the threat of extinction within a far shorter timeline. However, for now, the pristine South Mills River remains “one of the best hellbender hotspots in the world,” said Harlan, who works as southeast director and senior scientist at the Center for Biological Diversity. That’s because it is part of a network of public lands protected by the 2001 Roadless Rule, which prohibits roadbuilding and timber harvest.
But after the Trump administration released an Aug. 19 Draft Environmental Impact Statement in pursuit of the rule’s recission, 44.7 million acres of roadless area like the South Mills River — vulnerable species’ habitat, tourist destinations, sacred Indigenous sites, drinking water reservoirs, wildfire mitigators — are now one step away from losing that protection, which has been in place for a quarter-century.