A federal judge has overturned a Trump-era decision that the eastern hellbender does not need Endangered Species Act protections. The judge instead ordered the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to issue a new decision on whether the salamander should be listed as threatened or endangered.

Judge Lewis J. Liman ruled Wednesday in a U.S. District Court in New York that the Fish and Wildlife Service’s 2019 decision not to protect the salamander was arbitrary and capricious, siding with five environmental groups that had challenged the decision in 2021.

The groups argued, and Liman agreed, that the Wildlife Service had relied too much on unproven restoration and re-population efforts to determine that the giant salamander was not in danger of extinction.

“This ruling is a lifesaving victory for hellbenders and their declining freshwater habitats,” Elise Bennett, a senior attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity said in a news release.

The Center for Biological Diversity challenged the 2019 decision in a lawsuit along with the Waterkeeper Alliance, Lower Susquehanna Riverkeeper, Middle Susquehanna Riverkeeper and Waterkeepers Chesapeake.

“The Fish and Wildlife Service can no longer ignore overwhelming scientific evidence that hellbenders are in danger of extinction and face even greater threats ahead,” Bennett said. “These odd and charming salamanders can survive, but they desperately need the help of the Endangered Species Act.”

The eastern hellbender is the largest salamander in North America, reaching two feet or more in length. It historically lived in rocky creeks and streams with clear, flowing waters across 15 states from northern Mississippi and Alabama through the Appalachians to southern New York, but many of those populations are gone or in severe decline.

The slimy looking amphibians have long lifespans — at least 25-30 years and maybe longer — and live under rocks in streambeds during the day, emerging at night to hunt crayfish, other small fish or insects. Hellbenders can breathe through ruffles along their sides and have generated a number of clever nicknames like snot otter, lasagna lizard, and devil dog.

In Alabama, the salamanders were found in Tennessee River tributaries in the nothern part of the state, but populations appeared to plummet due to human activity.

“The biggest cause for the decline of the hellbender is reduced water quality,” Jim Godwin, a biologist with the Alabama Natural Heritage Program and Auburn University, told AL.com. “Silt and sedimentation fills in the cracks and crevices in the rocks and gravel that young hellbenders need. We may also have chemical degradation issues, things that would affect the water like low dissolved oxygen, high conductivity.”

Some wondered whether the hellbender still survived in Alabama before Godwin and colleague Lesley De Souza captured one in the Flint River in 2015.

Since then, Godwin said testing in creek waters showed the presence of hellbender DNA in multiple north Alabama streams, but researchers trying to find them have come up empty since that 2015 sighting.

Godwin said those DNA detections add hope that the elusive hellbenders are still out there in Alabama, but they don’t tell anything about the population size, or even whether the animal that left its DNA is alive or dead. Since the hellbenders can live 30 years or longer, it’s possible to still pick up readings from populations that are in dire straits because they are having trouble reproducing.

“That we got a fair number of environmental DNA detections over several years is encouraging that we still have hellbenders in Alabama,” Godwin said.

“The flip side is that that we can’t seem to find any.”

Godwin said he had not reviewed the judge’s ruling, but that many biologists were surprised when the Fish and Wildlife Service chose not to list the species in 2019. He said in Alabama and likely elsewhere, reducing sediment runoff into streams would be the best way to protect and preserve the salamander.

“What needs to be done is maybe stream restoration actions, working with landowners to reduce sediment pollution,” Godwin said. “Things such as fencing cattle out of streams, stabilizing stream banks where they might be sloughing off into the water and things like that.”

In its 2019 decision, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said that listing the salamander as endangered was not necessary, partially because of efforts like building nesting boxes for hellbenders and hatching hellbenders in captivity and releasing them into the wild.

However, Liman and the groups noted that these efforts are still unproven and it’s not clear whether hellbenders are able to successfully reproduce in the man-made nest boxes or whether captive-born hellbenders are able to survive to adulthood (5-6 years) and reestablish lost or diminished populations.

“The Trump administration’s refusal to federally protect the eastern hellbender was scientifically and legally indefensible, and we’re relieved that the federal court has now recognized the significant flaw in their analysis,” Daniel E. Estrin, general counsel and legal director for Waterkeeper Alliance, said in a news release.

With the judge’s ruling, the Fish and Wildlife Service will have to make a new determination on whether the hellbender should be protected, and if it chooses not to list the species, it will have to justify its decision without relying on these unproven restoration techniques.

Godwin said that if the hellbender is listed as threatened or endangered, then more research money could be made available to determine the salamander’s status in Alabama. He also said that protecting Alabama’s streams and creeks from excess sediment pollution could benefit many species besides the hellbender.

“The streams that have hellbenders also have a wide range of other aquatic diversity there,” Godwin said. “Fish, mussels, crayfish, and another kind of aquatic salamander called the mud puppy that I think we should be concerned about. Because these species depend on the same habitat, they’re under the same stress as the hellbender.”