News

Dr. Michael Freake, professor of biology at Lee University, recently entered into a five-year cooperative agreement with the Cherokee National Forest to help meet long-term goals of a project titled, “Reintroduction of Populations in Citico Creek.”   

Through this cost-share agreement, the Cherokee National Forest of the U.S. Forest Service, Department of Agriculture, will provide $100,000 to Lee University to support the conservation project focused on the Eastern hellbender, a species of salamander native to the eastern and central United States.  

“Our project goal is to re-establish a self-sustaining hellbender population in the Citico Creek and tributaries,” said Freake. “Hellbenders were abundant prior to logging and dam construction, and improvements in water quality indicate that hellbenders should be able to thrive there once again.”   

Freake, along with the help of student research assistants, will begin this project by identifying the stream sections of the Citico Creek watershed that have the most suitable habitat for hellbenders, characterized by long stretches of stream bed with large rocks and a low sediment accumulation.   

Once that has been identified, they will collect eggs and larval hellbenders from nearby rivers that have a healthy population of the species and raise them at the Chattanooga Zoo for 1-2 years before releasing them at the sites they have previously identified. Once the hellbenders have been released into the suitable sections of the Citico Creek, they will continue to be monitored to assess their growth and survival.   

The student research assistants will mainly be involved in completing habitat assessments and monitoring the released hellbenders.   

The funds from this agreement will cover the supplies and equipment needed to carry out this project, support the student research assistants during the summer, and support Freake’s fieldwork during the breeding season. Lee University will contribute additional personnel time and resources to the project. This federal funding is a part of a larger U.S. Forest Service program that will upgrade infrastructure and conduct habitat restoration and rare species recovery in the Citico Creek watershed.  

“It is a real privilege to be involved in bringing back a unique and remarkable animal to a beautiful part of East Tennessee,” said Freake. “If hellbenders are thriving in a river, you can be confident that it is a healthy and vibrant ecosystem that people can take pride in and enjoy.”   

The U.S. Forest Service’s mission is to sustain the health, diversity, and productivity of the nation’s forests and grasslands to meet the needs of present and future generations. For over 100 years, they have connected people with nature and each other to answer the call of conservation. This agency was created to help manage the nation’s natural resources “for the greatest good, for the greatest number, for the longest time.”   

For more information about the U.S. Forest Service, visit https://www.fs.usda.gov/.   

For more information about this project or the Department of Natural Sciences, call (423) 614-8275.