From: Rick Meril <rick.meril@gmail.com>
Date: Thu, Oct 14, 2010 at 6:25 PM
Subject: Cheat Mountain in West Virginia the site of a unique mitigation project to help endangered Salamanders persist into the millenia
To: rick.meril.treeman@blogger.com
CANAAN VALLEY, W.Va. -- All but a handful of skiers and snowboarders traveling down Timberline Four Season Resort's two-mile-long Salamander run are aware that the trail passes through a section of U.S. Forest Service land.
Even fewer are likely to know that the trail is named after a rare, federally protected species that lives in a colony on Monongahela National Forest land adjacent to the slope.
But over the years, Timberline has spent time, effort and more than $100,000 to protect Cheat Mountain salamanders living adjacent to the ski trail, as part of a mitigation effort for habitat loss that occurred when the trail was cleared, opening the forest canopy, back in the early1980s.
Timberline is the only ski area in the Mid-Atlantic area to operate on U.S. Forest Service land, although only about 40 acres of Monongahela National Forest property is crossed by the ski trail, according to Tom Blanzy, the resort's mountain manager. The first major turn on Timberline's Salamander run is known as Government Curve by the resort's staff, since it marks the point where the trail enters federal property.
The Cheat Mountain salamander has been protected under the Endangered Species Act since 1989. Listed as a threatened species, Cheat Mountain salamanders live only in Northern West Virginia in an area about the size of Kanawha County, usually in high-elevation spruce and mixed-hardwood forests, at elevations above 3,500 feet. There, in moist, shady and cool microclimates, the salamanders breathe through their skin and dine on mites, flies, beetles and ants.
The four-inch-long salamanders have a life span of about 20 years. Seventy populations of the animal are known to exist, from Tucker County in the north to Pocahontas County in the south.
In addition to planting red spruce seedlings along the edges of the ski run to add shade to known salamander terrain, Timberline has built mesh fences to capture blowing leaves and add moisture-capturing leaf litter to the forest floor. The resort also has placed numerous shelter boards -- small rough-cut board segments -- in known habitat to provide reliable, easy-to-monitor shelter for resident Cheat Mountain salamanders.
"The salamanders normally live under big rocks, so the shelter boards are like condos for them," said Blanzy. The lightweight board segments are easier to lift than boulders, making it easier for biologists to check for salamanders seeking shelter beneath them.
Timberline also has supported the Cheat Mountain salamander research efforts of Dr. Thomas Pauley of Marshall University to monitor salamander populations on property owned or used by Timberline.
This year, the resort completed its most ambitious mitigation project, designed in cooperation with Monongahela National Forest environmental biologist Terri Evans. A 20-head sprinkler system that simulates an inch of natural rainfall over a four-hour period showers a five-acre chunk of known salamander habitat twice a week.The idea is to optimize the moist, cool climate favored by Cheat Mountain salamanders.
"We got it running in July," said Blanzy. "We were told to run it rain or shine. It will operate from June through October, although we'll probably stop for the season with the first hard frost."
Water is pumped through Timberline's snowmaking water pipes to a point adjacent to the salamander colony, where it is diverted into heavy rubber hose that feeds the sprinkler system at 140 gallons per minute. Sprinkler heads are mounted atop portable concrete and wood pedestals to raise them above ferns, brush and red spruce saplings.Dr. Pauley will be monitoring soil moisture to see what fine-tuning needs to be done with the salamander irrigation system, Blanzy said.
"There's a good population of Cheat Mountain salamanders up there," said Barbara Douglas of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's Elkins Field Office. "Sites both inside and outside the sprinkler range will be monitored to compare how well the salamanders are doing.""It's been a fun project," said Blanzy. "The salamanders are incredible animals, who live out their lives in spaces no larger than a few square feet. I like seeing their tiny little hands and other delicate features."
The Cheat Mountain salamanders' colony site "lies in a really beautiful spot," he added. "Sometimes when I'm spending too much time in the office, I tell myself, 'maybe it's time to go up the hill and check on the salamanders.'"
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