Blue Ridge Country - March/April 2019 - 11

C R E AT U R E F E AT U R E

there are hundreds, if not thousands, of animals coming
in within a two-week period," he says. "It's a very cool
and unique ecosystem."
Last February, Ennen and his colleague Dr. Jon Davenport began analyzing how spotted, mole and marbled
salamanders use vernal pools in Prentice Cooper State
Forest, a wildlife management area on the Cumberland
Plateau. From his office window, Ennen can see the site, a
45-minute car ride away.

On a gray late-winter morning, the biologists checked
minnow traps placed in ponds in the forest. Before long,
a row of plastic tubs on the shore was overflowing with
dozens of salamanders, some still swollen with unlaid
eggs. According to Ennen, his team probably found 1,000
spotted and mole salamanders that day. He notes that the
study is still in its infancy but is expected to become more
fine-tuned after a few more years of sampling.
The Appalachian region, with its temperate, wet climate, provides the perfect habitat for salamanders.
"The hot spot is right in the core of the Southeast," Ennen says. "There are more species of salamanders in east
Tennessee and western North Carolina than most countries combined."
Because they are so sensitive to environmental changes, these amphibians are also important indicators of the
health of their surroundings.
"I try to instill in my children, and to people that I
meet, that there's nowhere else on the planet that you
can walk out and be in a spot where you have so much
biodiversity richness in freshwater [species]," Ennen says.
"If they go away, that basically means there's something
wrong with fresh water. And there's no civilization on the
planet that can last without good fresh water."

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Blue Ridge Country - March/April 2019

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Blue Ridge Country - March/April 2019

Blue Ridge Country - March/April 2019 - Intro
Blue Ridge Country - March/April 2019 - Cover1
Blue Ridge Country - March/April 2019 - Cover2
Blue Ridge Country - March/April 2019 - 3
Blue Ridge Country - March/April 2019 - 4
Blue Ridge Country - March/April 2019 - 5
Blue Ridge Country - March/April 2019 - 6
Blue Ridge Country - March/April 2019 - 7
Blue Ridge Country - March/April 2019 - 8
Blue Ridge Country - March/April 2019 - 9
Blue Ridge Country - March/April 2019 - 10
Blue Ridge Country - March/April 2019 - 11
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Blue Ridge Country - March/April 2019 - 17
Blue Ridge Country - March/April 2019 - 18
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Blue Ridge Country - March/April 2019 - 21
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Blue Ridge Country - March/April 2019 - 26
Blue Ridge Country - March/April 2019 - 27
Blue Ridge Country - March/April 2019 - 28
Blue Ridge Country - March/April 2019 - 29
Blue Ridge Country - March/April 2019 - 30
Blue Ridge Country - March/April 2019 - 31
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Blue Ridge Country - March/April 2019 - 65
Blue Ridge Country - March/April 2019 - 66
Blue Ridge Country - March/April 2019 - Cover3
Blue Ridge Country - March/April 2019 - Cover4
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