HARRISBURG — The Eastern hellbender is a step closer to becoming Pennsylvania’s official state amphibian, after the state House State Government Committee overwhelmingly approved Senate Bill 9 this week.
The committee voted 24-1 on Wednesday to pass Senate Bill 9 that would designate the Eastern hellbender as the Commonwealth’s official state amphibian. It now goes before the full House for consideration and if approved there, could proceed to Gov. Tom Wolf’s desk for his signature.
Wednesday’s House approval of Senate Bill 9 came after it passed the state Senate 48-1 on Monday.
“This issue was brought to Sen. Gene Yaw (R-Lycoming) by a group of students who are involved in clean streams in Pennsylvania, and it’s become a passion of Senator Yaw and of the Chesapeake Bay Foundation,” House State Government Committee Chairman Garth Everett (R-Lycoming) said. “We are recovering our streams and we need to continue to do that.”
Duquesne University student Abby Hebenton, a former president of CBF’s Student Leadership Council, the group of students that spearheaded the hellbender effort over the last two years, commented as well.
“Clean water is important for humans and amphibians, and if we don’t act on making our waterways as clean as they can be, we will all suffer from it,” she said. “It’s important to bring awareness to it in a positive way, like with the hellbender, than deal with the repercussions later.”
CBF student leaders studied hellbenders extensively, installed nesting boxes in several Pennsylvania streams, and wrote the first draft of Senate Bill 658, which passed the Senate in the last session, but languished in a House committee.
Hellbenders survive where there is cold, clear, swift-running water. Folds of wrinkled skin provide a large surface through which they draw most of their oxygen.
Warming waters, polluted runoff, and a silt build up in streambeds have degraded habitat and decimated hellbender numbers in streams where they were plentiful as recently as 1990.
“The hellbender is literally the canary in the mine and I think that’s specifically why we should support this,” Rep. Jeff Wheeland (R-Lycoming) told fellow committee members on Wednesday. “If you have hellbender in your district, in your streams, your folks are doing a great job.”
More information about the campaign for the Eastern hellbender, go to www.cbf.org/hellbender
