Hellbender Campground Ohio Better Today

The campground became the unofficial base of operations. Volunteers camped there for weekends of electrofishing surveys and water sampling. Local kids from nearby Glouster painted wooden cutouts of the mottled, wrinkly salamanders, which the campground owner, a gruff former miner named Roy, nailed to every picnic table post.

“That’s Betsy,” he said. “She’s been under that rock for seven years. We tagged her in 2017. She’s a mother now, too. We found her guarding a clutch of eggs last fall.” hellbender campground ohio

I looked back at Roy. He was smiling.