You’ll never forget your first time seeing a giant salamander, according to Andy Hill.

He was a teenager, standing thigh-deep in the Watauga River outside Boone, North Carolina, casting a line one early fall day when he saw his first hellbender from the East. The salamander stretched 2 feet long and was camouflaged among the rocks beneath the clear water.

“You never lose your sense of wonder and strangeness when you see one,” said Hill, who now works as a Watauga River ranger for MountainTrue, a nonprofit organization protecting the region’s natural ecosystems. Western North Carolina, home to part of the Blue Ridge Mountains.

The ancient species, which evolved on the supercontinent Pangea and outlived the dinosaurs, was placed under federal protection by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on Friday. If the proposal passes after a public comment period, the creatures will be protected under the Endangered Species Act.

Their population in the United States has declined rapidly in recent decades; dams, industry and even flooding made worse by climate change have threatened their habitat and their ability to reproduce and find food. Today, only 12% of Eastern Hellbenders breed successfully.

Hellbenders in the Blue Ridge Mountains were considered the healthiest population of the eastern subspecies, but were devastated this fall by Hurricane Helene. Thousands of people were displaced or found dead amid the rubble. Others were found in flooded church basements and washed into the river. But some rivers are so polluted that there is still a “do not touch” advisory for people.

Tierra Curry broke down in tears when she learned of the protection being offered.

“I just think it’s a moral failing to push them to the brink of extinction,” said Curry, a senior scientist at the Center for Biological Diversity.

This brown, slimy creature with a large, flat head may never win a beauty contest, but it is known as the largest amphibian in North America.

The hellbender breathes oxygen dissolved in water through its skin. Water that flows slowly, warms up, or is polluted contains less oxygen.

Over the past five years, two dams have been removed on the Watauga River to help improve water quality and reconnect hellbender communities. The most recent took place this summer and two months later, Hélène changed the lives not only of humans, but also of animals like the salamander.

For those working to ensure the species’ survival, the newly proposed federal protection couldn’t come soon enough, said Erin McCombs, southeast conservation director for American Rivers.

“We need to pay more attention to the health of our nation’s rivers and streams, and that means paying more attention to the creatures that live there,” she said. “When species like hellbender, which rely on clean, running water, are in decline, alarms need to go off because we will feel the impacts next.”

The Center for Biological Diversity petitioned and won protection for the Ozark subspecies of hellbenders in 2011 and for Missouri hellbenders, another population of hellbenders from the ‘East, in 2021. The group filed a lawsuit, seeking protection for all hellbenders in the East. As of this week, all hellbenders in the United States are or should be protected under the Endangered Species Act.

Hill says he hopes the new federal protection will pave the way for “bold strategies” to help the species recover.

“It’s going to take a considerable effort,” he said.