New project Helps the Hellbenders

Purdue leads $2.7 million USDA-funded conservation partnership

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has announced $197 million for 41 locally led conservation projects through the Regional Conservation Partnership Program (RCPP). The Farmers Helping Hellbenders project, led by Rod Williams, Purdue professor of forestry and natural resources, and Purdue Extension wildlife specialist/Help the Hellbender project coordinator Nick Burgmeier, will receive $2.7 million  to improve hellbender habitat in a four-county region in south central Indiana, the only remaining habitat for hellbenders in the state, by expanding the use of agricultural conservation practices to decrease sedimentation in local rivers systems. Learn more