Frosted Flatwoods Salamander on the Brink: Conservation Efforts Amid an Extinction Vortex

The frosted flatwoods salamander, a dark mole salamander with white-gray mottling, lives in the southeastern U.S. longleaf pine forests. It breeds in temporary winter ponds; without water the eggs dry. Only four sites remain, placing the species in an extinction vortex.

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Longleaf pine forests once spanned from Virginia to Texas. Logging, agriculture, suburban development and a century of fire suppression have reduced them to about 3 % of their historic range, eliminating the shallow wetlands the salamanders need.

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ARC field biologist Nicole Dahrouge salvages egg clusters from bogs, stores them in damp containers, then raises them in backyard cattle-tank mesocosms before release. Orianne Society science director Houston Chandler restores wetlands and removes undergrowth on Eglin Air Force Base, boosting reticulated flatwoods salamander occupancy.

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Only ~3 % of historic longleaf forest remains. The frosted flatwoods salamander is known from four sites. It was listed as threatened in 1999; a 2019 FWS review recommended endangered status, but no reclassification has occurred in seven years.

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An FWS spokesperson said the salamander receives nearly all the same protections as an endangered species. ARC executive director JJ Apodaca emphasized that policy alone cannot rescue the species. Houston Chandler described the remaining longleaf ecosystem as globally imperiled and a biodiversity hotspot. Carola Haas of Virginia Tech noted that headstarting can be hugely powerful for cohort survival.

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Conservationists argue the salamander should be uplisted, noting the Trump administration’s efforts to limit protections for threatened species. JJ Apodaca warned that habitat restoration alone “won’t be enough.” The 2019 FWS review recommended endangered status, yet the agency has not reclassified the species, leaving regulatory protection uncertain and no comprehensive population estimate published.

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• “But if I was, I would lay eggs right there.” — Nicole Dahrouge, ARC field biologist

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• “Man, when we let species get to this point, it's so much effort and so much work and so much resources to get it to a point where it's back,” — JJ Apodaca, ARC executive director

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• “Policy can't go out and save a species,” — JJ Apodaca, ARC executive director

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• “It's a globally imperiled ecosystem sitting on top of a global biodiversity hotspot,” — Houston Chandler, Orianne Society science director

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ARC will expand headstarting while scaling habitat restoration across remaining longleaf patches. Stakeholders call this the “age of implementation,” urging coordinated land-management, prescribed fire and continued captive breeding, and monitor survival rates post-release to ensure long-term viability. The effort serves as a model for other imperiled amphibians.

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