What do salamanders have to do with public health and environmental justice? To quote Tierra Curry, senior scientist and the Center's Endangered Species codirector, "everything." The saga of the hellbender shows how the long-term wellbeing of humanity and the integrity of the natural world are inextricably intertwined. Public drinking water comes from the rivers where hellbenders swim, or at one time swam. The water they breathe courses through our bloodstream. We are in this planetary aquarium with them. Every action we take to save hellbenders will help save us, wrote Curry in a natural history essay, "Hellbenders as Emissaries of Appalachia." 📷: by davidherasimtschuk / freshwatersillustrated #hellbender #salamander #amphibian #wildlifeconservation #environmentalconservation