It’s not often high school students find themselves on the front lines of preserving a species. But that’s happening right now at Indian Creek High School in Jefferson County where a team is working with others throughout Ohio in an effort to help save the endangered Eastern Hellbender salamander.

The hellbender, found in many creeks and streams throughout our region, is an excellent gauge into the health of a waterway. Pollution, erosion and other issues have taxed the population in recent generations, with fewer young hellbenders surviving. Among other items, hellbenders help to control crayfish populations.

The Indian Creek students working to save the hellbender — Nandhana Ranjith, Elijah Gilman, Chrissy Simpson, Grasyn Danielson, Aiden McMahon and Alayna Starr — are part of the school’s natural resources management career technical education class. They have been tasked with rearing 20 juvenile hellbenders at the school. The work is being done through the Ohio Hellbender Partnership — a group of zoos, county soil and water conservation districts, state agencies and others trying to find ways to halt the hellbender’s population decline.

The Indian Creek students are the only public high school members of the partnership. Their work, to date, has been promising.

“They’ve had better than average survivorship of the young animals they’re rearing, which is a testament to the good job that they’re doing,” Greg Lipps, amphibian and reptile conservation coordinator for Ohio State University and a conservation biologist for the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium, said of the Indian Creek students.

What an incredible project with which to be involved. The students’ work and research is having a real-world impact on helping to maintain the viability of one of our region’s most unique species — as well as setting all six on a possible career path as they enter college. Keep up the important work.