The salamanders have been a contentious issue for both environmentalists and some community officials, who have struggled over how to protect the animals while preserving development opportunities. The full impact of the decision won't be clear until the Fish and Wildlife service sets rules for how the salamanders will be protected, according to a report in the Austin American-Statesman.

In the case of the Georgetown salamander, the agency may allow local Georgetown's local protections to remain in place. Those regulations prevent development within 80 meters of a salamander site and within 50 meters of a spring as well as limited development up to 300 meters upstream. The city passed those rules in December hoping to fend off federal protection, the Statesman report said. If the federal agency decides the local ordinances are sufficient, local developers won't need a federal permit for building.

KFVS-TV reports two crashes happened in the southbound lanes of Interstate 55 in the southeast Missouri community around 7 p.m. Saturday.

Four alligators ranging from 3 feet to 5 feet long were being hauled in a small trailer behind one of the cars.

A man and his wife who were in the car pulling the alligators were injured in the wreck. Police say the animals remained inside.

“One turtle was at the dam up on the bank about two feet out of the water. And the other turtle was located about where that tree is [by the boat ramp] about two feet up out of the water on the bank. And he was on his back. The other one was on his belly,” explained Lawson.

Jenny Edwards is a program manager with the Dan River Basin Association.

“We have heard some reports that turtles appear to be crawling up on the banks and dying,” she told FOX8.

Edwards added, “Turtles should be hibernating this time of year. It’s cold. They hibernate down in the mud. The fact that they’re crawling up on the bank and dying, even if it’s not in mass numbers… It’s highly unusual.”

She emphasized, “Even though we can’t directly link it to coal ash, this is exactly the sort of thing we expected to start seeing.”