It can be found at lower elevations and in winter it usually concentrates near seepage areas, springs, and small streams. Animals may range into adjacent wooded areas in wet weather. It is more terrestrial at higher elevations, characteristic inhabitant of floor of spruce-fir forests. It is often abundant on wet rock faces. Eggs are laid in wet rock crevices or under rocks, logs, or moss in seepage areas or near small streams (NatureServe 2020). The larvae develop in water.

This species occurs in the USA and Canada, on ridges of the Ridge and Valley Physiographic Province, including Brumley, Clinch, Walker, and Potts mountains of southwestern Virginia; Cumberland Mountains and Plateau of southeastern Kentucky, and the Allegheny Mountains and Plateau of West Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and New York through the Adirondack Mountains (Tilley and Mahoney 1996). In Canada, it is found in only two isolated areas: one in southwestern Quebec, at Covey Hill, and the other in southern Ontario, in the Niagara River gorge (SARA 2020).

Conservation Actions In-Place
It occurs in many protected areas throughout its range.

Research Needed
This species has only recently been discovered in Canada due in part to being mistaken for Desmognathus fuscus, and so further research in to its range, habitat, and population monitoring in Canada, particularly Ontario, is needed.