"A grassroots effort successfully pushed back on a development in Homewood that would have destroyed a critical salamander habitat. Still, amphibians face constant risks."
"HOMEWOOD, Ala.—Nine-year-old Ruby Banta thought it was a pretty simple choice, even for adults.
“This was the salamander’s habitat first,” she said after an afternoon soccer game. “It’s not a college habitat.”
Ruby was among the youngest of activists—sending a crayon-colored appeal to the City Council to save a sensitive salamander site—who had reason to celebrate this week. Officials at Samford University, a Baptist college just outside of Birmingham, announced a new location for sports fields in a planned commercial development that would have encroached on the habitat of the local spotted salamander population.
Dozens of Homewood residents, Samford community members and local environmentalists had opposed the earlier master plan of a development called Creekside. Homewood closely identifies with the salamander, which burrows on the slopes of Shades Mountain and migrates across South Lakeshore Drive every spring. For the past 20 years, the city has held a salamander festival to educate the public about its slippery spotted neighbor."
Lee Hedgepeth reports for Inside Climate News April 30, 2025.
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