County, cities celebrate plan for salamander conservation
It protects amphibians, allows for development.
What began in controversy and confrontation has concluded in cooperation.
It was just over three years ago, in September 2012, when about 300 people packed the Williamson Conference Center in Round Rock, with dozens of them speaking out — sometimes angrily — against proposed protections for four salamander species in Williamson and Bell counties.
An apparently happy resolution has been reached for one of those species. County and federal leaders have joined representatives from the cities of Georgetown and Round Rock in praising a plan they say protects the Georgetown Salamander while still allowing for residential or commercial development.
“We are acknowledging our three-plus-years effort on the salamander issue and the local solution we think is best,” said Pct. 3 County Commissioner Valerie Covey, who also serves on the Williamson County Conservation Foundation. “We knew we had to address it at some point. We started a five-year research project. We were down in the weeds, literally, looking for salamanders and how things work.”
The Georgetown Salamander had been under consideration for endangered species protection since 2001, but the process sped up in 2012 when the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service settled a lawsuit with two environmental groups.
Listing the Georgetown and other area salamander species as threatened or endangered would limit human development in their habitat. In 2012, it didn’t take long for people to choose sides.
One side said: Drought and development threaten salamander habitat. The salamander is important because its health can be a sign of overall water quality. The other side said: How threatened or endangered can these creatures be, when they are so numerous and easy to find?
Kemble White, a scientist and environmental consultant who worked with the Williamson County Conservation Foundation, said Georgetown increased its water quality standards for stormwater runoff and pollution, and those increased standards satisfied Fish and Wildlife requirements.
He said Georgetown had some leeway, because the salamander was considered “threatened” instead of “endangered,” which would have enacted more restrictive standards. Also, the solution was relatively easy because the Georgetown Salamander’s habitat is contained entirely within the city of Georgetown and its extraterritorial jurisdiction.
Round Rock city government allowed its stormwater program manager, Alysha Girard, to help out with the project.
“From everything I’ve learned in the process, it is a local solution that could have been a federally mandated process,” she said. “The fact that somebody found how to do this — and keep local activity — is key.”
“It is possible to work together with all entities to provide solutions,” Williamson County government spokeswoman Connie Watson said, before a recent ceremony at Booty’s Road Park in Georgetown.
Benjamin Tuggle, the Fish and Wildlife Services’ regional director for Texas, Oklahoma and New Mexico, praised the cooperative effort. He said conflicts sometimes arose between conservation and development interests, “but we worked through those.”
“Today we celebrate different levels of government working together, from the feds to the county to the city,” Georgetown Mayor Dale Ross said. “If you’re a developer you may not like all of it, but at least it creates certainty.”