It’s not a swamp dweller, but the red-backed salamander is now the District’s official amphibian — thanks to lobbying by students at Powell Elementary School.

The designation was retroactively effective on Dec. 17, 2024, and was placed in the D.C. Register on Jan. 17. Native to forests in the eastern U.S. and the Appalachian region, the amphibian helps control the pest population due to its primarily insect-based diet.

The salamander’s journey to official status began when some Powell students separately studied herpetology and found salamanders in the wooded parts of the city. 

“Virtual school was bad, so I decided to watch [herpetology] videos in my free time. I saw this herpetologist who was ‘herping’ and he’d find so many salamanders, snakes, and reptiles, so we decided to do it ourselves,” student Max Girshick, who created the petition to make the salamander the city’s official amphibian, told Washingtonian magazine.

The rest of his class got on board after a trip to the Aquatic Resources Education Center in Anacostia in December 2023.

Max’s petition, signed by his classmates, made its way to D.C. Council member Janeese Lewis George, the Ward 4 Democrat who introduced the eventual law in May 2024.

Several students spoke in favor of the salamander at a council hearing in September. Student Sabina Sanders pointed out that “red-back salamanders stripes emulate the red horizontal bars on the District of Columbia flag.”

The council approved the legislation, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser signed it at the end of October and Congress reviewed it.

• Brad Matthews can be reached at bmatthews@washingtontimes.com.