Road Signs Don't Prevent Newt Roadkill - 5K died in one season after signs were posted
The Santa Clara County Roads Dept. installed 8 "Newt Crossing" signs along Alma Bridge Rd. in 2019. During the 2019-2020 rainy season, 5277 newts were killed on this road (after the signs were installed). Conclusion: road signs are not an effective method of mitigating roadkill.
Comments
Completely agreed. It's good for raising awareness that they're there, but very unlikely to change people's driving or observation behavior.
Marin County just let us know they will put up 2 signs at each end of Chileno Valley Road where newts cross the road to get to laguna lake. The Chileno Valley Newt Brigade is thrilled about it. Now I read the signs were not effective in reducing road kill in Santa Clara County. I am crushed!
@sallygale, sorry to burst your bubble. It's really heartbreaking that there is no easy solution to the massive newt roadkill that's happening. Please join our projects so that we can share information between our teams. If nothing else, we can support each other in this gruesome task of documenting roadkill in the hope that some day a viable solution will be implemented.
Here is our umbrella project. You can access all subprojects from here:
https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/pacific-newt-roadkill-lexington-reservoir
We have lots of info documented in Journal posts and field notes from the 2.5 migration seasons we've been surveying newt roadkill at Lexington Reservoir. Please feel free to contact @merav or me.
Thank you for this message. We have been aware of what's happening in Santa Cruz, but only through the newspaper articles. You started before us. Last year was our first year. We photographed more than 1000 newts, about 60% live. We were out on the road almost every night for 3 months. Of course getting the right number of people to come to a remote area to save newts at night is not easy, ands this year I am worried we will not get enough volunteers. We also were turned down for a feasibility study, so we have nothing in the works as far as a grant goes. But we persist. I am happy to talk to anyone as well. Sallylgale@gmail.com, 707-772-7774.
We just got non profit status through Marin Links, so I hope that will help. We got insurance, and our website goes live soon; chilenovalleynewtbrigade.org.
I live 2 miles from the site, so if anyone wants to see it, please contact me and I will take you there. Thanks for doing this. It is important.
I will link us.
Add a Comment