2019-2020 Newt Migration Season Summary
This is a summary of our newt roadkill study at Lexington Reservoir, Santa Clara County, CA for the 2019-2020 migration season. This study has been ongoing for two full seasons and part of a third season (2017-2018).
First of all, I'd like to thank our fantastic volunteers - @merav, @newtpatrol, @sea-kangaroo, @anudibranchmom, and @joescience1 - for a job well done!
2019-2020 Newt Migration Season Highlights
• The team recorded 5,292 newt roadkill observations, which is 411 more deaths this season than last. The cumulative death toll is 10,644.
• The team has also recorded 361 observations of 67 other species of animals killed on Alma Bridge Rd.
• 50 data collection surveys were performed this season compared to 42 last season.
• Three times the number of dead juveniles were observed this season compared to last (100 vs. 32). This is important because juvenile deaths have a disproportionate impact on population dynamics.
• The rainy season started later this year and lasted longer than last season: 11/27/19 through 05/20/20 (global warming?)
• It's a widely held misconception that newts only migrate on rainy nights. We have a lot of data to disprove this:
- During Feb, there were only 2 days of rain (total 0.02 inches), but the team found 904 newt corpses during Feb.
- Also, we’ve observed and documented 121 newts alive and walking around during the daytime.
- It seems the only time we find no dead newts on the road during the 5-month migration season is when the temperature drops below 40 degrees F and there’s snow on the mountains.
Here's our umbrella project from which you can access all the subprojects (e.g., newt roadkill for each season, juvenile deaths, live & injured newts, and our decomposition study data):
https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/pacific-newts-all-lexington-reservoir-area
Comments
I'm tagging the following people who have shown interest in Pacific Newts and the dangers they face at Lexington Reservoir County Park:
@merav, @sea-kangaroo, @newtpatrol, @anudibranchmom, @joescience1,@biohexx1, @gregpauly, @fmshilling, @catchang, @wyattherp, @sambiology, @alexb0000, @archaeopteryx, @asemerdj, @beartracker, @bradmoon, @brandonh1, @carlosd73, @carrieseltzer, @cesmith, @cliygh-and-mia, @cmstinson, @danieleseglie, @dominic, @erikamitchell, @fieldnotes, @fourgeckos007, @finatic, @graysquirrel, @gshugart, @gyrrlfalcon, @jilliankern, @jmaughn, @johngsalamander , @jt2018, @jubata-not-call-me-pampas, @karenscherrer, @kevinhintsa, @kookamongus, @ktokatlian, @kueda, @leslie_flint, @lkarpinski62, @loarie, @m_aniket, @mgruen, @mikepatterson, @mws, @nancyasquith, @pintail, @richardwasson, @robberfly, @sandor_in, @savethesalamanders, @seanfrogger, @shannonbuttimer, @skiamarks, @stupid_bullfrogs, @taricha_dude, @tiwane, @tom-kirschey-nabu
Chileno Valley Newt Brigade Project Team
@trianderson, @ayanohayes, @azeljo, @carrion, @georgiamcmahon, @johnd123, @jonsikay, @kjacobsen, @margn, @markm33, @mikekraus, @pkbwell, @riley96, @sallygale, @shellhawk, @sigriddreier, @supernaturalman, @ten_salamanders, @willzeljo
@finatic
Important work. It seems this population cannot sustain these unnatural losses indefinitely. Thanks to all the people continuing to work on this project.
Wow. Seeing it summarized like this (and good job presenting it) is even more dramatic than seeing all those little bodies squished on the road. Thank you so much @truthseqr .
Thanks Anne for putting this together. I created a couple of figures about the other roadkills. would you like me to post them here? I'm not sure how :)
Thanks for putting this together.
Well-presented! Anyone viewing the data should also view Anne's eye-opening summary of reasons for believing this is an undercount. [https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/pacific-newts-all-lexington-reservoir-area/journal/23364-reasons-why-pacific-newt-roadkill-may-be-significantly-under-reported]
Kudos to everyone who put in the time and travel!
@merav, yes - absolutely! Please post your figures of the other roadkill data. I'll send you an email with instructions.
Thanks for all this information.
Great work.
This is very interesting! Keep up the good work hopefully this can lead to a solution to help them cross.
Great work everyone, I hope a solution can be found.
Thank you Anne and other wonderful volunteers for continuing to collect such a strong (though depressing) dataset! You're all wonderful. Keep fighting the good fight and let us all know anytime we can help put the pressure on from a distance.
@truthseqr and everyone - could you help with some newt advocacy?
Midpen is having a meeting about a parking lot they are planning right off Alma Bridge Rd for their new open space, this Tuesday at 2 pm. It will add traffic that might farther endanger the newts. I’m not sure how much it’s even needed – it’s across the street from the large county parks parking lot. I’ve never seen more than 2-3 cars in that lot. The parking lot is supposed to be by permit only, and open only during the dry season, to avoid further impact on the newts. This is a good start, but we need to tell them that it’s important to do something about the newts, and make sure the lot will remain closed during the entire newt season – as shown here by Anne’s data, and that they won’t do construction during newt season.
You can attend online (https://www.openspace.org/about-us/meetings/pnr-20200804), and even more importantly, it would be great if you could send a comment through this link - https://www.openspace.org/public-comment
Your comment could be really short. It could just state that you’re concerned about the newts. Make sure you click on “I want my comment to be read into the record”
Thanks!
Merav
Done! I just submitted a comment for the record. Thank you for letting us know @merav!
wonderful, thank you @anudibranchmom! you were there at the January meeting, right?
No I wasn't, but I'll try and be on this virtual one.
Thank you, that would be great. I think @newtpatrol was there at the meeting
Submitted my comments to be read into the record.
Thank you, @beartracker!
The meeting yesterday was really interesting - Midpen board members voted unanimously to postpone the construction of the Beatty parking lot and trailhead along Alma Bridge Rd. They have decided that at this point Midpen cannot be responsible for bringing in more vehicles to the road, in order to avoid further impact on the newt population. They asked their staff for more info on the newt population and for progress on the newt study.
They got 6 public comments, 5 of them were concerns about the newts.
Thank you so much for your help! This is really important!
Yay - well done @merav for getting us organized in time.
Good news indeed!
h.
Anne, I think/hope we (yes, I sent a comment too) have made progress. Merav reported above that the board "asked their staff for more info on the newt population and for progress on the newt study."
This could be a signal to the staff that Midpen is bumping the newts up in their list of priorities. OTOH, it could be a pro forma response to the public comments. I suspect putting the newts on the Board's radar is progress. Time will tell.
I think their biggest fear was that even if their new parking lot will be by permit only, and closed during the wet season, people could easily park on the County Parks lot and hike their new trail. Therefore they will be bringing in more traffic. I think it was a good decision to postpone the construction, and a great win for all of us - two years ago no one knew about the newt mortality problems, and now that so many people are aware of the problem, they can no longer ignore it. Let's hope some solutions will move forward soon.
Great job, Merav! Thank you so much for gathering community support on such short notice.
Here is a link to more info about the Beatty parking lot and trail:
https://www.openspace.org/our-work/projects/beatty-parking-area
"The property was purchased in 2008 with funding assistance from the County of Santa Clara with an agreement to build a trail connection to the Priest Rock Trail... The trail project is funded in part by a grant from Valley Water."
@merav, you said "two years ago, no one knew about the newt mortality problem..."
I'd just like to say that Midpen told me way back in 2017 that their biologists had known for years about the newt roadkill problem around Lexington Reservoir, but they didn't have the resources or funds to study the problem and quantitate the roadkill and its impact on the population.
Their biologists are also aware of the newt roadkill situation on the other side of Highway 17 (e.g., on Montevina Rd.), which we haven't even addressed. I surveyed that road one weekday in Nov. 2017 and found 11 dead newts. I decided early on (when I was the only volunteer) that it was too overwhelming to survey both sides of the highway, so I focused only on Alma Bridge Rd. What would we find if we surveyed all roads next to waterways in the Santa Cruz Mountains? A Pandora's box of horrors, I think.
That's really sad, @truthseqr, thinking that they were aware of the problem already back then. Not sure I want to go there.
In any case, I think your decision to focus on one area was good, as it makes the database much more powerful. Unfortunately, I suspect that this is going on in many other places as well...
@merav, I'm also disappointed that Midpen hasn't done anything about the newt roadkill problem, especially since they've known about it for 5 years or more. At the same time, I understand that they have numerous projects, limited staff and meager funding. The Highway 17 wildlife crossing is also very important to help mountain lions, deer, coyotes, foxes, bobcats, raccoons, and other wildlife safely cross the highway. With limited funds, hard decisions have to be made.
I also suspect there's a lot more roadkill than we're aware of. Perhaps this situation at Lexington Reservoir can be a pilot study for how to deal with amphibian roadkill hotspots when they're identified in other areas.
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