To learn more about pacific newts and about our project:
You can view all our data under our iNaturalist umbrella project
Alma Bridge Road Newt Passage Project - Technical Review (Phase I), Alternatives Evaluation / Basis of Design (Phase 3) by AECOM - get the latest info about the newt passage project
A report by the Road Ecology Center at UC Davis - From Wildlife-Vehicle Conflict to Solutions for California Wildlife & Drivers, by Fraser Shilling et al. 11/10/2021.
"15K dead newts later: what have we learned from four years of monitoring pacific newts migration in the Santa Cruz mountains, California" - A presentation about our study at the ICOET conference, 2021.
A letter by the Center for Biological Diversity to the Midpeninsula Open Space District board explaining regarding their plans to develop a trail and a parking lot on Alma Bridge Rd.
POST page about the newts - Newts of Lexington Reservoir Dying By the Thousands, 01/19/22.
Midpeninsula Open Space District webpage about the newt passage project, including the newt population study. Additional note about our project on their newsletter found here.
To learn more about newt natural history, pick up a real book - Field Guide to Amphibians and Reptiles of California, Stebbins at al. 2012
To learn about Bay Area Salamanders, go to this Bay Nature article - Which Bay Area Salamander Are You? Bay Nature, 11/27/2019
To learn how to identify Pacific newt species, got to Californiaherps.com
A similar project in Vashon-Maury Island (WA) documenting Rough-skinned Newt (Taricha granulosa) mortality on iNaturalist
Articles mentioning our study:
Newts Cross a Killing Zone, by Jim Scholfield, Mountain Network News, March 2023
The Peril of Alma Bridge Road, by Brian Phan, UC Santa Cruz Science Notes, 10/04/2022
How does a newt cross the road? The teams trying to end a nightly carnage, by Maanvi Singh, The Guardian, 03/27/2022
Guest View: Protecting the newts of Alma Bridge Road, by Giulianna Pendleton, Los Gatan, 03/11/2022
Newts and roads don’t mix. So these Bay Area volunteers make sure they get to their destination, by Tara Duggan, San Francisco Chronicle, 02/21/2022
An article about another group monitoring newt roadkill: Volunteers Save Thousands of Newts from Becoming Roadkill — But “We Can’t Just Keep Going Out There Every Year and Picking Up the Newts for Three Months”, by Emily Moskal, Bay Nature, 01/26/2022
Can Citizen Scientists Prevent Another Pacific Newt Massacre? By Shoshi Parks, Atlas Obscura, 01/11/2022
"One of the largest rates of roadkill reported for any wildlife species in the world occurs each year when Pacific newts attempt to cross Alma Bridge Road in Santa Clara County", from a UC Davis article, 11/10/2021
Roadkill report: Interstate 280 between San Bruno, Cupertino deadliest highway, The Daily Journal, 11/10/2021
Traffic Is Driving A Newt Massacre in the Santa Cruz Mountains, by Anne Parsons and Hector Valtierra, Bay Nature , 02/06/2019
2,600 dead newts and counting: One citizen scientist’s quest to save a California amphibian, Mercury News, 02/19/2019
For list of many relevant resources, including articles about this project, newts in general, other roadkill studies and possible mitigation measures, by Anne Parsons, click here