North section - 12/21/2023
Thursday, 9:20-11:25 pm. 54 dead newts, no live ones, no juveniles.
Weather: Very cold, there was still a bit of frost by the road. It was raining yesterday in San Jose.
Coverage: Jones trailhead to the second stop sign. I walked with Terry.
I documented 39 dead newts, most of them were fresh. Terry had 15 newts.
Other roadkill: Jerusalem cricket.
Traffic - 33 cars, 11 trucks (including County Parks, County Roads, FedEx), 2 motorcycles, 5 bikes, 21 pedestrians, 16 parked cars (1 car at the farther parking lot).
My observations of the day - https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?on=2024-01-11&place_id=any&user_id=merav&verifiable=any
** We've been seeing very low numbers of newts in recent surveys. I'd expect to find 200+ newts in a day like today. The extant road work by County Roads can explain only a bit of what we are seeing, as every year they scrape the road itself, removing some newts while doing so. So far they have scraped the sides of the road, till about 5-7 meters above the road, from Aldercroaft Heights intersection to the boat club - about 3 miles of the road. They removed whole trees, including many I have been watching for years, that had rare and unique galls, as well as countless other plants (and creatures). There were some rare plants there as well, and it was a habitat for so many species... In addition, these plants were holding the soil, so I guess we can expect even more land slides in the next few years.
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I believe I had 16 newts and about 3 or 4 undetermined, as well as earthworm and centipede.
Thanks, @teellbee. Please add a comment/ link when you're done uploading.
Actually, I had 15 newts, not 16.
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?created_on=2024-01-11&on=2024-01-11&place_id=any&subview=table&user_id=teellbee&verifiable=any
@merav, how awful about the roadwork and destruction of habitat! Why in the world did they do that? Unbelievable!
It's probably part of a fire prevention program. It will lead to some new problems, so I hope they know what they're doing...
@merav, as I've been scanning the trail reports for past years, I ran across this comment from @anudibranchmom from 2/22/2022:
There was unusual human activity: COUNTY ROADS doing maintenance.
Vehicles: 37, comprised of 22 passing vehicles and a large crew of ~15 County Roads employees with 15 trucks and heavy machinery involved in clearing foliage from the sides of the road near Soda Spring Canyon for fire safety. "Fire safety is more important than preventing erosion." They had that huge grinding tractor-mower thing going, so don't expect roadside wildflowers for a long while. I imagine it grinds up newts too. On the plus side, many of the crew seemed to know what I was doing already; they asked a few questions, and even pointed out a few dead newts near them to me. One guy said they would not be repaving Alma Bridge Road this year; they'll be working on the other side of Hwy 17.
Interesting, thanks, @truthseqr!
By the way - now they all have newt stickers :)
One important difference - this year it was done all along ABR, on both sides of the road in most places. And they have removed mature trees and other vegetation.
@merav, that's so sad. I hate when they do that.
@merva, @anudibranchmom, I'm trying to put together some traffic stats for Fraser Shilling & his team to analyze why there are so few newts this year. Do you all remember what the traffic was like during the COVID pandemic? Was there increased or decreased activity at Lexington. I seem to remember that when the lockdown was lifted, people swarmed to the parks since they didn't have to go to work. Any insights you can give me would be much appreciated. Thanks.
@truthseqr you might be able to glean some traffic data from our Journal Reports from that period; anecdotally, I would say there were more cyclists and walkers during the pandemic, but this has declined and there is more motor vehicle traffic now.
Thanks, Robin. I've briefly reviewed all the Newt Patrol field reports from 2019 to present in order to extract traffic data, and nothing really stood out to me regarding a change in traffic patterns due to the pandemic. And my memory ain't so great.
I don't remember either... but every year we had other issues - repaving the road, scraping the road, major accidents, road closure, wildfire smoke, etc. A global pandemic was just one among many others...
Thanks, @merav! I did notice a huge spike in traffic from 3/23 to 4/23 when Highway 17 traffic was diverted to Alma Bridge Rd.
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