On rainy winter nights in the Bay Area, a quiet migration unfolds under the cover of dark.
California newts — those small, slow-moving amphibians with bright orange bellies — leave their upland habitats and head toward the ponds and reservoirs where they’ll breed.
For thousands of years, this trek was uneventful. Today, it often ends beneath the tires of passing cars.
Along Alma Bridge Road near Lexington Reservoir in Los Gatos, volunteers with a group called Newt Patrol have spent years documenting the toll. Since 2017, community scientists have recorded more than 36,000 dead newts on this single 4.2-mile stretch of road alone. In some early years, surveys averaged roughly 6,000 dead newts per season.
“They move very slow, and they’re kind of soft and squishy in a nice way. They’re just not adapted to roads,” said Merav Vonshak, an ecologist who organizes Newt Patrol.
This means that “every time I look at them, especially the live ones, it’s so moving and wonderful,” Vonshak said.
Still, the numbers are stark. Vonshak has personally documented more than 15,000 dead newts over the years, while encountering only a handful of living creatures during daytime surveys.
But now, these volunteer observations are actually helping inform how land management agencies like the Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District — which oversees more than 70,000 acres and 250 miles of trails in the Santa Cruz Mountains and beyond — plan and manage land to balance public recreation and the protection of wildlife and sensitive habitats.
The Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District, which oversees nearby Sierra Azul Open Space Preserve, had planned new trail access in the Beatty Area. After community scientists raised concerns about newt roadkill, the agency paused the project and funded a wildlife mortality study.
When confronted by cars, newts often freeze rather than flee — a strategy shaped long before pavement. And the study found that nearly 40% of newts attempting to cross Alma Bridge Road in a single migration season were killed by vehicles: a rate that could drive local populations to extinction within decades.
“That really spurred us into action,” said Ryan McCauley, public affairs specialist at Midpen. “Within our lifetime, we could see those local newt populations disappear.”
Last month, Midpen’s board approved a compromise plan to balance recreation and wildlife protection. The agency committed $650,000 toward a pilot “Newt Passage” project, installing fencing and underground tunnels at the worst roadkill hotspot along Alma Bridge Road.
New trails in the Beatty Area will be seasonally closed during winter migration months, and Midpen will upgrade an existing parking area instead of building a new one in sensitive habitat.
“There can often be an inherent tension between open space access and natural resource protection,” McCauley said. “This project is a way to mitigate that tension.”
While California newts spend most of their lives hidden in forests, winter rains trigger a hormonal shift that sends them back to the same ponds where they were born.
Some travel up to three miles, likely guided by smell. As they enter water, males transform for aquatic life, growing smooth skin, fin-like tails and gripping pads before returning to land months later.
Bright colors warn predators that newts carry tetrodotoxin on their skin and bodies, the same toxin found in pufferfish. But given that defense offers no protection against cars, roads have become among the greatest threats to a newt’s lifespan, which can be as long as 20 years.
For Vonshak, the pilot project reflects years of persistence. “It was a difficult process to convince people that such a common animal might actually need our help,” she said.
In addition to documenting roadkill, Newt Patrol now runs “assisted migration” nights, when volunteers head out after dark to help newts cross the road safely. Equipped with headlamps, buckets and clean hands, they gently move the animals in the direction they were already heading, making sure to be aware of any traffic themselves.
Similar efforts are underway farther north in Marin County, where the Chileno Valley Newt Brigade has operated for seven years. This volunteer-run group monitors a one-mile stretch of Chileno Valley Road near Laguna Lake, where newts must cross twice each breeding season.
“One year we saved 15,000 baby newts,” said the group’s founder, Sally Gale. Over time, the brigade has documented roughly 60,000 animals, including federally listed California red-legged frogs and western pond turtles, all of which volunteers list on iNaturalist, an app used to identify, record and map observations of plants and animals all around the world.
“They’re creatures just like us, and they deserve a fighting chance,” Gale said. “It’s our responsibility to reduce harm to the living things we share this planet with.”
Back near Lexington Reservoir, the first Midpen crossings are still years from completion, with construction anticipated to begin in 2028.
But advocates see the pilot project as a crucial start — and a model for protecting wildlife in landscapes increasingly shaped by roads.
For Vonshak, even small changes matter. Each night a newt makes it safely across the road is a reminder that the population still has a chance. “It’s wonderful because it’s not always about the dead things,” Vonshak said.
“It’s also about the living ones,” she said.
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