City Builds Ramp To Save Rare Salamanders

SANTA ROSA, Calif. -- Delays created by a tiny creature may soon be over for a big construction project in California.

An area of Santa Rosa is considered critical habitat for the endangered California tiger salamander, but work is under way to migrate the amphibians to a new home. A detour for the salamander went up on Thursday, San Francisco television station KTVU reported.

City biologists hope the salamanders will move from their current location across the street to vernal pools where they will live permanently.

“Basically we're providing a safe corridor for them to cross,” said Santa Rosa environmental specialist Sheri Emerson. “Across the street here are protected lands that salamanders are known to populate."

Scientists said the salamanders will only move during heavy rain at night, so the city has placed a silt fence around the property and will block off part of Fresno Avenue until January.

The protected lands border the housing tract now on the site of a former Navy airfield. When the houses were built in the 1990s, residents were promised a park.

If the migration is successful, the city plans to build the new park this spring.

"The residents are going to love this park,” said Santa Rosa city inspector Richard Nosker. “They’ve been looking forward to it for a long time."

About $25,000 of the the estimated $1.2 million needed to build the park is for salamander migration.