Back to the Table of Contents Page

Back to the Weekly Home Page

Classifieds

Palo Alto Online

University opens 'tunnel of love' for salamanders

by Bill D'Agostino

To aid randy California tiger salamanders making their way from their home in the Stanford Hills to their breeding ground in Lake Lagunita, Stanford University opened up a special tunnel under Junipero Serra Boulevard last week.

Stanford officials and biologists, as well as local conservationists, are hopeful the 50-foot-long metal tunnel will be an effective tool in keeping the population of the slow amphibians from getting decimated by fast cars.

In addition to the tunnel, Stanford also built an asphalt barrier along the side of the Junipero Serra to force the salamanders off the road and into the tunnel. If all goes well, they will be guided inside the tunnel by a two-by-four piece of wood and eventually reappear on the other side with their mate in tow.

Alan Launer, campus biologist with the Stanford Center for Conservation Biology, said in the past more than half the salamanders that attempted the journey across Junipero Serra got squished by automobiles, sometimes as many as 250 in a year.

Salamanders typically migrate in November or early December, after the first significant rainfall lands in Lake Lagunita.

The Stanford hills and the area around Lake Lagunita is one of the few remaining habitats for the (approximately) 8-inch amphibians. The exact number of the Lake Lagunita California tiger salamanders is unknown, but Launer estimates the population to be between 500 and 2,500.

Currently the California tiger salamander is designated as a "species of special concern" by California. It is on a waiting list to be considered as a threatened or endangered species under the 1972 federal Endangered Species Act.

Recently, local environmental group Acterra and Berkeley's Center for Biological Diversity also petitioned the state Fish and Game Commission to name the California tiger salamander an endangered species.

Stanford would face new development restrictions if the salamander was declared threatened or endangered.

The tunnel was built to satisfy the 1998 California Tiger Salamander Agreement (which Stanford signed along with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the California Department of Fish and Game and Santa Clara County). Andy Coe, Stanford's director of community relations, said one to three more salamander tunnels are also required by Stanford's General Use Permit (approved by Santa Clara County last November).

The university waited until this year to build the tunnel, much to the consternation of environmental groups who hoped it would be completed sooner, so they could construct it along with their storm-drain pipeline project and save money.

The 1,800-foot storm-drain pipeline will carry water under Junipero Serra to Lake Lagunita to provide the campus with flood protection in the event of heavy rains.

Launer said that the cost of the salamander's tunnel was approximately $20,000 (the whole storm-drain pipeline construction project was estimated to cost close to $1 million), but would have been significantly more if it had been built alone.

Denice Dade of the Committee for Green Foothills was pleased to hear the university had finally completed the tunnel, but was concerned the construction and the amount of earth moved might have harmed salamanders or their habitat.

Coe admitted that Stanford might have inadvertently killed some of the salamanders in the tunnel's creation. "Some of them could have been destroyed," he said.

Coe added that any damage suffered by the salamander habitat during construction will ultimately be replaced once they begin its restoration. A special workday for the public to come and give comments on the project is tentatively scheduled for Oct. 20.

Dade, who hadn't even known about the project until she saw the tractors begin construction six months ago, was disappointed the county had not required Stanford to get a grading permit, circumventing a possible public review process.

"That's not a very good example of how we'd like to see the tiger salamander taken care of," Dade said.

H. Bradley Shaffer, an evolution and ecology professor at the University of California, Davis, said the success of an amphibian tunnel is in the details of the tunnel's design. He noted the two most important factors are continual maintenance and amount of light.

Shaffer noted that if there isn't enough light in the tunnel for the salamanders to realize there is an end to the path, they might be reluctant to go inside. To help moderate that concern, Stanford burrowed holes in the road above the tunnel. Launer said additional lights might have to be placed near the tunnel if the holes don't allow enough illlumination.

The tunnel sits at an acute angle across the road. Launer said the angle both keeps the salamanders moving in the right direction (the angle is aimed toward the lake), and follows the direction of the storm drain's pipeline, which the tunnel sits on top of.

Launer said some have expressed concern the tunnel will act as a "snack bar" for their predators (raccoons, for instance), but he noted his team has seen very few predators out in the season and time when the salamanders migrate.

Launer cautioned that the success rates with similar salamander tunnels in other areas around the world (including one in Massachusetts) "hasn't been great." He added that if this particular tunnel isn't successful, other designs can be attempted.

Even if it's not successful, Launer also said the tunnel will add to the body of research Stanford has collected on trying to conserving the salamander.

Still, Launer is hopeful some salamander couples can reach the lake and successfully reproduce. "If even one salamander uses the tunnel to cross the road, I'll consider it a partial success," he said.

However, no matter how thriving it is, the tunnel will definitely not be the solution to all automobile-related salamander casualties on the Stanford campus since the new tunnel and barrier only covers one section of Junipero Serra and salamanders using the tunnel still need to cross Campus Drive East.

"Even if it works perfectly, it's only going to save a small fraction," Launer said.

E-mail Bill D'Agostino at bdagostin@paweekly.com