The State - News from Sept. 12, 1988

In an outpouring of compassion for a threatened creature that lives under rocks and eats bugs and worms, the East Bay Regional Park District in Berkeley is about to give an assist to the newt. The 4-inch tailed amphibians die by the hundreds under the wheels of vehicles when they cross South Park Drive in Tilden Park during the fall to mate, said park district spokesman Ned Mackay. With their thin skin and weak legs, the salamanders are not equipped to scoot across roads dodging cars, he said. The only answer is to occasionally reserve the road as a freeway for newts, he said. The agency is officially devoted to the little lizards, conducting seasonal “newt walks” to allow citizens to observe the critters when they emerge from their summer homes and head for the marshes to make more newts.