Taricha sign

So man, remember back in 2006 when I used to be active? Then I went and graduated and got married and attempted to make the wedding gift newt-related? (Our wedding registry consisted of "we're going to make a newt sign, don't try to stop us, but give us money if you feel like it.")

Well, one year later, we have planted our first newt sign. We're planting another one this Wednesday.

Anyhow, thanks to many of you on this forum for keeping me entertained with wonderful photos throughout the past few years (and hopefully the more years to come). Especially thanks to a few people for giving us larger shots of the Taricha photos and sending in the permission slips for this sign.


Unwrapping the sign...



To give you an idea of how deep we had to dig.


Doctors digging.


The relieved couple.

That is wonderful! It is great to see a fellow newt lover create a wonderful project for newt-awareness.

The design on the sign is nice and friendly looking and covered with vivid pictures. I am sure the information is just as great.

didnt the advisors at your college tell you "PhD" stood for "post hole digger"??

congrats and all that...any chance of a photo of the full image?

What a great sign Pin-pin! Even better than I imagined. I like the way the men are standing around watching you do all the hard work

Nice to meet you the other day on your brief visit to the UK.

Well Mark as you realise from our meeting, American women are tough--ha ha, just kidding. It was also a pleasure to meet you and Jesper as well. Actually the rangers did most of the digging, although they did enjoy watching us flounder around.

Paris, this is the other sign which will be put up soon: }

They are the same except for the park inscription at the bottom. As you can see, it went through several edits where information about tetrodotoxin and the differences between T. granulosa and T. torosa were edited out , but the rangers made a very good argument about accessibility to children who would find the sign the most informational.

The signs were also placed far away from the breeding ponds in the parks, so people would be able to spot the migrating newts, but not disturb the eggs. I was really happy and surprised at the level of thought they put into the placement and content editing (of course with a little sadness at the lack of scientific names) of the signs.



Anyhow, it was a great wedding gift and if you wanted to do anything of the sort, feel free to contact me. Of course, I suggest that if you wanted it anywhere NEAR your wedding date, to start 2-years in advance. Heh.

Wow, where was I through all this?

Congrats on your wedding, and on the signs. They look awesome.

I like what the sign says. (I have really good eyes and could read the entire thing on the photo) It sounds pretty resourcful,educational, and would make people more interested in newts. Good luck with the rest of the signs. Congrats!

This is such a cool project. Good work! It's a good thing your spouse is so newt-tolerant

Congrats on your good work pin-pin.

Thats pretty sweet. Keep it up Pin-Pin.


Yeah, I guess its been a while since i posted too.

Wow, Hello there I must admit that is one nifty sign xxx

That is wonderful!! Good job! I wish there had been a "Newt Crossing" sign on some of the roads where I grew up, in Western Washington.

My introduction to Rough-Skinned Newts as a child of age 9, was walking down country roads in the Spring and finding hundreds of them run over by cars.

I would round up the occasional survivors and take them home where I learned how to care for them.

I wish there could have been a way to protect the newts... but they must have all died out of that area because I visited there about a year ago in the Spring, and there was no sign of newts, living or dead.

So good job for educating people about these wonderful, and little-understood, creatures.

Newt and salamander awareness is an important issue. Many people have the wrong ideas about salamanders, like the fishermen who think mudpuppies bite or are poisonous. I think signs like this would help out at many of the forest preserves around here. I have gone out for days in the past with out finding any salamanders, and then hear about some children in my subdivision who kill the ones they find in window wells. It irritates me!
If those kids new more about the salamanders they probably would have realized how special they really are.

The sad thing is most folks don't realize how special anything is until its gone. That is why signs like this are important.

I agree that all species should have a sign. If at the very least, to help teach people that salamanders/newts are not the same thing as LIZARDS! *sigh*

To my shame I never noticed this thread when it was originally posted. However, I had heard about Pin-pin and Rafael's signs through other sources. Just now I ran across this on Gary Nafis' California herps site (this is his image - I hope he doesn't mind that I display it here):



There's a context photo of this sign at http://www.californiaherps.com/salamanders/pages/t.t.torosa.html