A Walk on the Wild Side

摘要

Rare and endangered plants and animals at Lawrence Livermore? Perhaps surprisingly, there are a few at the heavily developed main site, even as suburban Livermore edges ever closer. Twenty-four kilometers to the east, nestled in California's Coast Range, the Laboratory's Site 300 is home to many more. Here, at the Laboratory's testing range for high explosives. interesting flora and fauna abound on 28 square kilometers of rolling grasslands and steep ravines. At the main Livermore site, California red-legged frogs (Rana aurora draytonii), a federally listed threatened species, live in a small creek and are regularly monitored. They are also breeding in a drainage retention basin on site for the first time now that Laboratory wildlife biologists have controlled the bullfrog (a normative predator) population. The California tiger salamander (Ambystoma californiense), which may soon be listed as threatened, has been seen near the Livermore site.