Why Do You Save Them?

a work in progress non-fiction film

The Story

Every winter, Chileno Valley Road becomes a gauntlet of wet concrete, spinning rubber and flattened amphibians. Struck by the carnage she witnessed, Sally Gale decided to intervene. Over the wet Northern California winters that followed, Sally built a team of community volunteers that ferries at-risk amphibians - from newts to endangered frogs - across the one-lane country road. Braving cold, wet nights, oncoming traffic and sometimes-disgruntled neighbors, the Newt Brigade is finding success where so many are struggling - reconnecting people with the landscapes and wildlife around them.

According to Sally, the lake abutting her road “has been here a long time. And so have the newts.” The ranchers, like her family, are relatively recent arrivals. When Chileno Valley Road was built to carry their cattle and eggs seven miles to the market town of Petaluma, it solidified in stone an ill-fated intersection of humans and amphibians. Having had no say in the matter, the amphibians have more or less gone about their business. They continue to migrate, each winter, in and out of the long-lived lake. And because this “new” road forms a perilous border across the breadth of their route, the aforementioned ill fate is theirs.