| From 2007 to 2014, wildlife monitoring was conducted by biologists with Coast Ridge Ecology and TRA Environmental Sciences, with assistance from HT Harvey and Associates for the Tah.Mah.Lah project, a Green Building residential home project in Portola Valley, California. The purpose of the monitoring was to inventory and track changes to local wildlife species composition on the 2-acre property before, during and after home construction and habitat restoration activities. Camera traps, point counts and cover board arrays were set up to monitor mammals, birds and reptiles/amphibian species, respectively. While mammal and bird species showed no significant change during the monitoring period, reptile and amphibian encounter rate and species diversity showed a decrease during the construction period and an increase during the post-construction/restoration period. We show that due to a number of factors, small-scale restoration to offset construction projects can be effective in increasing abundance and diversity of herpetofauna, and demonstrate that they may be useful indicators of habitat quality. |