Behind the storefronts of Bridgeway, a stand of century-old trees does quiet, essential work. Biologist Dr. Shawn Smallwood calls it Princess Grove — a single living habitat spanning the 605 Bridgeway and 83 Princess sites, where wildlife pays no attention to property lines.
Smallwood's surveys documented more than twenty special-status species using the grove: monarch butterflies — a candidate for federal endangered listing — alongside Cooper's hawks, great horned owls, Anna's hummingbirds, and five kinds of bat, recorded in 146 passes in a single two-hour evening. The grove produces roughly 127 young birds every year.
The 605 project would clear 33 of these mature trees — coast live oaks, California buckeyes, bays. And the building's wall of glass, reflecting the bay, would become its own hazard: studies of comparable façades predict on the order of 180 bird deaths a year from window collisions alone.
Read Dr. Smallwood's full wildlife report — part of the complete record on the 605 Bridgeway campaign page.