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“One missing element of the landscape today are these willow
groves—these large, wooded wetland areas that were associ-
ated with high groundwater, and provided a lot of food resources
throughout the year for a lot of species,”
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says Robin Grossinger,
an environmental scientist who worked with Google on the land-
scaping design. In the past, she says, the willow groves helped
wildlife survive during periods of drought. Expanding the groves
will be beneficial to wildlife during future droughts.
Google is also working with its landscape group on what is
called a “re-oaking” project. This is intended to bring back val-
ley oak trees that were once abundant on the land, and it will
hopefully attract wildlife species that depend on the trees. Google
management authorized the removal of 134 parking spaces in
company lots to make room for habitat expansion. As of Feb-
ruary 2017 a total of 50 acres (20.2 ha) of the Google campus
have been converted to more native landscaping, with more be-
ing planned for the future.
Roads Cut Through Habitat
Of all the threats faced by wildlife and all the ways habitats are frag-
mented or destroyed, roads and highways are among the worst
problems. Yet the reality is that society cannot function without
roads. They provide vital and necessary functions, from allow-
ing people access to employment, education, health care, recre-
ation—and other people—to transporting goods from manufac-
turers to consumers. “Roads and railways are necessary to move
goods and people across distances,” says the WWF, “but they
have long-lasting effects on the landscapes they cut through.”
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In several Asian countries, proposed roads could severely
endanger habitat for tigers, and the big cats are already strug-
gling to survive. According to Jon Miceler of the WWF’s Asia Pro-
grams, 97 percent of the tiger population has disappeared from
the wild in the past century. The tigers that exist today inhabit
only around 7 percent of their original range. In Laos, Cambodia,
and Vietnam, the tiger population has declined to the point that
the animals are considered extinct; a few may exist, but there
are no breeding pairs that can reproduce. There are still tigers in
