Newts - a 20 year celebration of Cortes Island’s most celebrated salamander

Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents - It has been twenty years since George Sirk, then the island’s Regional Director, put up Cortes Island’s first Newt crossing signs. More recent arrivals probably know him better as the host of Cortes Radio’s ‘Nature Boy.' In today’s program he talks about the island’s most celebrated salamander.

While highly informative, George is probably Cortes Island’s most outrageous stand up comedian. Forget reading this post, listen to his antics in the podcast to learn:

What was the first reference to Newts in the English language?
Why you don’t want to eat a Newt
How Newts cross the road
Why they go back to the pond
Why you only find Wandering Salamanders on Marina Island, and there are no Newts there!
Have you heard the tree frogs in the forest?
How George Sirk became Nature Boy
Do you remember the Newts 60 years ago?
What Bertha should be asking in the Cortes Marketer
Why there aren’t many Newts on Quadra Island, or around Hollyhock
the story behind Cortes Island’s Newt crossing signs
New scientific research on regeneration in Newts

And - after a two year sabbatical - George promises he will soon be bringing Nature Boy back to the airwaves.