& fauna

Few people realize just how biologically complex urban areas actually are. Cities abound in animals usually thought of as belonging in rural woods or meadows out in the "country," e.g, raccoons, foxes, skunks, hawks, songbirds, fish, butterflies, bats, and even coyotes.
	Students at Sulzberger Middle School have reported seeing garter snakes, opossums, raccoons, turtles, rabbits, and numerous birds in their neighborhood.
Wildlife habitat is often created in urban areas as part of the development design process. Even when their primary function is something else, urban design features can produce valuable habitat. For example, stormwater retention, detention, and infiltration schemes can be designed to provide permanent or transient aquatic habitats suitable for a number of species.This spotted salamander (right), for example, can survive in an urban habitat that provides undisturbed woodland adjacent to an area that forms vernal (temporary spring) ponds.	.