http://www.gocomics.com/doonesbury/1972/10/30
On a more serious note, remember the fuss that the Republicans made about the turtle tunnels in Leon County, Florida?
$3.4 Million of Federal Stimulus Money to Pay for Turtle Tunnel
Published June 17th, 2009
Florida is receiving $13 billion in federal stimulus money to build roads, feed seniors and save jobs.
But $3.4 million of Florida’s cut is going to build a tunnel to help turtles cross a busy highway, and this turtle tunnel has some taxpayers outraged, according to the Capitol News Service.
The turtle tunnel made a list of 100 questionable spending projects released by Oklahoma Sen. Tom Coburn. The list was submitted to the president's office, which responded by calling the report “flawed.”
U.S. Highway 27 near Tallahassee is said to be the deadliest road in the world for turtles. The highway divides two lakes, and the turtles use one for nesting.
More:
http://www.wcjb.com/local-news/2009/06/34-million-federal-stimulus-money-pay-turtle-tunnel
More:
http://www.lakejacksonturtles.org/
Those tunnels, or more properly ecopassages, have been a resounding success - the number of dead turtles on that stretch of road has dropped to zero and studies show that many other species are using the tunnels to move back and forth between Lake Jackson and the arm cut off by US 27. This not only saves wildlife, it saves humans - as the article below describes:
Ugly Dead Things
Road Kill Takes a Toll on Species Large and Small — And Why You Should Care
By Jason Dehart
January-February 2012
<SNIP>
Aresco started monitoring and collecting data on the U.S. 27 road kills back in February 2000 as a graduate student at Florida State University. In 2002, serious work began to lay the groundwork for a permanent solution to the problem — a long guide wall with special culverts designed to allow animals to pass back and forth. Construction of the $2.5 million Lake Jackson Ecopassage was completed in 2010 and Aresco said it has made a huge difference already.
“I monitored it over the last several months and it’s working exactly as it was intended,” he said. “Animals are using it back and forth (through) the culverts, and they’re staying behind the barrier wall. They’re not being killed on the highway. I haven’t seen any mortality in the area, which is quite a difference to the situation we had prior to the construction.”
For the local denizens of the swamp and lake, the highway was previously all-but-impossible to cross because 24,000 vehicles fly by every day. Animal migration is high in this particular spot because the big lake is prone to periodic dry downs, which force them to seek higher water in Little Lake Jackson.
From 2000 to 2008, 11,270 reptiles and amphibians from 61 different species were recorded either trying to make the crossing or found dead. Slow-moving turtles are especially vulnerable. According to the Lake Jackson Ecopassage Alliance, 2,710 turtles attempt the crossing every year, perhaps the highest number recorded worldwide.
More:
http://www.tallahasseemagazine.com/January-February-2012/Ugly-Dead-Things/
= new reply since forum marked as read
