PIONEER PRESS (St Paul, Minnesota) 04 May 06 Snapper crossing - When Washington county officials turned down his request for 'turtle-crossing' signs on a critical stretch of road, an Afton man took matters into his own hands. (Mary Divine)
In Boston, as the children's book says, they make way for ducklings. In Afton, some want drivers to make way for turtles.
Residents have installed two hand-painted "turtle-crossing" signs along Washington County 18, the busy highway that runs through town.
City officials last year asked Washington County transportation officials to install official yellow crossing signs in the quarter-mile area where snapping turtles leave the St. Croix River and cross the highway to lay eggs in the sandy ground on the opposite side of the road. But county officials refused, saying animal-crossing signs have been shown to be ineffective.
Afton resident Kevin Foley decided to take matters into his own hands and post unofficial warnings. He asked an Afton 14-year-old, Alex Mielke, to design and paint two signs and then asked landowners if he could install the signs on their property.
On Tuesday, Foley and Mielke placed the light-blue plywood signs in a driveway area near the Valley Creek bridge north of town and in a grassy area between the highway and Stagecoach Trail. The signs feature a painting of a large snapping turtle and bright gold letters that read: "Turtle crossing. Please slow down. Save the turtles."
After pounding in metal stakes and securing the signs with baling wire, Foley stepped back to admire their work: "Good job, Alex," he said. "That's a good sign."
Alex said she was happy to help out. "All life is important," the home-schooled eighth-grader said.
Foley found 12 dead turtles along the highway last year and said he wanted this year to be different. "I haven't seen any so far this year, so I think the timing is perfect," he said. "I'm just hoping they didn't all get wiped out last year."
Foley expects to leave the signs up until the end of June. By then, all the turtles' eggs should be laid. "That's the sensitive time," he said. "Hopefully, people will see them and we can report back that we saw lots of turtles and they all made it across."
Because this is the busy time of year for turtle crossings, drivers should slow down to avoid them, but should not swerve at high speeds or stop in the middle of traffic to move them from the roadway, said Wayne Sandberg, deputy director of the county's transportation department.
Sandberg said the turtle-crossing signs shouldn't be a problem since they are not in the county right-of-way and aren't large or distracting.
But research shows animal-crossing signs don't control traffic well, he said, "because deer don't read signs."
"We have numerous places where turtles cross, and it isn't feasible for us to install these signs everywhere," he said. "We don't install deer-crossing signs for similar reasons."
Turtles and deer aren't alone; the county also has rejected requests for goose-, duck- and frog-crossing signs. Crossing signs for pedestrians, snowmobiles and cattle "are always associated with a trail or regular crossing location," he said.
Other metro counties have similar policies on crossing signs, although some allow deer warnings, Sandberg said. The Minnesota Department of Transportation decided last year to phase out deer-crossing signs along state highways because of research showing they are not effective.
Afton Mayor Dave Engstrom said he would have preferred that the county install official signs in the highway's right-of-way but was grateful private citizens stepped up to help.
"I really think this is a special area," Engstrom said. "There are not too many places where the highway goes this close to the river or in a wetland. It's hard to teach the turtles different practices (from what) they have learned over hundreds of years — they tend to be creatures of habit."
Snapper crossing