Reptile & Amphibian Forums

This is big news in West Michigan. Maybe golfdiva has heard of this too. Has do do with a wetland along the Muskegon River where aquatic turtles (mostly snappers and painteds) try to cross the road.

From the WOODTV website (woodtv.com)

*****

Turtles snag Hoekstra, Granholm

Updated: Oct 25, 2007 04:41 PM EDT

GRAND RAPIDS - A fence to keep turtles from getting squished by cars as they cross the road is escalating into a battle between two Michigan political heavyweights.

Rep. Pete Hoekstra (R-Holland) sent a letter earlier this week to Governor Jennifer Granholm about the $318,000 barrier along US-31 at the Muskegon River. In the letter, Hoekstra said the state should have asked for more flexibility on using those federal funds. He invited Granholm and other state leaders to meet with federal lawmakers to find ways of boosting the economy.

The governor responded with her own letter. She said the Michigan Department of Transportation addressed Hoekstra's concerns two years ago. The letter read, in part, "MDOT responded to your concerns by pointing out that federal transportation law requires states to expend a portion of their federal highway funds on non-construction purposes and allows mitigation to reduce wildlife mortality."

Hoekstra responded Thursday and said the state needs to get creative. "Instead of saying, well, that's what the feds told us to do, then I guess we ought to go do it. It's kind of saying, if we had more flexibility, if we could do something else with that money, here's where it would go to get Michigan's economy going again."

Hoekstra also asked MDOT for information regarding studies on turtle deaths along that stretch of road, and how much that process cost taxpayers.

Its to bad they can't create something that prevents them from crossing the road, but still allows them to get through to the other side. Like passages beneath the rode.

Its also a bummer someone is against the barrier, if a lot of turtles are getting killed I think it would be important to put up.
-----
aquariphiles.com-where I blog about aquarium stuff

From what my mother tells me (she lives in Michigan), the state is broke.

If they can't even keep their basic government departments open they certainly can afford building something like this right now. That's probably why people are opposed to it, and what this sentence was referring to >" It's kind of saying, if we had more flexibility, if we could do something else with that money, here's where it would go to get Michigan's economy going again."

I live in the state, and as far as I know, we have the worst economy in the country. Our constitution requires a balanced budget for every year, and there was a lot of politicking going on in Lansing to decide what to do - and a small increase in taxes was approved.

My family and I go through that section of highway frequently, because it is on the way to the family cottage on Lake Michigan. The first person to respond suggested it would be good to put in something to allow them to cross the road, like somehow walk under the road. But there's really no where to go that is any different from where they came from - the highway runs through a wetland that is along the Muskegon River, and east of the northbound, between northbound and southbound westbound, and west of southbound U.S. 31 is all wetland, except where the river itself comes through. I don't remember seeing many turtles in or around the highway, dead or alive, but my brother said he remembers seeing a lot at times

I had another couple posts up with a link to a different local station's webpage, pointing readers here to a video clip from a newscast, showing turtles in and near the road - one looked like a boxie (but who can be sure whether the footage was taken from that part of that highway?) and others looked like snappers and painteds... and they had some email comments viewers had sent in. Anyway, the video clip had an ad for a local auto dealership, and I suspect the posts were removed for that reason.... I was a little surprised, it's not like I was personally trying to sell anything, and news clip would have been informative to readers here....

I saw a thing on a TV show im not sure where it was, but I'm pretty sure it was here in the States, but anyway they had a grate on the side of the road that could be driven on if need be but it had big enough gaps to allow migrating rare type of frogs or toads to fall into if they tried to cross the road, and when they fell down into the channel like maybe a foot, that channel ran parallel to the road and every so often would tie into a culver that would run under the road and let them out the other side. It was on both sides of the road but if the frog fell in on one side it would only dump or come out the opposite side so as to facilitate the migrating direction. Does that make sence? If it could work for toads, I would think you could size it up for turtles. Only question is $$$ and priorities.
-----
1.0 pastel ball python
0.1 mojave ball python
0.1 normal ball python
0.2 3-toed box turtles
2.3 eastern box turtles
0.0.5 3-striped mud turtle
1.0 northern diamondback terrapin
2.1 tiger salamander
1.1 red-sided garter
1.0 anerythristic red-sided garter
1.1 Iowa snow plains garter
1.1 Het butter stripe cornsnake
0.1 anerythristic motley cornsnake
1.1 Blue garter (Puget Sound)

Yeah, I saw this on tv. I understood that the money was not coming from the state budget, the amount being spent sounds high, but really wouldn't go very far in the state's general budget anyway. Plus, spending it give work to some people, and work is badly needed in this state! Also, I think it improves everyone's quality of life, which is something that helps attract people to a state to live.

I see it as a local politican trying to find a way to make a name for himself, as getting re elected is going to be difficult in the current climate.
-----
0.1.0 ornate box turtle
1.0.0 eastern box turtle
1.0.0 Yellow belly slider
0.1.0 Red belly cooter
0.1.0 Australian shepard
1.11.0 chickens
1.0.0 Dutch(rabbit)
3.2.0 children (do I still count the married ones?)
1.0.0 husband

Hoekstra gives Republicans with a Calvinist backgrounds, Dutch ancestry and Friesian family names, a bad name! Hoekstra is a member of the RCA. I grew up CRC, am 100% Dutch in ancestry, and have Friesian name....

...and I tend to vote Republican, I admit, but disagree with a lot of Republicans' stances on ecological and environmental issues.