During my latest visit to the Netherlands, as I was driving on a small but busy road to one of the many beaches, I saw an attention-grabbing sign warning drivers of frogs crossing the road. ‘They must have forgotten to post the ant crossing sign’, I said to my Dutch co-passenger, convinced that the sign was meant as a joke. But he explained to me that this was toad breeding season. I knew he was right because two weeks later, the sign was gone. This led me to wonder why we don’t do a better job protecting our local wildlife back in the US. I know, Americans are used to 'road kill'. This is a BIG country with a lot of space, a lot of roads and a lot more wildlife than in Holland. But wouldn’t that be all the more reason to design, implement and maintain our road infrastructure in a more intelligent way?
Where I live, in New England, Canada Geese are as much a fixture of the scenery as the grey squirrel, the mallard duck and the blackbird. During the spring months it is common to see mom, dad and a slew of goslings waddle slowly across the asphalt, their heads held high, stopping all traffic as if it was the most natural thing in the world. Contrary to what people think, these resident geese are not the ones that stopped migrating and decided to stay here. They are the descendants of caged geese let loose in the forests of Western Massachusetts. It seems that there are over one million resident geese in the ‘Atlantic Flyway’ (the migration route along the Atlantic Coast of North America). Even though they are different from the migratory kind, they don’t really belong here. You can tell by their muscular bodies and their huge wing span. They are made to fly to the tundra's of Alaska or the Everglades of Florida. They can fly up to 60 miles per hour at an altitude of 8000 feet. They are not meant to waddle across the busy highways around Boston. At this time of year I often see the remains of their large bodies mangled to a bloody pulp on the side of the road. Should we accept this as an unavoidable by-product of civilization clashing with wildlife? Is there an unspoken assumption that if an animal gets run over, it wasn't smart enough, fast enough or strong enough and it shouldn't pass on its genes to their offspring?
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| Eco-Bridge in the Netherlands |
There are four million miles of roads in the US. The impact of roads on wildlife is enormous with over one million animals getting killed every day on highways. Some species of animals simply refuse to cross barriers as wide as a road and for these species a road effectively cuts their population in half. It disrupts connectivity between breeding grounds, which causes 'fragmentation' and eventually leads to a species dying out. One solution is to create 'habitat corridors' between disconnected areas. Holland (and Europe in general) is more advanced when it comes to mitigating the impact of roads on wildlife. The Dutch have many ‘wildlife crossings’ to try to prevent 'fragmentation' of natural habitats. The Nature Bridge Zanderij in Holland's Veluwe nature reserve, is the largest eco-bridge in the world, spanning railroad tracks, a four-lane highway and a sports park. It is 2400 feet long and 150 feet wide and cost 14 million euro's to build. That, in a country the size of Massachusetts.
It used to go by the name of 'The Iron Curtain', the impassable border dividing Communist Europe from the West. The European Green Belt idea began when Kai Frobel. a bird enthusiast who lived in a town on the border of East and West Germany, noticed that the No Man’s land of the Iron Curtain had become a de-facto wildlife preserve. It stretches from the northern tip of Norway all the way down to Greece, a length of 8,400 km. For the past 60 years, this land was only accessible to boarder guards with kalashnikovs, which turned it into a perfectly protected habitat, although certain sections, like the border between Russia and Finland, are still heavily fenced and, to some extent, hinders the migration of large mammals. The plan is to create a 'green corridor' that spans the entire length of Europe. It is truly a multi-national initiative and requires the cooperation between 23 nations.
Ontario's Green Belt
Ontario's Greenbelt is a permanently protected area of green space, farmland, forests, wetlands, and watersheds, located in Southern Ontario, Canada. It surrounds Canada's most populated and fastest-growing area—the Golden Horseshoe, around lake Ontario. Even though it also includes agricultural land, Ontario's Green belt protects 1.8 million acres of countryside. There is a long corridor that stretches from the Niagara Falls area to Tobermory on Georgian Bay.
This essay started with frogs and ended with Green Belts the size of a small state. The implementation of Green Belts will not help the Canada geese in my neck of the woods. Therefore the importance of wildlife crossings such as overpasses, underpasses and crosswalks can not be emphasized enough. If a country like Holland can protect frogs, if it can build a 2800 meter eco-bridge and raise awareness in the general population, why cannot we do the same and save some of the millions of creatures that get killed every day on the highways? That number doesn't include all the animals that crawl off the road and die as a result of their injuries. Even a simple 'goose crossing' sign or lowering the speed limit on the road to my health club would be an improvement. But until someone really gets hurt in a collision with one of these majestic birds, I doubt anything will change. leave comment here
5 comments:
Loved this piece and it is so important. Don't forget though that it was the USA that invented federal preserved lands called national parks. Each state also has state parks. Just saying the bridge in Holland is awesome but ........
The frogs also delayed the building of a road in Poland by a Chinese company.
Cheers from Montana.
In Davis, a culvert under a road or freeway was constructed as a toad crossing. I met the author of a children's book based on that crossing.
There are numerous efforts, some successful, by state and federal wildlife agencies to provide safe wildlife corridors in the U.S.
But all too often people regard wildlife as expendable. Where I live (in Rancho Murieta) the golf course board of directors decided to regularly poison the ground squirrels because they tunneled in and around the golf course. This was the end of the spectacular golden eagles that were so prevalent when we moved here 30 years ago. Ground squirrels were their prey. I used to love to watch the ground squirrels on the tops of boulders signaling each. I haven't seen one for about 20 years. The coyotes, which also fed on the squirrels, are no longer yodeling in the night. Three species gone. The golden eagles also preyed on rattlesnakes. It was a stunning sight to see one fly off with a grown snake writing in its clutches. The eagle would land on a branch of an oak and pummel the snake. Baby rattlesnakes were quick snacks for them. Now people in Rancho Murieta complain of seeing too many rattlesnakes, and their dogs get bitten.
On a dark night in October, traveling on Highway 49 from Grass Valley to Sacramento, a big male buck (deer with big horns)jumped in front of me. Because of the total darkness, I did not see the deer until he landed in front of my head lights.
Fortunately, I was traveling at a modest speed; the deer was knocked to the pavement instead of sliding over the hood and into the wind-shield. A piece of horn or hoof hitting the windsheild made the first sound; then a chrunching and banging as both front and rear axels climbed across the deer carcass.
I pulled off the road at the first opportunity and dialed 911 to report the accident. The officer's first question "are you injured." I told him "No, and my engine is still opearting." The 911 operator said that he would immediately dispatch staff to remove the deer carcass from the roadway. He thanked me for reporting the accident immediately, and after a pause added:"don't feel badly; this is deer mating season and the bucks are acting like our wild teen agers."
The damage to our Toyota sedan: $5,595. to replace the front fenders hood, grill, motor mounts, etc.
I also travel toward Placerville on Highway 50, and I am aware of safe animal crossings under the roadway. A decade ago, one of my steers escaped (chased by a dog) from the pasture on the north side of Highway 50. I found the calf, three days later, two miles south the highway. The wild animal crossings constructed on the federal highways are also used farm animals.
I would like to see more public funding to protect the wild animals
but it is not likely to happen as long as the Republican party controls federal and state budgets.
David Humphers
Yes, even when I still lived in Europe, the National Parks system was set as an example for ecology-minded people.
Isn't it shocking how many species are vanishing at an accelerated pace? But in on occasion toads rule and even the Chinese have to listen!
Great anecdotes as comments to this post.
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