by Jeff Burlew
condensed from the Tallahassee Democrat
For the past two years, Matt Aresco has been a lone force
in an effort to save Lake Jackson turtles migrating across U.S.
Highway 27 (in Leon County).
But Aresco, a biology doctoral student at Florida State University,
is looking for help in saving the turtles, which he said are
killed in greater numbers crossing the highway than on any other
road in North America.
Aresco asked Leon County commissioners for help in finding
money for a permanent ecopassage that would help not only turtles
but also alligators, frogs, snakes, mammals and other critters
cross the road.
"They're all moving back and forth because this highway
was built over the lake bottom," said Aresco, an ecologist
and biologist. "They wander into the road, and they get
hammered. It's just a cruel way for a turtle to die."
The turtles cross the highway between Lake Jackson, a 4,000-acre
sinkhole seven miles north of Tallahassee, and Little Lake Jackson,
a much smaller lake created when the road was built in the 1950s.
Some turtles cross the highway looking for a mate or a place
to nest and lay eggs. Others cross during annual migrations in
the spring and summer. Still others leave the main lake during
dry periods in search of water.
In February 2000, a friend called Aresco to tell him about
dead turtles along the highway. Aresco was stunned when he walked
along the highway and counted 90 dead turtles that had been struck
by vehicles.
By April of that year, Aresco counted 439 dead turtles along
the highway. So, on his own time and with his own money, he built
a series of temporary fences along the highway shoulders to direct
wildlife to an underground culvert connecting the two lakes.
Aresco didn't stop there. Using containers and a green sack,
he carried more than 8,000 turtles, mostly yellow-bellied sliders
and Florida cooters, across the highway for more than two years.
"He single-handedly initiated this project," said
one of Aresco's professors, Frances James. "It's really
very remarkable."
But the fences will break down over time. They're also too
small to prevent large turtles or alligators from climbing over
and wandering into the road.
So Aresco has proposed a permanent solution: a series of underground
culverts and concrete walls that would help wildlife cross the
highway safely. A similar series of passages along U.S. Highway
441 crosses the Paynes Prairie State Preserve outside Gainesville.
(Leon) County Commission Chairman Dan Winchester, who has
two degrees from FSU, supports the plan. He estimated the cost
at several hundred thousand dollars.
For Winchester, the ecopassages are needed for reasons beyond
saving wildlife. He said the underground passages are necessary
to prevent traffic crashes.
More than 36,000 cars drive along the road each day. And during
migration periods, hundreds of turtles would be crossing the
road if not for Aresco's barriers.
"What this really boils down to is a wildlife and a traffic
safety issue," Winchester said. "Lake Jackson was one
large body of water, and they built a road through it. It's time
to do the right thing and correct a wrong that was done decades
ago."
The turtles also are vital to the Lake Jackson ecosystem.
They eat massive amounts of algae, plants such as hydrilla and
dead and dying fish.
"So they actually keep the lake clean," Aresco said.
Editor's note: A few days after this
story was published in the Tallahassee Democrat, the Leon County
Commission voted to try to get money from the state and federal
governments to build underground passageways to allow animals
to cross U.S. 27 under the highway instead of risking their lives
on the road.
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CHARLIE
BARNES
