I wish we had the money to engineer crossings for salamanders and frogs. I help them cross the Ellsworth Road in Blue Hill/Surry on so-called big night, which is actually a series of rainy nights in early spring. Dozens of salamanders and frogs migrating to their breeding grounds walk or hop out into the road and often pause, just sitting there. I grab them and take them across if I can get to them in time. Sometimes they are run over right in front of me as I wait for a car, hoping the tires find a path that doesn't take them out. Sometimes they seem fine but perhaps paralyzed with shock. They don't indignantly stalk or hop off right away like the others but hopefully recover after a while-- I don't know because I have to get back out there to find the next customer!
Apparently it isn't all that straightforward to make a salamander/ frog crossing. I've read that they don't like tunnels because it isn't raining in there, so engineers have to find a way for the rain to drip into the tunnel. An elevated roadway would be the best but who would pay for it?
Anyway I am glad to know that engineers are working on this issue and hope we can make a lot of progress on this issue. Thanks.
P.S. All of my tree swallow nests apparently fledged successfully earlier this week.
Thank you, Leda, for all you're doing for amphibians and tree swallows. (My swallows have all fledged as well.) For the amphibian crossings, I've seen underpass designs with a grated top, but I thought I'd read about successful tunnels too. We do some big night(s) work as well here in midcoast Maine. Such vital work that needs more attention. On the money side, there are federal funds, and if you have a known concentration of amphibian mortality let the folks at Maine Big Night know and maybe they can get the word to the state.
Yamila, thanks very much for writing in from the Australian perspective. I mention kangaroos in the piece but didn't do any research on the carnage there. Do you know if there's any effort to build underpass or overpass crossings? Even if there isn't a moral imperative from all the wildlife dying, there must be the same incentives that we have here, in terms of economic costs and human mortality. I'm sure solutions vary between, say, the eastern mtns and the outback, but I would think someone would be pushing for solutions. I hope so, anyway.
Thank you for this article. I’ve been criticised by my tendency to brake or swerve in order to miss killing something as I drive. “It’s not worth your life,” my loved ones say. But it is worth their’s, I think. Of course, I don’t put myself in danger for this. If I can’t safely take my foot of the gas for a few seconds then the car behind me is following too closely. I say a little prayer for each perished life I see on the roads. I cried when I once hit a raccoon. One night as I cycled home and saw a beautiful, fluffy skunk dead on the road composed a little song for all night creatures:
Good article Jason, thank you. I lived in rural areas most of my adult life, upstate NY, and have 30 years of witnessing roadkill from both a car and a bicycle. A bicycle also reveals the insect and small animal carnage you don't see in a car. It was rare to go on a ride and not see victims. Perhaps the ones that saddened me the most were in the early spring, after these creatures managed to survive a harsh winter; a bit later in the spring and I could assume the dead adults on the road meant dead babies, too, waiting for the mama or papa to come home. These creatures are sentient and with emotions. When I watched the chipmunks pause on my 60-foot-long rock wall at my home and put their faces to the sun on an endless day of preparing for the next winter, I knew they felt exactly what I feel when I do the same. I am certain much of human psychosis is from removing ourselves from the natural world. And how I love the work of Barry Lopez, so tragically lost.
Thank you, Geoffrey. You make a good point about how slowing down (to foot or bicycle speed) allows us to see more of what's been lost on the roadside. Slowing down is better all around. And I was thinking a lot about the spring/early summer losses, many of them birds and young mammals just out on their own for the first time. And before that, their parents busily working to feed the young. Lopez is a good guide for the kind of empathy we need threaded through a new culture.
I think about this often. I live in Alaska, and one day while my brother and I were driving south from Fairbanks down to Anchorage we collided with a moose. It was very similar to your experience in Maine, with the exception that we actually collided with it. It was a young bull moose with no antlers and we were doing about 55 because my brother was being cautious; our Corolla took the legs out from under it and the whole weight of the moose came in through our windshield. It was like the whole front of the car turned into a liquid.
When everything was settled both my brother and I were uninjured but the moose was so badly damaged that it didn't last for more than fifteen minutes after the collision. We had to get back into the car to move it forward a few hundred feet to a spot where we could take it off the road--when I got back into the passenger seat I finally realized that the glass of the window was about an inch away from my nose. If the moose had been slightly heavier, or if the car had been going slightly faster, I would have gotten a face full of shattered glass, and probably a broken neck.
We've driven that segment of road many times since then and as a consequence of the crash I spend a lot of time monitoring the roadside and trying to understand it. The place where we collided with the moose is quite possibly one of the only places on that stretch of freeway where a collision is possible (at least, as far as I can tell), and it seems to be a product of the design of that particular segment of the road. I find myself wondering if other people have had accidents at that same spot.
Do you know where I might go to access the roadkill data you were referring to in this article? I'm a data analyst and if it happens to be public domain then I'm interested in fiddling around with it.
That's a hell of a tale, Calen, and a close call. It's interesting how a stretch of road changes forever when you've had an experience like that on it. If we all knew what we'd all seen on all the roads, then maybe we'd think differently about roads and roadkill. I wish I had some info for you on AK roadkill data, but I don't think many states have followed CA's example of mapping roadkill so thoroughly. ME and MA have done some. I just did a quick search on "Alaska roadkill data" and got too much info on the roadkill salvage program. If you want to dig deeper, you could either talk to state folks in AK or contact the Road Ecology program in CA to see what they know about data up your way. Sorry I can't be of more help.
Thanks for this, such a sobering article. Here in the UK, it's just as bad, the only badgers and hedgehogs I've ever seen in recent years have been roadkill victims, it's just tragic.
Thank you, Juliet, for the UK perspective. I hope that the burgeoning rewilding efforts there continue to spread and merge with this equally important effort to make roads less deadly. If we can see roads for what they are, then we can work to reframe and redirect their interaction with wildlife.
Thank you for this necessary information, and also for ending with some hope so that I and other readers don't simply expire over the horribleness we've wrought on this planet.
There's more hope coming next week, Mary, in the follow-up. And if you need cheering, you can watch that video I ended with. It never fails to make me feel a bit better.
When I finally acknowledged the damage that we have done to Earth, I began to ration my gas usage. Half of my fifteen minute commute is a slow two mile trip on a dirt road with a spring that runs under the lower hill. Our road was carved in this western North Carolina mountain 60 years ago. For most residents, the trip is an exercise in careful driving. And deep appreciation for the wild Rhododendrons, turkeys, snakes, deer, turtles, bear, and the random dog who gets loose.
On occasion, a new resident will suggest paving the road.
Sigh.
Tomorrow is a neighborhood meeting to consider another such proposal. I will talk about your article. So timely. Thank you.
That's a harrowing tale, Perry, as they so often are. I'm glad you came through it.
I chose not to include the graphic photos available online of dead moose after collisions. As you write, we need to demonstrate a lot more empathy for these beautiful animals.
I wish we had the money to engineer crossings for salamanders and frogs. I help them cross the Ellsworth Road in Blue Hill/Surry on so-called big night, which is actually a series of rainy nights in early spring. Dozens of salamanders and frogs migrating to their breeding grounds walk or hop out into the road and often pause, just sitting there. I grab them and take them across if I can get to them in time. Sometimes they are run over right in front of me as I wait for a car, hoping the tires find a path that doesn't take them out. Sometimes they seem fine but perhaps paralyzed with shock. They don't indignantly stalk or hop off right away like the others but hopefully recover after a while-- I don't know because I have to get back out there to find the next customer!
Apparently it isn't all that straightforward to make a salamander/ frog crossing. I've read that they don't like tunnels because it isn't raining in there, so engineers have to find a way for the rain to drip into the tunnel. An elevated roadway would be the best but who would pay for it?
Anyway I am glad to know that engineers are working on this issue and hope we can make a lot of progress on this issue. Thanks.
P.S. All of my tree swallow nests apparently fledged successfully earlier this week.
Thank you, Leda, for all you're doing for amphibians and tree swallows. (My swallows have all fledged as well.) For the amphibian crossings, I've seen underpass designs with a grated top, but I thought I'd read about successful tunnels too. We do some big night(s) work as well here in midcoast Maine. Such vital work that needs more attention. On the money side, there are federal funds, and if you have a known concentration of amphibian mortality let the folks at Maine Big Night know and maybe they can get the word to the state.
Thank you for helping our creepy crawly critters!!
Thank you for writing this. We
Have such a similar problem
In australia
So many millions of
Marsupials
Die on our roads. As well as monotrmes and placentals such as foxes and rabbits. Also
Birds and reptiles. It is so bloody sad we must put an end to this carnage.
Yamila, thanks very much for writing in from the Australian perspective. I mention kangaroos in the piece but didn't do any research on the carnage there. Do you know if there's any effort to build underpass or overpass crossings? Even if there isn't a moral imperative from all the wildlife dying, there must be the same incentives that we have here, in terms of economic costs and human mortality. I'm sure solutions vary between, say, the eastern mtns and the outback, but I would think someone would be pushing for solutions. I hope so, anyway.
Update: I just looked quickly and found these (https://www.wildlifesafetysolutions.com.au/), (https://faunacrossings.com.au/), and (https://theconversation.com/good-news-highway-underpasses-for-wildlife-actually-work-187434). So there's some effort out there. Good luck, Yamila, and thanks again.
Thank you for this article. I’ve been criticised by my tendency to brake or swerve in order to miss killing something as I drive. “It’s not worth your life,” my loved ones say. But it is worth their’s, I think. Of course, I don’t put myself in danger for this. If I can’t safely take my foot of the gas for a few seconds then the car behind me is following too closely. I say a little prayer for each perished life I see on the roads. I cried when I once hit a raccoon. One night as I cycled home and saw a beautiful, fluffy skunk dead on the road composed a little song for all night creatures:
May all night creatures be safe and warm
May all night creatures be free from harm
May all night creatures be spared death by car
May all night creatures live to see sun dawn.
Thank you for this, Darcie. It's lovely. Their lives are indeed whatever good (careful) actions we can take. Far too many lives are lost every day.
Come soon the day we need no longer travel by road. But until that day drive with utmost alertness so as to not add to the toll.
Good article Jason, thank you. I lived in rural areas most of my adult life, upstate NY, and have 30 years of witnessing roadkill from both a car and a bicycle. A bicycle also reveals the insect and small animal carnage you don't see in a car. It was rare to go on a ride and not see victims. Perhaps the ones that saddened me the most were in the early spring, after these creatures managed to survive a harsh winter; a bit later in the spring and I could assume the dead adults on the road meant dead babies, too, waiting for the mama or papa to come home. These creatures are sentient and with emotions. When I watched the chipmunks pause on my 60-foot-long rock wall at my home and put their faces to the sun on an endless day of preparing for the next winter, I knew they felt exactly what I feel when I do the same. I am certain much of human psychosis is from removing ourselves from the natural world. And how I love the work of Barry Lopez, so tragically lost.
Thank you, Geoffrey. You make a good point about how slowing down (to foot or bicycle speed) allows us to see more of what's been lost on the roadside. Slowing down is better all around. And I was thinking a lot about the spring/early summer losses, many of them birds and young mammals just out on their own for the first time. And before that, their parents busily working to feed the young. Lopez is a good guide for the kind of empathy we need threaded through a new culture.
I think about this often. I live in Alaska, and one day while my brother and I were driving south from Fairbanks down to Anchorage we collided with a moose. It was very similar to your experience in Maine, with the exception that we actually collided with it. It was a young bull moose with no antlers and we were doing about 55 because my brother was being cautious; our Corolla took the legs out from under it and the whole weight of the moose came in through our windshield. It was like the whole front of the car turned into a liquid.
When everything was settled both my brother and I were uninjured but the moose was so badly damaged that it didn't last for more than fifteen minutes after the collision. We had to get back into the car to move it forward a few hundred feet to a spot where we could take it off the road--when I got back into the passenger seat I finally realized that the glass of the window was about an inch away from my nose. If the moose had been slightly heavier, or if the car had been going slightly faster, I would have gotten a face full of shattered glass, and probably a broken neck.
We've driven that segment of road many times since then and as a consequence of the crash I spend a lot of time monitoring the roadside and trying to understand it. The place where we collided with the moose is quite possibly one of the only places on that stretch of freeway where a collision is possible (at least, as far as I can tell), and it seems to be a product of the design of that particular segment of the road. I find myself wondering if other people have had accidents at that same spot.
Do you know where I might go to access the roadkill data you were referring to in this article? I'm a data analyst and if it happens to be public domain then I'm interested in fiddling around with it.
Best wishes,
Calen
That's a hell of a tale, Calen, and a close call. It's interesting how a stretch of road changes forever when you've had an experience like that on it. If we all knew what we'd all seen on all the roads, then maybe we'd think differently about roads and roadkill. I wish I had some info for you on AK roadkill data, but I don't think many states have followed CA's example of mapping roadkill so thoroughly. ME and MA have done some. I just did a quick search on "Alaska roadkill data" and got too much info on the roadkill salvage program. If you want to dig deeper, you could either talk to state folks in AK or contact the Road Ecology program in CA to see what they know about data up your way. Sorry I can't be of more help.
I just reread your note and realized you're not looking for AK data. Let's try again. Maine data is here (https://www.maine.gov/mdot/safety/wildlife/) and 2008 national data is here (https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/publications/research/safety/08034/). That's old info, so you might dig into resources behind the new Wildlife Crossings Program at FHWA (https://highways.dot.gov/federal-lands/wildlife-crossings). And I just bumped into this from State Farm (https://newsroom.statefarm.com/animal-collision/). And again the Road Ecology Center (https://roadecology.ucdavis.edu/) is the best place for general research. Hope this helps.
Thanks for this, such a sobering article. Here in the UK, it's just as bad, the only badgers and hedgehogs I've ever seen in recent years have been roadkill victims, it's just tragic.
Thank you, Juliet, for the UK perspective. I hope that the burgeoning rewilding efforts there continue to spread and merge with this equally important effort to make roads less deadly. If we can see roads for what they are, then we can work to reframe and redirect their interaction with wildlife.
Thank you for this necessary information, and also for ending with some hope so that I and other readers don't simply expire over the horribleness we've wrought on this planet.
There's more hope coming next week, Mary, in the follow-up. And if you need cheering, you can watch that video I ended with. It never fails to make me feel a bit better.
Adore the video!
Jason, thank you.
When I finally acknowledged the damage that we have done to Earth, I began to ration my gas usage. Half of my fifteen minute commute is a slow two mile trip on a dirt road with a spring that runs under the lower hill. Our road was carved in this western North Carolina mountain 60 years ago. For most residents, the trip is an exercise in careful driving. And deep appreciation for the wild Rhododendrons, turkeys, snakes, deer, turtles, bear, and the random dog who gets loose.
On occasion, a new resident will suggest paving the road.
Sigh.
Tomorrow is a neighborhood meeting to consider another such proposal. I will talk about your article. So timely. Thank you.
Better yet, you can quote Ben Goldfarb in Crossings: "The better the road, the bloodier."
Thanks for fighting the good fight, Katharine, and for spreading the word.
We hit a moose in rural New Hampshire in 2003. Here is my story.
https://open.substack.com/pub/perrygreenbaum/p/we-hit-a-moose-in-rural-new-hampshire?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=158buy
That's a harrowing tale, Perry, as they so often are. I'm glad you came through it.
I chose not to include the graphic photos available online of dead moose after collisions. As you write, we need to demonstrate a lot more empathy for these beautiful animals.