Only until you get better ...
Posted on 12/07/2011 5:53:43 PM PST by WKB
HINDS COUNTY, MS (WLBT) - A two-mile section of the Natchez Trace Parkway south of Interstate 20 in Hinds County now has a lowered speed zone to protect wildlife in the area.
According to the National Park Service, there is a habitat in this area for several species of salamanders and frogs, including the “state-imperiled” Webster’s salamander.
In order to increase the ability for these species to cross unharmed, a reduced speed limit of 35 mph at night, when raining, will be in effect, the National Park Service announced in a press release Wednesday.
Dozens of amphibians are killed by cars each night during the rainy nights in the December and March breeding season, the National Park Service says.
-PJ
Stupid MD doesn’t care, even though the Eastern Spotted Salamander is our state amphibian.
Until I almost got grabbed off the mountain top one rainy night, I used to go up with a bucket and a flashlight and get the ones I could, across.
It’s not like they “dart into traffic” or you can’t see them on the road, people just don’ give a damn.
Fact is, these animals have ‘ancestral crossings’ that they [and their ancestors] have used since time, immemorial.
Just because there’s suddenly a road on top of a mountain doesn’t mean they’ll “figure out” another way to cross.
They spend 99% of their lives underground, come down off the mountain, cross the road and continue down the mountain until they reach the vernal pools where they were hatched, breed and then make the trip back up.
We had *tons* of them here until the flatlanders moved out this way and just drove over them without concern.
[these are the same liberals who chain themselves to trees, no less]
Within a year, the mountain top was a scene of mass carnage in late Feb/early March during the first rains.
Literally thousands of them smashed, just because people couldn’t be bothered to slow down a bit, especially since they cross right on the ‘dead man’s curve’]
Whereas before, I’d see them everywhere here, now it’s a big deal if I see one a year.
I don’t care who it pisses off.
I -hate- seeing things killed when it could easily be avoided.
To add insult to injury, the ecos bawl abut the ‘loss of salamander species’ in the state.
Hey Stoopids!
Call me!
I can clue you in!
Bad idea.
Most salamanders are toxic.
Wow! I live on the coast and would have blown this off as nothing, but your story touched me. Thanks.
I do understand your feelings. The problem occurs with more building on the land that salamanders used to call their own. Their traffic pattern is disturbed so they get slammed. However, the tunnels don’t work.
As I said, the Amherst MA tunnel had to have volunteers working nights to guide the salamanders to /thru the tunnel. If you are interested in the successes or failures of the first salamander tunnel google Amherst Salamander Tunnel, lot’s of info.
So, a slow squash, instead of a quick squish?
Unless those salamanders are the size of rats,who is going to see them on a wet road at night in time to avoid them, even at 35?
Hello, Road Service? I'm in a ditch on I-20; I swerved to miss a salamander...yes; a salamander...QUIT LAUGHING AND SEND A DAMNED TOW TRUCK!
OMG...soon as I saw the title, I backed out.
I know about them.
That is horrible.
Poor things.
There’s also some mass frog migration every year with the same results but I forget where.
[probably blanked it out]
That’s a pity.
At least the people tried.
Here, “building” isn’t an issue.
Where they cross is from a nearly vertical cut in the mountain on the north side of the road down a sheer drop on the right side of the road.
Only mountain goats could live on those angles.
They can’t build squat there but they could cut a road through it.
The biggest tragedy is that they only cross over about a hundred foot stretch of road, always in the exact same place, every single year.
People can’t take less than 5 seconds out of their lives to slow down for a lousy hundred feet.
West coast?
If so, you have those amazing, huge Tiger Salamanders out there.
They make great pets...:)
A “herd” of salamanders crossing the road is pretty noticeable.
I see you’ve already been pinged.....
8^D
What’s a salamander? Anything like a newt?
Only until you get better ...
biggest issue on the Trace are the deer at night...no question.
if you keep it around 57-58 in the 50 mph stretches the rangers are not an issue
I have hit one deer in my 40 years on the Trace and so have several of my kin
I drive it a good bit...several times a week. Mostly northern end...from Florence-TN river to Hwy 100 terminus
and venture further south too every year
I grew up using the trace all around Jackson to Port Gibson (for the old MS river ferry to Lake Bruin) and up to Tupelo...Booneville...I was recently in Booneville...amazed at the growth and that bypass
I drove the trace from Lorman to Jackson recently...two weeks ago.
it’s a great southern forest and farmland road...I remember vaguely as a boy when the Resevoir outside Jackson first swallowed parts of the Old early paved trace...Lost Rabbit area
note to anyone...keep your head up around Howenwald TN (US 412 bridge)...it’s blocked off while they rebuild the bridge..it just jumps up on ya
>> I read in the paper that a man had been found there dead <<
Yeah, that musta been Meriweather Lewis, found dead at Grinders Switch.
(His colleagues at the White House said it was suicide, but the more perceptive minds among us suspect he was murdered for knowing too much.)
Oh man.....on a driving trip from California doing the "friends and family" tour, we drove from Lakeland down to Cape Coral - it took an extra hour or so, due to the necessity to stop and scrub down the windshield with great frequency.
Yep.
And I’m probably well on my way to being slapped, kicked and poked, too....;D
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