Posted on 04/23/2011 3:22:47 PM PDT by FourPeas
The Virginia Department of Transportation is considering composting roadkill, a move boosters say will save money and improve the environment.
The agency spends $4.4 million annually removing and disposing of thousands of animal carcasses found on the 57,867 miles of road it maintains.
[snip]
The remainder typically bury the animals along the roadside. That's a problem because nutrients and bacteria, such as fecal coliform, released by the carcasses can reach waterways, Donaldson said.
"It's like super-concentrated fertilizer," she said. "It all goes into the [Chesapeake] Bay ultimately."
Also, landfills are sources of methane, a greenhouse gas that most climate scientists say contributes to global warming.
Composting would alleviate the environmental hazards while annually saving hundreds of thousands of dollars, Donaldson said.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailypress.com ...
Of course, no where does the article give the amount of supposed bacteria, etc. that actually reaches waterways.
gosh, how did the earth survive before all this composting?
You aren’t supposed to compost oils, fats or meat. All breed disease and draw vermin.
Viginia needs to import some vultures. Those are our road cleaning crews.
How is roadkill any different from all of the other dead animals that lie scattered about the landscape, and are usually eaten by predators or scavengers of one sort or another?
Does this mean that we have to establish state agencies to patrol the forests and compost all the animal corpses? What will happen to the other animals and insects that live by eating them?
Good grief.
Perhaps some of the hinkley buzzard clan will immigrate now that they know there’s a good supply of food?
Are we shooting for an endangered list record or sumthin'?
Are we shooting for an endangered list record or sumthin'?
We have the Turkey Buzzards here in Florida. They will swarm a dead animal on the road and move it to the side so traffic can pass and they can dine uninterruptedly.
http://i.pbase.com/o5/30/681730/1/68842751.kGAbQuPy.Kalkongamterpingvinungew.jpg
Are you the buzzard in question? I've never hit anything larger than a possum or a raccoon, but I came within ten feet of hitting about a half dozen deer one night when they decided to stand around the middle of a blind S curve.
Maybe they should just blow up roadkill like the famous whale beached in Oregon.
What’s the hardest thing about eating roadkill??
.
.
.
.
.
Dodging traffic.
Would you want a dozen dead, potentially rabies infected raccoons decaying in your garden?
Don’t know about Virginia, but it’s not uncommon for local gardeners to get supposedly clean compost from the municipality.
How does one “compost” animal tissue?
A couple years ago, a careless driver nailed a goose in the head on my street. I had a great meal that night!
Not to mention magpies and other medium sized birds, they all eat meat when it is available.
I hot composted a dead skunk once, but the pile topped 175 degrees and I left is alone for over a month. I dug through the finished compost and found no trace of it; not even the bones. So yes, you can compost animals. Nature does it all the time.
See my last post #18. You have to hot compost (aerobic) and put the animal deep into the core of a fairly substantially sized pile. Just about nothing can survive that.
How do you eat a possum that has been in the road and in the hot sun for 3 days?
With a straw.
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