wes_von_papineäu
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ITHACA JOURNAL (New York) 28 May 08 Former Ithaca College professor seeks $200K to save mating salamanders - Traffic threatens species in area (Tim Ashmore)
If you picture roadkill, salamanders probably don't jump to mind. During certain times of year, however, squished amphibians are all over portions of town and county roads.
What's worse is the salamanders' mortality rate on roads is destroying their presence in our area.
Spotted salamanders cross Thomas Road in Caroline and Ellis Hollow Road in Dryden during very specific times of the year to mate, and during those weeks the mortality rate is high enough to threaten their existence, said John Confer, a former biology professor at Ithaca College.
Confer is on his way to securing a federal grant of $200,000 from the state-run transportation enhancement program. The grant would pay to install three culverts to run underneath Ellis Hollow Road that would protect the salamanders from traffic.
A study conducted over the past two years showed that 20 percent of street-crossing salamanders are killed.
“If there's 20 percent killed when they cross the road one way and 20 percent killed when they cross the road the other way and the spotted salamanders can live up to 15 years, they're not going to make it and they're not going to get their natural reproduction potential,” Confer said. “As commuter traffic and use of that road increases, I think the local population is in jeopardy of being wiped out.”
The grant would fund culverts on Ellis Hollow Road exclusively because there is an identified portion of the road with a dense population of spotted salamanders, along with the much more rare Jefferson salamander.
Though a grant to save migrating salamanders sounds a little funny, the application for the grant falls into a specific category that protects wildlife from human transportation. In Amherst, Mass., and near Albany grants have been used to successfully save spotted salamanders from traffic, Confer said.
To get the salamanders to notice the culverts, boarders will need to be constructed that funnel the salamanders toward the underpass, Confer said.
Fernando de Aragon, executive director of the Ithaca/Tompkins County Transportation Council, helped locate a grant that would help save the salamanders and said the grant application to protect salamanders falls squarely under one of the options.
“It's pretty unique,” de Aragon said of the grant. “It's not the first time that (these) funds are used for wildlife mortality mitigation, however, we haven't used it for this purpose here or in region three of (department of transportation) in Central New York.
“People don't think much of salamanders, but they're a fine species. They're actually an important indicator species, as most amphibians are. If they're doing O.K., then the environment, particularly the water environment, is doing O.K.”
Confer said the salamanders eat insects such as mosquitoes and in turn are part of a great blue heron's diet among other aquatic wildlife.
On Thomas Road, Confer thinks the solution could be closing a portion of the road to through traffic during nights the salamanders migrate. He said thousands of salamanders cross Thomas Road, but that it's over a couple of hundred yards of road, which would make building culverts on that stretch far too expensive.
Confer said spotted salamanders migrate during specific times of year. It needs to be a cool, rainy, early-spring night, somewhere in the range of 40 to 50 degrees. The salamanders spend about two weeks in a pond reproducing before disappearing into the forest for the remaining 50 weeks of the year.
De Aragon, who administers numerous federal grants, said the uniqueness of the grant will work in its favor. Last year the Department of Transportation encouraged him to develop projects that are different than the historic bridge and trail repair transportation enhancement program grants have been used for in the past.
http://www.theithacajournal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080528/NEWS01/805280304/1002
If you picture roadkill, salamanders probably don't jump to mind. During certain times of year, however, squished amphibians are all over portions of town and county roads.
What's worse is the salamanders' mortality rate on roads is destroying their presence in our area.
Spotted salamanders cross Thomas Road in Caroline and Ellis Hollow Road in Dryden during very specific times of the year to mate, and during those weeks the mortality rate is high enough to threaten their existence, said John Confer, a former biology professor at Ithaca College.
Confer is on his way to securing a federal grant of $200,000 from the state-run transportation enhancement program. The grant would pay to install three culverts to run underneath Ellis Hollow Road that would protect the salamanders from traffic.
A study conducted over the past two years showed that 20 percent of street-crossing salamanders are killed.
“If there's 20 percent killed when they cross the road one way and 20 percent killed when they cross the road the other way and the spotted salamanders can live up to 15 years, they're not going to make it and they're not going to get their natural reproduction potential,” Confer said. “As commuter traffic and use of that road increases, I think the local population is in jeopardy of being wiped out.”
The grant would fund culverts on Ellis Hollow Road exclusively because there is an identified portion of the road with a dense population of spotted salamanders, along with the much more rare Jefferson salamander.
Though a grant to save migrating salamanders sounds a little funny, the application for the grant falls into a specific category that protects wildlife from human transportation. In Amherst, Mass., and near Albany grants have been used to successfully save spotted salamanders from traffic, Confer said.
To get the salamanders to notice the culverts, boarders will need to be constructed that funnel the salamanders toward the underpass, Confer said.
Fernando de Aragon, executive director of the Ithaca/Tompkins County Transportation Council, helped locate a grant that would help save the salamanders and said the grant application to protect salamanders falls squarely under one of the options.
“It's pretty unique,” de Aragon said of the grant. “It's not the first time that (these) funds are used for wildlife mortality mitigation, however, we haven't used it for this purpose here or in region three of (department of transportation) in Central New York.
“People don't think much of salamanders, but they're a fine species. They're actually an important indicator species, as most amphibians are. If they're doing O.K., then the environment, particularly the water environment, is doing O.K.”
Confer said the salamanders eat insects such as mosquitoes and in turn are part of a great blue heron's diet among other aquatic wildlife.
On Thomas Road, Confer thinks the solution could be closing a portion of the road to through traffic during nights the salamanders migrate. He said thousands of salamanders cross Thomas Road, but that it's over a couple of hundred yards of road, which would make building culverts on that stretch far too expensive.
Confer said spotted salamanders migrate during specific times of year. It needs to be a cool, rainy, early-spring night, somewhere in the range of 40 to 50 degrees. The salamanders spend about two weeks in a pond reproducing before disappearing into the forest for the remaining 50 weeks of the year.
De Aragon, who administers numerous federal grants, said the uniqueness of the grant will work in its favor. Last year the Department of Transportation encouraged him to develop projects that are different than the historic bridge and trail repair transportation enhancement program grants have been used for in the past.
http://www.theithacajournal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080528/NEWS01/805280304/1002