Implement turtle-friendly curbing on roadways
Most curbing on Florida roads is straight and tall, so that once turtles enter the roadway the curb becomes a wall that turtles cannot climb to get back out of the road. They get stuck, basically waiting for a car to hit them or for some person to stop their car in traffic and dart out to carry the turtle to safety. It is a completely preventable situation if the state would just require different curbing (S or D shaped) on roads, particularly through wetlands, wooded areas, or beside lakes, or would put fencing along such roads to keep the turtles out. Minnesota Department of Natural Resources has published a guide for making roads more turtle-friendly, and this petition is to urge the State of Florida - a wetlands state - to implement turtle-friendly designs into its roadway projects.(http://files.dnr.state.mn.us/eco/nongame/turtle_flyer.pdf)
Here's a Youtube video about Minnesota's efforts to make roads more turtle (and other wildlife) friendly: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gVjCyjhe1zw. It's so simple!
- Florida Governor
- Director, Office of Design, Florida DOT
Florida's roadways use curbing that is unsafe for turtles, which results in many turtle deaths each year - this could be changed by using S or D shaped curbing, as the State of Minnesota has specified in this brochure: http://files.dnr.state.mn.us/eco/nongame/turtle_flyer.pdf. Here is a Youtube video of Minnesota's efforts in action: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gVjCyjhe1zw.
This is not just an issue that affects turtle populations in our wetland state, but people as well since many well-meaning drivers will stop their cars to rescue trapped turtles - a situation that puts them in danger of being hit themselves.
This is such an easy problem to fix by using different types of curbing, particularly in areas that are known to be turtle habitats such as wooded areas, wetlands, and alongside lakes. Please address this issue.
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