US 27: Suicide Alley For Suwanee Cooters
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Construction about to begin on project to save lives of a species of turtle but not without controversy.
Like other states, Florida has received its share of federal stimulus dollars and has allocated a great deal of it to the repair of roads and bridges. However, $3.4 million has been set aside for the completion of a tunnel beneath highway 27 over Lake Jackson near Tallahassee to allow Suwannee Cooter turtles safe passage from the main lake to Little Lake Jackson on the other side of the busy road. Environmentalists call U.S. 27 “The Wolrd’s Worst Turtle- Killing Highway.”
A Florida State University doctoral student, Matt Aresco, has been stumping for such a project for nearly 10 years and was dissapointed recently when Senator Tom Coburn, an Oklahoma Republican, vowed to fight the expenditure calling it a waste and the use of stimulus money gone mad.
More than 23,000 vehicles cross the Lake Jackson bridge each day and Aresco cites the one daily incident that occurred in 1999 when two sinkholes opened up in the lake’s bottom. The lake was nearly drained as water leaked into the Floridan Aquifer, the gigantic underground lake that provides peninsular Florida with most of its potable water, and turtles began seeking other habitat. Ninety turtles were struck and killed in a single day on U.S 27.
image via wikipedia
The Suwannee Cooter (Kuta=turtle in several African dialects) is found in drainage areas of wetlands and rivers running in the Gulf of Mexico. The animals’ numbers have diminished over the years due to hunting for its meat. In addition, food plants in their favorite habitats have disappeared. The state of Florida has now protected it by declaring it a “threatened species.”
The shell of the cooter has spiral yellow markings with yellow stripes on the head and front feet and can grow to a length of 16 inches. Its diet consists of worms, snails, slugs, insects and crayfish. Males rarely leave the water habitat–females only leave to nest on shore in the summer. She will deposit up to 22 eggs in a cavity, cover them, then head back home. All to often sharp-eyed crows and raccoons locate and destroy the nest, devouring the eggs, even before she gets back to the water. 
image via wikipedia
Hikers and outdoor lovers can often spot Suwannee Cooters sunning themselves on logs or sandbanks, sometimes piled one on top of the other. Some are tempted to take a baby home as a pet. It’s not allowed but if you do, please don’t decorate its shell. Paint deforms turtles shells and can lead to the animals death.
In the meantime, the state Department of Transportation expects the under-highway tunnel to be completed by July, 2010, much to Aresco’s delight. (He owns a pet alligator, by the way). Opponents are still determined to put a stop to it. On the Fourth of July a group of Leon County financial conservatives will form what they’ll call a “A Tallahassee Turtle Tunnel Tea Party” at the state capitol building.
What do you think? Good for the cooters; bad for the taxpayer?
13 Comments
good job.
We take over all the land that animals live on. Then when they need a way to survive due to our greed, taxpayers complain that they don’t deserve the help. I am 63 and have never even reached a million dollars total from my income. I get mind boggled at how they come to these figures to build a tunnel across a highway. We don’t mind spending 3 or 4 million dollars to build one war plane. and if it crashes. Oh well, we build another one. The turtles deserve the tunnel. I vote for it.
Thank you for the insight as to the expenditure of funds for this project.
I completely agree with Ladybaby! It’s a good thing I don’t live there because I’d never get across this road. Busy or not I’d most likely be out getting them off the road. Great article.
Good article. I had heard about this one.
The tunnel MUST be built!
I see turtles and animals dead along the roads. We have taken all their land and now we are running them down.
A very well researched, newworthy article bringing light on the subject.Excellent and interesting article as always Ken.It really is too bad about what happens to wildlife because of the way we want to live.
Thanks for sharing.
All creatures, small and great, love life dearly; money comes and goes.
Wow. Nice. I didn’t know turtles were edible. Thanks for sharing.
I can think of worse things to spend on than a turtle tunnel. If you don’t care about the little critters, think of all the traffic accidents prevented; turtle shells have been known to cause flat tires.
What say nothing you suck