U.P. road closes for a month so salamanders can cross

[marmar]

(Detroit Free Press) A Marquette city park is closing a portion of its lone road for a month to help out some local residents: blue spotted salamanders.

The salamanders spend the cold, snowy, Upper Peninsula winters underground. Then every spring, almost in unison, they make their way to nearby pools, where they mate and lay eggs. But at Presque Isle Park, that means crossing Peter White Drive, the solitary roadway looping through the popular 323-acre, forested park on a peninsula jutting into Lake Superior.

Eli Bieri, a biology student at nearby Northern Michigan University, studied the blue spotted salamanders as part of his research, going out nights with student volunteers in the spring to count and tag the amphibians.

"We would see thousands and thousands of salamanders crossing the street in just one night," he said. "It was really amazing — until we see cars zip by and squish salamanders. That really troubled me — it kept me awake at night." ..............(more)

https://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/2021/03/22/marquette-presque-isle-park-blue-spotted-salamanders/4769196001/

[markie]

1. they are worth saving!!

here in Vermont a number of organizations are working to educate... asking people not to drive on these upcoming rainy nights

Wood frogs, peepers, and yellow spotted salamanders (plus other more rare species) emerge from thick forests on the first rainy nights of spring when the temperature stays over 40 degrees, and migrate to vernal pools and swampy wetlands where they lay their eggs. This migration often takes them across roads, where they are frequently observed as roadkill. Our team is building a map of Hartford’s most amphibian-trafficked road-crossings – and we go out in the rain on the April-May nights when this migration occurs, collecting data and moving frogs and salamanders across the road. Get in touch and get a reflective jacket and join us.

https://hartfordsalamanderteam.org/

[Karadeniz]

2. Way to go!