Even turtles need to stick their neck out: Road mortality near Ojibway
By Chris Hart
Even turtles need to stick their neck out to get things moving. Rick Levick, president of the Long Point World Biosphere Reserve Foundation, used this line in response to concerns of potential community reluctance when proposing road mitigation to protect wildlife. Rick was part of an expert panel on Mitigating Species at Risk Road Mortality, that was called together to discuss the state of reptile and amphibian decline around the Ojibway complex. This discussion was an installment of the Green Speaker Series presented by the Windsor Essex County Environment Committee, WECEC, and was held at the Malden Park Visitors center on Wednesday, October 30th.
The event was hosted by Kieran McKenzie, Ward 9 Councillor and member of WECEC, and featured a panel of four speakers who are experts in a field directly related to the topic. To set the stage for the evening, the first speaker was Jonathan Choquette, the lead biologist of the Ojibway Prairie Reptile Recovery project. Jonathan, who is also a member of Wildlife Preservation Canada, informed the audience of the results from his extensive Ojibway reptile road mortality study. The study, which took place in 2010, 2012 and 2013, found 446 occurrences of reptile mortality along seven roads within and around the Ojibway complex. This number consisted of 11 different species; 7 of which are listed as Species at Risk (SAR). Malden Road had the highest rate of reptile mortality, while Machette Road had the highest diversity, i.e., the highest number of different species. Jonathan also indicated areas of increased road mortality (‘hotspots’), which occurred where roads intersected those corridors cleared for utility lines. These findings can be used to make informed decisions regarding potential road mitigation efforts, i.e., wildlife underpasses and driver modifications, around Ojibway.
After hearing about the state of local reptile road mortality, it was now time to learn how a similar situation was dealt with elsewhere in Ontario. The Long Point Peninsula on Lake Erie is connected to the mainland (Norfolk County) by a 3.5 km causeway. The causeway runs alongside Big Creek National Wildlife Area, and allows tourists to reach Long Point Provincial Park. The thousands of car trips being made during each summer weekend produced high levels of wildlife road mortality, including SAR reptiles and amphibians. Rick Levick, the second speaker of the night, went on to explain to the audience how the Long Point Causeway Improvement Plan, LPCIP, implemented in 2006, has worked to reduce reptile road mortality by 80%. Box culverts, or EcoPassages, were installed at seven locations along the causeway to allow small animals, particularly reptiles and amphibians to safely cross underneath the road. They also installed two large aquatic culverts to restore safe connections between Big Creek Marsh and Long Point Bay. As one would expect, animals will not use these passages on their own, thus 4.5 km of exclusion fencing was installed to direct wildlife towards these safe crossings.
Not only did Rick share the incredible mortality reduction stats recorded since these passages were installed, he also discussed the issues faced when developing and implementing such a project. When it began, this type of project was fairly new, and as such, the LPCIP team was faced with many challenges, including selecting the correct materials for passages and fences; snakes will get stuck in fences with mesh above a certain size, decreased temperatures and lack of light deter animals from using the passages, and aquaculture netting is preferred over the original steel supports which rusted after a year under the water. Rick also emphasized that this was a ‘community-based’ project, in that since their inception in 2006, they have raised over $2.5 million through local sponsors and public donations. He went on to say that the nature-loving members of the Long Point area, and all those involved with the LPCIP feel an overwhelming sense of accomplishment when they look at how their work has positively influenced the local environment.
To further discuss the finer details of implementing safe wildlife crossing zones, Kari Gunson, the principal road ecologist for Eco-Kare International, was next to address the crowd. Eco-Kare focuses on the planning, design and monitoring of practical solutions to reduce the negative impacts of roads. Kari worked on the installation of box culverts, wildlife overpasses and exclusion fencing along Highway 69, the section of the Trans-Canada Highway which connects Parry Sound to Greater Sudbury. This stretch of road passes through significant amounts of forest and wetland, and the number of wildlife collisions has historically been above the provincial norm. Kari’s discussion focused on the specifics of underpasses aimed at reptiles and amphibians, however she also worked on larger tunnels and overpasses for mammals. Kari also stressed the importance of monitoring to gauge the success of mitigation efforts. Reports indicate that animals, including SAR reptiles, are using the underpasses of Hwy 69, and the roadside mortality rate has decreased substantially.
To round off the list of speakers, Dinu Filip, the president of ACO Systems Canada discussed the range of products offered by their Wildlife department. While ACO typically focuses on drainage and water management, they also have a line of underpasses and fences aimed at reptiles and amphibians. Dinu provided details on the pricing and specific sizes necessary to support those species relevant to the Ojibway area. These underpasses, which can be retrofitted into existing roads, have small openings along the top which allow light and heat to penetrate into the tunnel to increase their attractiveness to the target species. An ACO underpass has already been installed on Machette Rd, just south of E.C. Row.
Following the four presentations, Councillor MacKenzie asked the panel a series of insightful questions, and then gave audience members an opportunity to be heard. Topics included cost, community reaction and alternative solutions. Rick Levick stated that when it comes to installing successful ecopassages, there really isn’t a cheap or easy way to do it. When compared to the standard box culverts that have previously been installed across Ontario, the underpasses offered by ACO are smaller, more cost-effective and designed specifically for the area. Linking cost and public response, it was once again stated that when other nature-loving communities were posed with the task of protecting their local wildlife, large percentages of the necessary funds were raised. This further emphasized Jonathan Choquette’s suggestion for a steering committee when proposing underpassage installations as part of mitigation. A fair amount of pushback for such mitigation within the Ojibway Complex should be expected, but the sense of accomplishment from future road mortality reports should be sufficient incentive. While road closures, reduced speed limits and increased lighting were all suggestions for alternatives and ‘quick fixes,’ relevant road ecology indicates that underpasses would be most effective for this area. In a world where 100s of species are becoming extinct each day, a few small tunnels would be a small price to pay to help protect the SAR hiding within our small corner of the world.
Right here in Windsor, we’ve been fortunate enough to have two ecopassages installed already, including the world’s largest! Wildlife is already benefiting there, but the Ojibway complex is splintered by roads and more improvements are needed if our wildlife is to persist. Ideally, more eco tunnels can be installed in order to allow animals to cross some of these roads safely.
Overall, the evening was very informative and shed some light on a topic with important implications for the local environment. To thank the speakers for their participation, four trees were planted on their behalf. Visit www.wecec.org for information on upcoming events.