Coburn, R-Okla. calls "Lake Jackson Ecopassage" wasteful

[csziggy]

Wednesday, June 17, 2009
Wildlife underpass skewered; Founder fires back
Supporters of a proposed wildlife underpass along U.S. Highway 27 north of Tallahassee received unwelcome attention in national media to their project on Tuesday when a Republican U.S. senator identified it as wasteful spending.

<snip>
State transportation officials say the project is needed to prevent motorists from running over some of the 100 or more turtles, alligators and other wildlife that attempt to cross the divided four-lane highway on some days. But Coburn's report said existing efforts to protect turtles along U.S. 27 already are working pretty well.

<snip>
But Matt Aresco, a biologist who founded the Lake Jackson Ecopassage effort, said the Coburn report completely misrepresented the project by failing to state that the project is not just one culvert but three culverts. And he said ABC News and other reports just parroted the Coburn report without emphasizing that the project is not new and that the turtles and alligators crossing the highway pose a serious safety threat to motorists.

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_0N6AFkCdbq4/SjkRRrfcpiI/AAAAAAAAATw/Xm13z-iyBpA/s320/6-17-09+Lake+Jackson+Ecopassage.gif

"Another thing they don't talk about is the highway built across the lake bottom four decades created the problem," Aresco said. "All we are trying to do is fix the problem for a highway that is already built."

More: http://www.floridaenvironments.com/

Our local most progressive county commissioner, Cliff Thaell has been interviewed by ABC and CNN. He emailed today, "ABC World News Tonight and CNN interviewed me yesterday about the Ecopassage "controversy". The clip aired on ABC last night at 6:30. The CNN piece is expected to run tonight on Anderson Cooper 360 around 10:00 pm."

To see how the highway cuts an arm off Lake Jackson, put "Lake Jackson, Tallahassee FL" into Google Maps.