Rare Tortoise Extinction "Inevitable" If Road Built, But Who Cares If There's Stimulus $ Involved?

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OTTAWA — A Kanata road project that could severely harm several protected species of plants and animals is being fast-tracked so the city can get millions of dollars from short-lived economic stimulus programs to help build it.

The project is an extension of Terry Fox Drive north of Highway 417, taking it four kilometres through woods and wetlands. The city is due to get $32 million in federal and provincial money to help pay for the work, but because the funding programs are meant to push money into the economy quickly to help the country and province recover from the recession, the road needs to be finished by March 2011. If it goes ahead as planned, the new road will kill the resident population of the threatened Blanding’s turtle — an animal that is supposed to be protected by federal and provincial endangered species laws — says the lead turtle scientist with the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada.

“The problem is getting run over by cars. That will wipe them out,” said Dr. Ron Brooks, a professor of integrative biology at the University of Guelph and co-chair of the committee’s amphibian and reptile sub-committee. “If you kill five per cent of adults each year above the normal rate of mortality, the population will go extinct. It’s inevitable. The population cannot replace fast enough,” added Brooks, who is also a member of the Ontario Multi-species Turtle at Risk Recovery Team.

But Michael Flainek, the project manager for the Terry Fox Drive extension with Dillon Consulting Ltd., said that the environmental mitigation plans for the roadway will go above and beyond what’s required by law to protect the turtle and other species at risk. “We’ve got some very experienced biologists. This is not the first project they’ve worked on … They have real-life experience,” he said. “We’re sitting down with the Ministry (of Natural Resources) and getting their buy-in on this, and if it’s not sufficient … The plan is going to change.”

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As part of its mitigation efforts, the city plans to create new wetland elsewhere in the Carp River floodplain, to compensate for wetlands lost to the road. But besides the loss of critical habitat, the road itself presents dangers for Blanding’s turtles. “During the construction phase, dredging and dewatering in wetland habitat has the potential to injure or kill hibernating turtles. The primary operational phase impact is the potential for vehicle collisions either as a result of inappropriate nesting along road or road crossings during migration or dispersal movements,” the draft screening report states. Brooks said that Blanding’s turtles are particularly vulnerable to cars, because they often nest on the sides of roads, burying their eggs in the warm sand or gravel on the shoulder. Blanding’s turtles also like to wander from one swampy pool to another, travelling across roadways or along roads and trails for up to two kilometres, he said.

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http://www.ottawacitizen.com/technology/population%20will%20extinct%20inevitable/2254377/story.html