Arizona is spending $1.25 million to build bridges for endangered squirrels over a mountain road so they don't become roadkill and then monitor their health.
But we don't dare build a border fence ...
The money is being spent, officials said, because cars kill about five of these squirrels each year.
While most suburbanites may be baffled why anyone would protect a pesky squirrel, these are Mount Graham red squirrels, a breed once thought to be extinct. Only 250 of them are known to live near the top of Mount Graham.
The Federal Highway Administration grant will be used to build rope bridges over the lone road through the squirrels' habitat, according to Arizona Department of Transportation Community Relations Director Timothy Tait. The DOT plans to install 41 of the "canopy tunnel crossings" at a cost of $400,000.
Another $160,000 will be spent on cameras to monitor the bridges, and the rest of the money will fund a project to monitor the rodents. That works out to about $5,000 per squirrel.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/18/2010 00:00 ||
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#3
Does that bridge come with little signs and those conveyor walkway thingies like airports have to help the squirrels get to the bridge? I hope the bridge at least has a little squirrel shuttle. Of course, they'll need squirrel security to check if Taliban suicide squirrels are bringing exploding nuts onto those shuttles.
Posted by: ed ||
06/18/2010 10:16 Comments ||
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The background to this is that Mount Graham is a superb site for a major national observatory, which Arizona wanted very badly to complement Kitt Peak NO and goes all the way back to Lowell Observatory.
However, Mount Graham is covered with endangered critters. Including, of all things, five unique species of trout (fish), and a pretty, parrot sized bird called the elegant trogon.
"...biologically isolated for millennia, the higher elevations have provided refuge for relic populations of plants and animals with adaptive strategies rooted in Pleistocene ice age environmental conditions."
In other words, it is the mountain equivalent of Madagascar.
#9
Looks like they need a narrowish ribbon bridge, maybe windey and twisty for estethic er esthetic er, looks. First, we must study the high end weigh of the squirrels population and the odd more that 3 of them are standard deviants or bridge haters (which happens in rodenia more than you might think).
#12
Meanwhile out here ia WA state, we have the Ebey's Prarie National Refuge with State Highway 20 running through it for about 750 feet. Regular, W-shaped guard rails are not in keeping with the rustic nature of this grassy scenic vista, so something north of $750k was spent replacing them with wooden rails and posts.
Drove past them the other night, it is certainly refreshing to see that the waving grasses aren't visually spoilt by galvanized steel abominations. (said abominations would have cost about a third of the rustic new-york state sourced wood.)
True. But it will separate those who can adapt from those who did not. Darwinism at work. At the last installation I was stationed at they had a lovely tree lined main road. In the spring the young squirrels that learned to use the utility wires across the road or who leap between branch were around come the next year to add to the population unlike their cousins that took the ground route.
#15
The background to this is that Mount Graham is a superb site for a major national observatory, which Arizona wanted very badly to complement Kitt Peak NO and goes all the way back to Lowell Observatory.
Yep, I remember that. I remember the cartoon in the student newspaper feature the laid-back peace sign-flashing red squirrel, and the "mutant zombie astronomers from Hell" muttering, "Scopes...scopes...scopes..."
As I recall, the story goes...once upon a time Arizona was much wetter, and squirrel populations interbred freely across the mountains and valleys.
But then it dried up, and the squirrel populations on various mountains were "stranded" there, so that they evolved separately. However that hasn't been that long ago, in geologic time, so that the Mt. Graham red squirrel differs only slightly from the standard-issue red squirrel.
Are these small differences worth millions to preserve? And if so, how are you going to get the squirrels to cross at the squirrel bridges? I don't know. But I do know that "Mutant Zombie Astronomers from Hell" would make an awesome name for a rock band.
#16
Tree rats are part of chairman asskickers saved jobs program. (It is a Federal Grant of squirely jobs, but don't bet the illegals won't be playing Tarzan.)
The Obama administration more than doubled spending on cycling and walking initiatives to $1.2 billion (£810 million) last year as it seeks to coax Americans out of their cars.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/18/2010 00:00 ||
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Nothing against cyclers, but if one more of those pajama clad clowns blocks my right of way, I'll run their @$$ down and use their guts to grease the drivetrain of my SUV. There is nothing more annoying than hordes imported wine country cyclists swarming the roads and basically telling the locals to "piss off". I've had it.
Posted by: Rex Mundi ||
06/18/2010 0:38 Comments ||
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In our area we see new paths always being built maintenance on existing paths pathetic. Seems a screwy set of priorities
#3
LOL... we've got 2 classes here. The "hardcore" cyclists ingnoring our plethora of cycling lanes, and the teens and illegals using the sidewalks. Just walking my dog is a chore these days. Side note: anyone ever see an ogave cactus plant bloom? I've never until now. The illegals on the corner have had an ogave cactus for some time now and it's in bloom. It's like something from Mars, really - the bloom is frikkin' 25 feet tall at minimum.
Posted by: Rex Mundi ||
06/18/2010 2:19 Comments ||
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I've never become comfortable with the visual of skinny men in spandex perched atop a burried banana seat sucking from a plastic bottle. Perhaps I'm somewhat biased....aging homopho-boomer from the South, etc. Nothing at all wrong with a brisk walk. I wish Obama would take a very, very long one.
#9
Nothing at all wrong with a brisk walk. I wish Obama would take a very, very long one.
Preferably off a short pier carrying at least one Bowling ball chained to his wrist.
Ummm, No, Neck would be better.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
06/18/2010 13:17 Comments ||
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Nothing against cyclers, but if one more of those pajama clad clowns blocks my right of way, I'll run their @$$ down and use their guts to grease the drivetrain of my SUV.
Be careful shithead, don't let me accidently kick your ass when you get out of your SUV.
#12
I'd like to take a run through the assholes that do the Critical Mass rides that completely block vehicular traffic, knock down pedestrians, disobey all traffic laws and are just general jerks
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/18/2010 13:51 Comments ||
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As a cyclist you learn reasonably quickly that your #1 enemy is other cyclists.
#14
I'm an avid cyclist. I use bike paths all the time and would love to have more. But given our current deficit I'd put building new bike paths pretty near the bottom of my list of national priorities.
#15
$1.2 billion is about a third of what Exxon spent putting people to work cleaning up the Exxon Valdez oil spill.
People in the Gulf need work, and the oil needs to be cleaned up today. To hell with a bike path!
The president has made a practice of quick trips out of Washington to explain that the economy is growing again and that companies are hiring workers instead of shedding them in mass numbers, as they were when he took office. Each stop is meant to show he is working to help struggling people. Mostly His voters, the unemployable and illegals.
Friday's visit will be to the Nationwide Children's Hospital in Columbus, Ohio, where a $25 million project will add turn lanes, bike lanes, and widen sidewalks. It is expected to create 300 jobs. $83,833.33 per job, including material, equipment, and overhead, unless profit is permitted. So the salary can't be more than $35-40k per job, on average.
The oil spill disaster in the Gulf of Mexico is consuming Obama's time. He calls it his singular focus, even as he has described economic recovery his top task, too.
Posted by: Bobby ||
06/18/2010 06:26 ||
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the economy is growing again and that companies are hiring workers instead of shedding them
Could be a hard sell with Ohio's official unemployment rate at 10.9% (and actual rate much higher).
2. That figure is based on the CBO assumed rate. We don't have any reliable empirical data on this stuff.
Posted by: lord garth ||
06/18/2010 10:33 Comments ||
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That really should be $83k per job year.
That assumes the project lasts exactly one year, which it won't. A few months is likely.
Posted by: ed ||
06/18/2010 11:11 Comments ||
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OK, it was early in the morning.
The $83k per job is correct, but the salary depends on the time required. Many $25 mil jobs will take a year. Or two. Burned up in six months = $166k per year for six months, so it always comes back to $83k per job, no matter how long it takes.
Here on the DC Beltway, we're trying to spend $10 million. A week. It ain't easy.
But what it really suggests to me will shock you all: the number of jobs is inflated.
Posted by: Bobby ||
06/18/2010 18:44 Comments ||
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Note that these are temporary jobs. After the money's all gone - so are the jobs.
And the money to pay for this is coming from taxpayers and businesses - who now won't be able to create permanent, self sustaining, wealth-producing jobs.
Much like eating your seed stock. Sure it may fill you up now but then its gone forever - you can't plant it to produce more.
Republican John Boozman now holds a near two-to-one lead over Democratic incumbent Blanche Lincoln in Arkansas' U.S. Senate race, according to the latest Rasmussen Reports telephone survey of Likely Voters in the state.
Boozman earns 61% of the vote, while Lincoln, coming off her Democratic Primary runoff win last week, picks up 32% support. Four percent (4%) favor some other candidate in the race, while just three percent (3%) remain undecided.
Lincoln, who is seeking a third term in the Senate, was reelected in 2004 with 56% of the vote. But she has been struggling politically at home since late last year following her procedural vote that kept the national health care bill alive in the Senate.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
06/18/2010 00:00 ||
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Revenge is great, but repeal is the only tolerable outcome.
#2
Maybe obama will go to Arkansas to support Lincoln thus increasing Boozman's margin of victory. I like really strong messages. Bhagdad Bob Gibbs would have difficulty spinning that yarn.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
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dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
