Posted by MontagueCenterMan - Mon, Jun 4, 2012, 7:08 P

The Magnificent Montague Snapper

While driving south out of town towards Sunderland almost to West Pond, I saw an unrecognizable, brown blob directly in the path of my Vibe. "Chunk of wood, or log" flitted through my mind as I deftly swerved and barely avoided the object. '&^%$%^' I uttered to my better half, and glanced into the rear-view mirror. The object moved, triggered a imprint memory in the dusty corners of my mind. 'Turtle!!', I yelped, simultaneously hitting the brakes, stopping the car, putting it in reverse and turning on my emergency flashers. I knew I would have to act swiftly, or the turtles life expectancy would be brief.
The problem was, and the reason for the writing of this Message Thread, is that the young snapper was unable to cross the road as there are 15 concrete barriers which completely block any chance of crossing the road in a timely fashion. Also, this creates a kind of 'turtle death trap' in which the turtle has to decide to go right or left, and is stuck in the road with trucks, cars, buses and tractors, hurtling towards them at roughly 30 to 40 mph.
So I now have traffic backed up, a couple cars on each side, and the snapper is not complying with my good intentions. Fortunately, everyone seemed to understand and even appreciate the randomness of the moment. My better half sprang to action to discover and secure a stick, and I struggled to remember what I knew about snapping turtles. Grab them by their tail, ummm, no. Not a good idea. This turtle was aggressive, and once my current plan of action was determined not to work, he would attack, coming at me rapidly, he smelled my fear I'm sure. Angry snappers are scary. With the stick, I pushed the animal off the road, even heard a 'thank you' from a car.
So, investigating this, I think the concrete barriers create an unnecessary obstacle and endanger the lives of the snapping turtles that migrate from the pond possibly to lay eggs on the other side of the road. If this is the case, perhaps even baby turtles returning. Could these barriers be replaced with modern guardrails, which the Magnificent Montague Snapper easily navigate?
PS on the north end of the barriers, there is a trail, perhaps created and used by these turtles.