Imagine you fall off a drop taller than you where there used to be familiar flat terrain.  In fact, your most ancient instincts and ancestors have been telling you about crossing that very terrain for over 100,000,000 years. Immediately after you drop (and hopefully get back on your feet) cars and trucks are speeding all around you. You turn back but the wall is above your head and too high to clear. You’re not a rabbit after all; you are the tortise.

This is the experience turtles have on curbed roads. Bad enough that roads and cars were introduced into land where they have always bred and fed and tucked into their shells but curbed roads create a deadly pit with no escape for turtles. Recognizing the danger curbs and major roads pose to reptiles some places like California and Calgary have gotten really creative:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

…with their Salamander underpass. But in our rural community where we fortunately don’t have major highways one simple solution is to not curb roads in the first place.

Curbs have no place out east in our rural landscape where businesses and homes are so spread out.  People seldom walk here and there on business; we drive. And when we walk we are not wearing dress shoes but country gear (flip flops or boots). We walk for walkings sake.  Our most scenic roads – the roads anyone would want to walk are so beautiful because they are narrow and wild and without concrete curbs.  Curbs and sidewalks offer no logistical advantage out east.  Neither is there much need or gain from curbed parking.  With low population density there is little need for formal parking with giant lots or meters and curbs.  In fact, isn’t it is easier to pull up on the grass at your favorite farmstand than circling a parking lot at a grocery store?  So why do we have curbs being built everywhere out east?

… but if aesthetic and practical considerations are ignored at least the lives of these adorable guys should be considered.

 

 

 

 

 

Wherever possible, if you are paving your driveway or if you have a business responsible for the drive in front opt for no curbs.  It can save turtles, lizards, crabs and other small reptiles lives.