Burlington to close off road for salamander crossings
Endangered critter crosses street each spring to reach temporary breeding ponds
The Jefferson salamander, an endangered amphibian found only in southern Ontario, has begun to emerge from the ground along a small stretch of the Niagara escarpment and has been dodging cars as it crosses the lone road on its annual march to breeding ponds.
Starting Thursday, the city of Burlington, will shut down about a kilometre of King Rd. for three weeks to allow for their safe passage, a measure in its fifth consecutive year.
“As humans, it’s the least we can do for these little guys,” Burlington Mayor Rick Goldring said.
The program has had success, according to Conservation Halton, which studies the rare amphibians that can live up to 30 years.
“We can say with100-per-cent certainty that there has been no mortality of Jefferson salamanders during this period on the road as they cross,” said Hassaan Basit, the chief administrative officer of Conservation Halton.
The organization’s ecologists have been out looking for the salamanders — which are 12 to 20 centimetres long, brown or grey in colour and move only at night.
Basit said they saw a few last week, noting that once the rains begin to fall and warmer weather arrives, the salamanders wake up and head toward the temporary ponds that appear in the spring.
“There’s lots of ‘why did the salamander cross the road’ jokes,” Basit said with a sigh.
Before the city began its practice of closing the road, the salamanders were dying at a “significant” rate, he said.
In addition to the lack of dead amphibians on the road, ecologists have found Jefferson salamander eggs in the ponds, showing the creatures have at least made it across the road.
The Jefferson salamander is protected at both the provincial and national levels and was added to Ontario’s endangered species list in 2011.