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*My* Ditch (1 Viewer)

Chickadeedeedee

Chickadeedeedee

Well-known member
There's a roadside ditch about two miles from our home. Every spring it is alive with the song of the tiny Spring Peeper Tree Frogs. Each year we have gathered a bucket of water and dredged the bottom to get some tadpoles, crayfish and baby salamanders.

This year ... there will be sewer lines laid along the road and the heavy machinery has already gone through the ditch and messed things up as they went into the woods to start clearing some of the trees ... in the name of progress. All this happened in the few days after my accident.

I desperately want to go in there and save as many of the creatures as possible but ... Mike was told that we will be fined +/- jailed for trespassing if we go there on our rescue mission. Each year we have done this ... a police car does go by and by now they know we mean no harm and are just gathering some ditch dwellers. The rules have changed.

I don't like it. Those little lives are soooo close ... yet sooo far.:-C:-C:-C

We MUST find a way ......
 
I would just go ahead and do it. Bad publicity for the construction company if they make a fuss.
That's me though :-O probably more sensible to contact the construction company and explain what you want to do and why.
 
Hi Lydia,

I'd go along with Cheers second suggestion. I'd be a mite surprised if the Company didn't give you permission if you explained to them; it would be quite good publicity that they were conscious of the environment considering all the damage that they do. Give it a try.

Bill
 
Great suggestion, Cheers and Bill! Thanks!

We can go and gather all we want over the weekend. We are not to go before then because we might hold up their work. :-/

Who / what will be left to rescue then .... ? We'll find out bright and early on Saturday morning!!!
 
Chickadeedeedee said:
Great suggestion, Cheers and Bill! Thanks!

We can go and gather all we want over the weekend. We are not to go before then because we might hold up their work. :-/

Who / what will be left to rescue then .... ? We'll find out bright and early on Saturday morning!!!
Click to expand...

hi Lydia

It is sad when things change and our precious wildlife suffers with the environmental changes.

I would go by what has been suggested and ask if you can pick up the Frogs. Knowing me I would be up front and ask if i could go ahead with my intentions.

As long as it is safe and Health/Safety issues are in place you should be alright. ;)

Regards
Kathy
x
 
Thats something positive then Lydia!
Lets hope that you manage to rescue a few of those delightful lil' sally-manders.
 
Good news Lydia: go to it gal, and the best of luck. It's a shame that work can't be put on hold for an hour to enable you to get in there before too much damage is done, but that's the heartless side of business I suppose.

Baz.
 
Froggies and the others got some Divine Intervention this Holy Week. Construction / destruction is halted until after Easter. We're still not supposed to go for the rescue until the weekend which is fine and dandy.

Looking where they have the pipes laid ... there's about 3 miles worth of roadside to cover. Not all has a lovely water filled ditch. Soooo we have time to make a plan, get more buckets and set up additional pools in the garden for the rescue-ees. We have enough nets for everyone already.

Must be an Easter miracle and we'll try to make the most of it. :t:
 
Three children and two children at heart set off early this morning to do serious ditching. Each had two buckets and two nets. We have not done a full inventory but can tell you so far we have many tadpoles, salamander and frog eggs, water beetles, wee tiny baby crayfish, shrimp(?) and snails. There's also some creatures that look VERY much like fry (baby fish). I don't think fish live in the ditches unless somehow a bird may have dropped some in and they hatched. We'll try to keep an eye on them and figure out who they are or will become. :t:

We'll look through our collection and will do it all again tomorrow morning. How much of an impact will relocating 20 buckets of ditch dwellers have in the big scheme of things? I don't know but it makes a HUGE impact to those that we are able to move out of harms way.
 
Well done to you all for doing your bit for conservation Lydia.
Every little helps and whatever you save goes towards keeping our wildlife for future generations to enjoy.
 
Congratulations Lydia and fellow mud wallowers. Any impact you can make is worthwhile, and that's a wonderful effort you've all made. Keep up the brilliant work.

Baz.
 
Hi!

~SIGH~​

We gota total of 20 buckets of sludge, mud, critters, .... what ever ... this weekend. We visited 3 miles of ditch and tried our best to gather who we could to protect them from the ~progress~ that was to come.

I am sooooooooooooooooooooo sorry we could not save every one who lives in the ditches.

We tried as best we could. :-/
 
Hi Lydia,

Very well done indeed. OK, so it may not be a big % of what was there before the hoo-haw started but it's a 100% more than would have been saved if you hadn't have done it!

Bill
 
Thanks Bill!

~SIGH~ I wonder if anyone else went *ditching* to try to save some lives? I hope so!

We came away surprisingly clean from our adventures. No one fell or slid into the water and mud. Not even ME! LOL! We purposely did not walk in the water for fear of squishing someone who may be hidden beneath.

Who knows ... maybe the construction / destruction will get some delays that would allow the tadpoles to become frogs and escape or some of the residents may survive the upheaval.
 
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