Why did the turtle cross the road? Because the marsh is always greener on the other side.

There’s a story in the Rapid City Journal that has a happy ending. It involves turtles, a culvert and U.S. Highway 16A through Custer State Park.
It seems that little western painted turtles and big snapping turtles were taking their chances amid the heavy highway traffic for a chance to get from Stockade Lake to the marshes on the other side of U.S. 16A. And the odds were not in the turtle’s favor.

Wildlife on the highway is always a danger in the Black Hills of South Dakota, but usually it’s deer, elk, bison, bighorn sheep or the occasional badger. But not turtles.

One of the problems, it turned out, is that the soil near the mouth of the culvert under the highway had eroded away. Turtles can’t jump 10 inches. Also, there was a scour hole of some sort that made the culvert impassable for turtles. So they took the highway.

Shannan Miller, Black Hills National Forest biological-science technician, came to their rescue. According to the Journal story, Miller organized a three agency project to build little turtle ramps out of rocks and logs, and to fix the scour hole.

During a media tour of the site on Monday, the press-shy turtles stayed away. But I’m sure they appreciated the new, safe shortcut under the highway.