U.P. road closes for a month so salamanders can cross

(Detroit Free Press) A Marquette city park is closing a portion of its lone road for a month to help out some local residents: blue spotted salamanders.

The salamanders spend the cold, snowy, Upper Peninsula winters underground. Then every spring, almost in unison, they make their way to nearby pools, where they mate and lay eggs. But at Presque Isle Park, that means crossing Peter White Drive, the solitary roadway looping through the popular 323-acre, forested park on a peninsula jutting into Lake Superior.

Eli Bieri, a biology student at nearby Northern Michigan University, studied the blue spotted salamanders as part of his research, going out nights with student volunteers in the spring to count and tag the amphibians.

"We would see thousands and thousands of salamanders crossing the street in just one night," he said. "It was really amazing — until we see cars zip by and squish salamanders. That really troubled me — it kept me awake at night." ..............(more)

https://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/2021/03/22/marquette-presque-isle-park-blue-spotted-salamanders/4769196001/