I love turtles. I've never had one as a pet, nor did my kids. But we do have some that show up every spring in our backyard. (Curiously, our old cat, Tigra, tends to just stare at one when she sees it, as though its slow motion makes her doubt that it's a living creature.) We do our best to leave them alone so as not to disturb them as they go about doing whatever "wild" turtles do. I don't even know what species of turtle they are.

I have to say, though, that I puzzle over the federal government giving a $130,000 grant to a project in Maryland that was started by concerned citizens who saw box turtles being killed when they tried to cross a road at a state park. According to the story I read about it, a couple of dozen concerned people put in almost 2 miles of shin-high fencing which barred turtles from crossing and forced them and other small critters down to some culverts under the road.

Seeing the success of that, someone got in gear and got a federal grant to build a better fence and do some work on culverts or something, and the result was $130,000 in federal funding. Well, good, I guess. I'm sure $130,000 is a tiny drop in the funding bucket from a governmental standpoint. And, really, I hope it does save some box turtles and other critters who might have been at risk from traffic.

But, at the same time, is it something taxpayers should be funding? Really?? Leave a comment and tell us what you think about the matter.

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