My boyfriend and many of my close friends from home attend Binghamton University in upstate New York and have told me about the nature preserve that they have on campus and how beautiful it is. In addition to hearing about this preserve I also heard about the great lengths that the University goes to in order to protect the spotted salamander populations. Sterba’s piece about roadkill reminded me of the efforts that Binghamton University goes to in order to protect the spotted salamander that lives in this Preserve.

In order to migrate from the woods where the salamanders burrow in the winter to Harpur pond in the spring where they breed, they must migrate across a campus roadway. In order to protect them from cars the University actually shuts down this roadway for weeks at a time. The university has also installed salamander ramps. These ramps help the salamanders reach the club and get over to the other side. Before these ramps were installed in 1978, the animals often were trapped in the roadway, died of dehydration or were picked up by crows.

Salamander ramp

What do you guys think of Binghamton’s efforts to save this species? Do you think that Lafayette would ever do something like this if there was a population that needed help? Maybe our new efforts to save birds from flying into windows could be our version of this!