Every single morning on my way into work I see herds of deer all over the Okemos area. Some days it might be one or two deer, other days up to six or more deer crossing roads at any given moment.

I can tell you that in the Okemos area, we would never shut down any of our roads to protect deer, skunks, squirrels, possum, or what ever the varmint.

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Would you ever consider a salamander as a varmint? Most would say no. Salamanders actually make great pets for some people.

Salamanders can live for a minimum of 6-10 years as long as you take proper care of them. Salamanders have very special needs which include their habitat, diet, and more.

Speaking of salamanders, the City of Marquette is actually closing a road at night to help protect migrating salamanders.

According to mlive.com:

The southwest bend of Peter White Drive, a scenic roadway that skirts the perimeter of Marquette's Presque Isle Park, will be closing nightly to vehicular traffic at 8 p.m. from Monday, March 21 to April 30, or until the completion of the migration of the salamander, WLUC reports.

Apparently they are blue spotted salamanders that the U.P. is protecting on a nightly basis.

Here's something I think we all didn't know courtesy of mlive.com:

The annual spring road closure began in 2020, after a 2019 study found that 400 salamanders were killed by cars each year on that road, the TV station reported.

The City of Marquette is such a beautiful area in the Upper Peninsula and we can all appreciate what they're doing by protecting these blue spotted salamanders.

I know this sounds kind of funny but I've never seen one salamander in the U.P., and I've been there several times over the years. Where are they?

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