BURNT STORE — For six months, Ashley Cook tracked the animals killed on a 13-mile stretch of Burnt Store Road in Punta Gorda.
Cook, the Charlotte Harbor Environmental Center park manager, counted 102 dead animals. They included about 25 species: turtles, cranes, rabbits, an alligator, egrets, bobcats, raccoons, Great blue heron, an osprey, coyotes and cows.
Some, she said, were so mangled she couldn’t determine the species.
Cook told a crowd of about 200 at a recent community meeting about the study and concerns for animals that live and maneuver the Burnt Store corridor.
She said the areas where the creatures died were close to the park entrance, Charlee Road, Burnt Store Marina and Janice Avenue.
“Our preserve is the No. 1 top strike where these species die,” she said. “They are so close to getting back in the preserve.”
Cook said adding signage along that area of the Charlotte County owned road might help educate motorists and convince them to slow down.
Cook was one of a handful of speakers at Burnt Store Presbyterian Church who shared statistics with the crowd at a meeting sponsored by the Burnt Store Corridor Coalition, a group representing more than 10,000 residents in 13 neighborhoods spanning Charlotte and northern Lee County.