Nov 2nd, 2018 : Yum, Roadkill

[xoxoxoBruce]

People across the country salvage and eat roadkill, it’s only illegal in CA and TX.
33 states have a system for recycling roadkill into charities and food banks.
But Alaska has a bigger problem, higher speeds from a sparse population, and hefty moose.
Roadkill is legally state property and technically drivers seeing unattended roadkill are required to report it.

Sorry Mom, your calf is kaput.

Even as Alaska works to improve road lighting, clear encroaching brush for visibility, and install one-way gates that funnel moose off the roads, wildlife experts estimate that 800 to 1,000 moose die in “vehicular interactions” every year. Moose strikes are so common in some areas that Del Frate has heard of locals devising bumper guard systems that allow them to smash into a beast and drive away with minimal damage to their vehicles. Then you’ve got a lesser number of deer strikes in the southeast, says Tony Kavalok, a Division of Wildlife Conservation worker since 2002. And the occasional bear, mountain goat, or caribou strike in other climes. That’s, conservatively, over a million pounds of rotting animal scattered across the state, blocking roadways and attracting scavengers.

Eating Road Salt

But in the ‘70s, Alaska developed a clever system to turn this burden into a boon: The state created a roadkill salvage program. In this system, the state contacts citizens and charities every time a trooper finds or is alerted to a big animal dead on the road. Soon thereafter, these groups and individuals swoop in, spirit the corpses away, and turn them into hundreds of thousands of pounds of edible meat every year. In theory, this lean red flesh is as versatile as beef, but it’s typically hacked into stew chuck or ground down for use in burgers and sausages. Game meats, which are wiry to start with and ever tougher with age, benefit from being broken up and mixed with their own fat.

Training the Kids to Use the Crosswalk.



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