7/3/2013
Reed Hollinshead
ITD Communication
208-334-8881
reed.hollinshead@itd.idaho.gov
Duckling rescues show ITD’s softer side
BOISE - Most of the time, the Idaho Transportation Department is characterized by asphalt and gravel. Occasionally, "soft" and "cuddly" are more apt.
Less than a month
after ITD saved a mother duck and her brood from a storm drain on the
Headquarters' campus in Boise, another hatch of ducklings were rescued Friday
(June 28) near the inbound
Connector pond.
Click here for picture 1, picture 2, picture 3 and picture 4 of Friday's Connector rescue. Click here for picture 1 and picture 2 of the early-summer rescue at ITD's Headquarters complex.
The rescue was triggered by a passing motorist who
called Idaho State Police dispatch at 10 a.m., to report that the ducklings had
fallen into a drain on eastbound Interstate 84 on the Exit 50 A-B ramp next to
the soundwall of the Flying Wye bridge.
James Cherry, of ITD’s Incident Response, arrived on
scene about eight minutes later and quickly determined
that more help was needed. That help came from Randy Beebe of the department’s Southwest
Idaho Orchard Maintenance shed.
Cherry said Beebe used a hoist, mounted in the back of a maintenance truck, to pull off the drain
cover. They then rigged up a black-plastic bucket with rope and dipped out nine of the 10 ducklings, returning them to the
storm-water retention pond at the Flying Wye.
Cherry said he "dropped down into the seven-foot deep drain to attempt to rescue the 10th duckling. Unfortunately, it went too far up
the pipe and was unreachable."
"The entire rescue, from the time the motorist
called it in until the time the ducklings were returned to the pond and the
scene was cleared, took less than an hour and twenty minutes," according to Cherry.