Just this week, Harper stopped traffic in both directions to help a motorist who was trying to move a massive snapping turtle out of the roadway. A truck driver came to the rescue with a large shovel, and they scooped the turtle up and took her to her destination safely.

“Dusk is when all the animals are on the move,” Harper notes.

The danger that wildlife is exposed to on Heart Lake Road is not new.

The Toronto and Region Conservation (TRCA) recruited citizen scientist volunteers in 2011 who spent more than 1,000 hours cataloguing the wildlife mortality rate on Heart Lake over several years.

Their work led to the recommendation that three dedicated wildlife culverts be installed at different locations where the mortality rates were highest. But it was discovered that the soil under the road was only stable enough to accommodate a culvert in one location, just south of Countryside Drive.

That wildlife passage, fencing, signage and turtle nesting sites were all installed last year.

Further monitoring has shown wildlife deaths in the area have decreased, according to the TRCA.

“Unfortunately, we are still finding high numbers of wildlife mortality around the wetland areas around the Heart Lake Conservation Area entrance and the wetland areas just north of the Highway 410 off-ramp,” according to Vince D'Elia, project manager with the TRCA.

That’s where Harper has seen some disturbing carnage.

Harper visits the area regularly to see the swan family of six, which now appears to have lost one of its cygnets.

She said the city had installed a fence on one side of the road where the trumpeter swans were initially located. The female is tagged and Harper said she’s from Wye Marsh in Midland, the base for a program aimed at re-introducing the species into Ontario that started in the 1980s.

But the swans moved to the pond on the opposite side of the road. When she found them sitting on the gravel shoulder, right where there is a gap in the brush separating the pond from the road, she parked her car on the shoulder to protect them until they wandered back to the water.

Then she called the city to ask for help.

In response, the city moved the fence to the opposite side of the road, and Harper said she is hopeful it has deterred the birds from wandering onto the street for now.

Harper is trying to organize a demonstration at the site to raise awareness for drivers to slow down, and for the city to take notice and come up with further solutions to the problem.