Drainage/easement/wildlife question

We have a small ditch along the south edge of our property. Tuesday someone from an engineering firm representing the city stopped by explaining that they want to replace the ditch with a buried pipe(with 4 inlet grates), and that the ditch's location doesn't match the existing easement, so they want to update the easement to match the existing location. I'm not necessarily opposed to the idea, but I do want to make sure I'm not overlooking anything before agreeing to it.

I spoke to Ovid_and_flem about the legal concerns regarding the easement, so that seems pretty straightforward.

The ditch only runs one block. It goes under our street and remains buried for several blocks, and is a buried tile before it reaches our block. Here are some pics for reference.

This is where it passes under our street(pardon my finger ). You can see the leaves piled up, which did cause the street to flood during last week's storms. I presume preventing flooding is one of the factors behind this.

Here's the opposite side of the brush in the first pic. These fences belong to our neighbors on the street perpendicular to us. We have a ratty chain-link fence, which he stated would be replaced, though honestly I'm more concerned with keeping our cane run for privacy & critters.

Here's where the ditch enters our property.

And for reference here's where the ditch passes under the street in front of our house, showing the ridge to our south(and the gulf peeking out just beyond).

So our biggest concern is actually the critters we have visiting us, especially the turtles - we have about 8 "regulars" who visit us frequently. I presume this ditch is they're own sheltered highway?

My questions are:

• Will their plan improve drainage, or will we be in greater risk of being flooded?

• Since they're probably going to do this whether we agree or not, how can we make the most of it? For example, in the first pic we have a water oak on the edge of the ditch that I was told needs to come down(at a cost of $2500) - should I try to get them to remove it, if they weren't already planning on it?

• Will this negatively impact our turtle friends? If, can/should we try to get any other organization involved to help mitigate/prevent it?

Ask them if they have a permit to destroy the wetland. I'll bet they say it isn't jurisdictional.

In reply to spitfirebill:

Ok, I will. Thanks!

I have a soft spot for reptiles in general and turtles in particular. I'm that guy who slams on his brakes, jumps out, and moves the turtle out of the road.

I've read more than once about reptile populations being negatively affected by development. In particular, I'd be worried about the grates; the adults may not be vulnerable, but what about the little ones? The latest BBC Planet Earth II showed newly-hatched sea turtles being caught by the hundreds in storm drains after falling through the grates.

Given your concerns about the turtles, I'd suggest looking into local organizations that might be able to a) provide more information on the issue, and b) support an effort to make whatever drainage is in place turtle-friendly.

In reply to 02Pilot:

I have a call into our vet, who's also one of the main local wildlife vets. I'm hoping he can at least give me some people's names who I can speak to about the situation.

Pete Gossett wrote: In reply to spitfirebill: Ok, I will. Thanks!

Bonus points if the turtle is an endangered species like a bog turtle.

In reply to spitfirebill:

They appear to just be eastern box turtles to me.