The American Burying Beetle is on the endangered species list. One, lone beetle has turned up in an environmental study of a road project in Muskogee County.
That little bug has shut down 8 1/2 miles of road work east of Fort Gibson, extending into Cherokee County. Muskogee County Commissioner Ken Doke says no one wants to wipe out a species, but this one beetle will cost near $750,000 to mitigate and will delay the project for over a year.
The project already has a $6.5 million price tag and this will add nearly another million to the cost. Doke says " that is a fairly expensive beetle."
The Cherokee Nation had agreed to pay the cost of the initial project. However, he doesn't know if the tribe would be willing to pick-up the additional cost.