Wildlife highways are designed to safely connect two areas that are otherwise separated for animals.
Despite the name “wildlife” highway, humans benefit from having fewer collisions with wildlife and fewer close encounters.
Even better, their impact has been wildly successful.
Before leaving office, the Biden-Harris Administration awarded $125 Million in grants to improve safety for both wildlife and humans.
Sixteen wildlife projects in the Wildlife Crossings Pilot Program have been funded through President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, which also had success in reconnecting the Klamath River.
Every year more than one million wildlife vehicle collisions occur and result in around 200 deaths and 26,000 injuries to humans.
It is estimated that these collisions cost the public more than $10 billion annually as well as harms wildlife populations by fragmenting habitats and having loss of key species.
Living in the Appalachian region, I have seen more mountain lions dead on the side of the road than alive, and I’ve been lucky enough to watch a pair cubs playing in my yard.
“Too many Americans are injured or killed each year in crashes involving cars and wildlife, especially in rural areas — which is why our Department created the first-ever program dedicated to crossings that make roads and highways safer for both humans and wildlife,” U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg
So where are these first wildlife highways being installed?
- Oregon will build a crossing to connect wildlife to the Mariposa Preserve, including deer, bears, elk, and cougars.
- Massachusetts will complete a wildlife crossing project along the Appalachian Trail by protecting wildlife, hikers, and motorists from deer.
- North Carolina will install multiple crossings within the Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge to support the Red Wolf Recovery Program to aid the red wolf, black bear and white-tailed deer.
I’m excited for North Carolina’s program, as a night spent in my car in Nag’s Head ended with me being awoken to a red wolf crossing a barren road in front of me at 4 am in the morning, and it was a magical experience! I’d never before encountered a wolf in the wild.
- Idaho will build three wildlife underpasses near Rocky Point to prevent frequent deer collisions.
- Missouri will add fencing to help guide animals with existing structures to improve their efficacy.
- Nevada will bill sixty-one wildlife crossings, connect habitat for the Mojave Desert tortoise, and complete the last segment of crossing that does not have a safe way for tortoises to cross.
- New Mexico will design crossings over an 8-mile stretch to aid mules, deer, elk, pronghorn, black bears, and mountain lions.
- Maine will build a wildlife crossing by utilizing a pre-existing and unused arch to provide moose, deer, and other animals crossing in the city of Caribou.
- Florida will reconstruct a highway, raise it, and build a wildlife crossing underpass beneath, aiding the Florida panther, white-tailed deer, black bear, and American alligators.
Other projects include New York, Montana, Michigan, Maryland, Georgia, Arizona, and Alaska, which will conduct research to discover the best places to install crossings and improve safety.
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