Innovative Ideas Make the World Safer for Wildlife

MAY 12, 2007
By Betsy Robinson
Bozeman Daily Chronicle

I do not know about you, but I am a bit of a softie when it comes to animals, and I always experience sadness and regret when I see dead wildlife along the roadsides. Obviously, roads and cars are something that wildlife is never going to perceive as dangerous and they will continue to run to their deaths on our roads. Our great mobility and increasing numbers are taking a serious toll on many species.

So it was with great interest several years ago that I began hearing about a novel new concept: the idea of using crossing structures both under and over highways to provide safe crossings for wildlife. Canada has taken the lead on this concept, researching and building a set of highway overpasses in Banff National Park, where a major interstate bisects the Park. These overpasses were carefully designed and planted with native vegetation, and are now used regularly by elk, and even some grizzly bears and mountain lions.

In Florida they are installing underpasses on certain roads to reduce mortalities of the Florida panther and black bears. Here in Montana we are starting to understand the importance of providing what American Wildlands calls “safe passages” for wildlife along our own busy roadways.

In Montana the first major project to address wildlife crossings is along a 56 mile stretch of Highway 93 that passes through the Flathead Indian Reservation. In the 1990’s the Montana Department of Transportation began planning to rebuild and expand this busy section of highway, but the local Confederated Salish Kootenai Tribe of the Flathead Nation wanted a highway that would respect the scenery and wildlife of the region and be more than a conduit for fast-moving traffic. In a revolutionary move, the Tribe, the state Department of Transportation and the Federal Highway Administration came to an agreement to provide safe crossing structures, mainly underneath the highway, for wildlife, and signed a memorandum of understanding for the project, thus providing an exciting model for future highway projects in the United States.

This is more than just a matter of saving wildlife; it is also a matter of saving human lives, reducing injuries to humans and reducing a major source of property damage. According to the Montana Highway Patrol, in 2006 there were 2,036 reported vehicle collisions with wildlife in Montana, an increase of 75 percent since the early 1990’s. These collisions resulted in four deaths and 148 injuries, plus an average insurance claim of $2,800 for damage. According to the Bozeman-based Western Transportation Institute, the average collision with a deer costs $7,890, with an elk $17,000 and a collision with a moose costs $28,000. Those are pretty eye-opening figures.

Locally our busiest area for wildlife is Bozeman Pass, as you may have guessed. The Craighead Environmental Research Institute documented 1,336 vehicle collisions with wildlife there between 2001 and 2005. The shear numbers and the range of species involved are shocking. Of that total, almost half involved deer. But the total also includes 31 owls, 34 other birds including raptors such as hawks and eagles, bobcats, mountain lions, badgers, beavers, black bears, one wolf, two pine martens, domestic dogs and cats, elk and moose.
The carnage along that 21-mile stretch of road is breathtaking.

Interstate 90 from Bozeman to Livingston goes through an important wildlife migration corridor between the greater Yellowstone ecosystem to the south and all the network of public and private lands to the north, including the Bridger and Bangtail Mountains. Animals need to move seasonally to find food, and especially with our continuing drought, food sources are becoming more scarce, forcing more movement among wildlife populations.

Fortunately, an innovative working group has formed in Bozeman to help find solutions to this problem and reduce wildlife-vehicle collisions on key sections of Bozeman Pass. This group is currently working to install fencing to funnel wildlife beneath the highway at selected underpasses and is continuing to work to install more safe passage structures in the future. This is a critical project we can all support, for several reasons. Providing safe crossings for wildlife will make our roads safer for motorists, and equally important, it will make the world a safer place for wildlife to move about in their daily quest to survive in an increasingly busy world.

Betsy Robinson, a wildlife biologist, is a founding member of Wild Things Unlimited, which is based in Bozeman and conducts research and educational outreach in the Northern Rockies.