To play a lead role in helping establish a regional management and decision-making culture that supports and advances the concept and implementation of highway safe passages for wildlife, so that the Northern Rockies becomes a national model/showcase for the development of safe passage structures and mitigation measures.

The main focus of the program is to improve the policies and practices that guide the development of safe passage structures and mitigation measures, while creating a culture of support for these policies and practices both within and outside the state department of transportations. It is important to know that our efforts in this program are directed at benefiting the concept and practice of highway safe passages at the region-wide level, the state-wide level, and for the highway component of each of AWL’s place-based Corridors of Life projects.

To this end, American Wildlands is pursuing the following four objectives:

1) Influence laws and policies at the national and state level in support of place-based safe passage work in our Corridors of Life program.

2) Help improve the relationships between state department of transportations and outside interests (other state and federal agencies, NGOs’ etc.) so that these two different “corridor” mindsets (one of a highway corridor and one of a wildlife corridor) more readily work together.

3) Support, help, advance, and promote the applied science and best management practices for safe passage structures and mitigation measures in the Northern Rockies.

4) Promote the concept of, need for, and benefits (economic, ecological and human safety) of highways safe passages for wildlife, with a descending order of geographic priority on the Northern Rockies, the west and nationally.

2008 Major Projects and Objectives

1) Conduct a wildlife linkage, vehicle collision hotspot analysis for western Montana

2) Participate in an inter-agency, cooperative Wildlife Linkage, Vehicle
Collision Hotspot Analysis for entire state of Montana

3) Continue with research and crossing structure "prospecting" in South
Glacier, Montana (Hwy 2)

4) Initiate our citizen science and public awareness Bozeman Pass Campaign between Bozeman and Livingston, Montana (I-90)