Evaluation of the Use and Effectiveness of Wildlife Crossings (2008) / Chapter Skim
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Pages 15-29
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From page 15... ...
With the increased placement of road through the natural landscape, obstacles are created to both short- and long-distance movements in both aquatic and terrestrial species. To better accommodate species' needs to move freely, mitigation measures need to be brought into transportation programs and project plans at the inception of long-range plans, and considered in the daily maintenance of roads and railways.
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From page 16... ...
Candidates for interviews were selected from contact information on individual state project entries on the U.S. Federal Highway Administration (FHWA)
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From page 17... ...
150 and Florida black bear (Ursus americanus floridus) ,202 under roads that carry an increasing number of motorists.
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From page 18... ...
Fish and Wildlife Service in the United States is involved in planning and placing wildlife crossings as the awareness of the needs of federally listed endangered and sensitive species of wildlife and plants grows. The FHWA has also become more involved in the creation of mitigation measures and urges their design early in the planning process.
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From page 19... ...
Examples of Multiple Crossings that Promote Permeability The overall trend of increasing numbers of target species for wildlife crossings is illustrated by several projects that contain or will contain series of crossings for suites of species. These projects include the Trans-Canada Highway in Banff National Park, Alberta, which has 24 crossings in place and 8 more planned over 45 kilometers.
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From page 20... ...
This highway will have an estimated 50 more crossings in Montana, including one overpass, and dozens of crossings in Arizona, for a total of over 125 crossings along its length. Perhaps the most frequently written about mitigation measures in the media and the most published in the scientific literature are those measures employed in Banff National Park on the Trans-Canada Highway: two overpasses and 22 underpasses along 45 kilometers of road, with 8 more planned along the next stage of construction.163 Another carefully designed project is that of State Road 260 in Payson, Arizona, on the Tonto National Forest.
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From page 21... ...
This work includes developing the knowledge necessary for installing mitigation measures that create a more permeable landscape where many different species of a range of mobility and sizes can cross over and beneath transportation corridors in their daily and seasonal movements. The goal of greater permeability will take dedicated work on the part of engineers and ecologists to include consideration of wildlife passages in the earliest of stages of long-range transportation programs.
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From page 22... ...
The pool of telephone survey participants came from an original list of names taken from projects listed on the FHWA's website "Keeping It Simple,"85 the list of participants in the proceedings of the International Conference on Ecology and Transportation in 2001 and 2003,127,128 and recommendations from key FHWA personnel involved in wildlife mitigation across the country. Canadian contacts were compiled by research team members and from lists of attendees of the TAC meetings.
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From page 23... ...
Incorporate wildlife mitigation needs early in the DOT/MoT programming, planning, and design process; 2) Combine animal-friendly mitigation methods such as wildlife crossings, fences, escape ramps, and gates, rather than relying on using a single method; and
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From page 24... ...
The development of costeffective crossing designs was ranked second in the United States and third in Canada. Canadians ranked the need for standardized data collection of roadkill carcasses and WVCs as their second research priority.
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From page 25... ...
Professions of survey participants and the number of participants classed by profession category. Rank within Practice Priorities for Practice Rank Overall 1 Incorporate wildlife mitigation needs early in the DOT/MoT programming, planning, and design process 1 2 Combine animal-friendly mitigation methods such as wildlife crossings, fences, escape ramps and gates, rather than using one method 3 3 Use conservation plans and connectivity analyses to inform the transportation programming/planning/design process on where mitigation is needed and how it may be carried out 4 4 Establish effective communication and collaboration among stakeholders 6 5 Incorporate into plans and schedules wildlife crossing options that can be accomplished by maintenance crews simply by retrofitting existing facilities 8 6 Continued public and agency education on wildlife and roads issues 10 7 Use standardized and vetted protocols for collecting and recording roadkill carcass and wildlife-vehicle colllision data 18 8 Incorporate standardized guidelines when conducting mitigation activities 19 9 Use standardized documentation schedules to record maintenance activities in order to maintain crossings and fencing effectiveness over time 21 10 Develop and enhance agency websites to include standardized guidelines 24 11 Explicit mitigation legislation to help determine where and when mitigation is necessary, and how it is to be carried out 25 Table 4.
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From page 26... ...
12 7 Develop standardized inventories of wildlife crossings by state for better management and maintenance of these crossings, and to better assess the need for future crossing 13 8 Increase our understanding of the effects of road density on wildlife populations 14 9 Develop prototype animal/vehicle collision safety models to predict where wildlife-vehicle colllision "hotspot" areas are and may be on future roads 15 10 Improve ecosystem valuation for use in mitigation measures, to help establish mitigation cost-effectiveness (such as monetary value of the reduction of wildlife–vehicle collisions, or increased landscape permeability) 16 11 Standardize spatially accurate roadkill carcass and wildlife-vehicle colllision data collection 17 12 Create a comprehensive synthesis document that establishes the indirect effects of roads and road density on ecosystems, and how these cumulative effects may in turn influence landscape permeability for wildlife 20 13 Develop reliable methods to estimate how often wildlife are in or near the road to help assess their potential in becoming involved in wildlife–vehicle collisions 22 14 Understand better the genetic consequences of the roaded landscape on animal populations 23 Table 5.
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From page 27... ...
Priorities by Employer Practice priorities. The top five practice priorities for all employer classes were identical but ordered differently.
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From page 28... ...
The results show a clear consensus among all participants on the top five practice priorities: 1. Incorporate wildlife mitigation needs early in the DOT/ MoT programming, planning, and design process; 2.
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From page 29... ...
The intent of this research is to help inform mitigative actions across North America that create a roaded landscape that is more permeable for wildlife and safer for motorists. For example, the top five priorities can lead agency personnel in directing early planning for wildlife in transportation planning, help encourage the installation of suites of mitigation measures for wildlife, promote the use of connectivity analyses in transportation planning, and the development and use of alternative cost-effective crossing designs.
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