Bridges for bears: Do wildlife corridors work?
It is critical to find the right place for wildlife corridors. If you don’t put them where animals are crossing, but are convenient for engineers, they would be wasted.
KAREN CHAVEZ: ‘Do wildlife corridors, aka “bridges for bears,” actually work?… The highway features – specially designed overpasses, underpasses, culverts and fencing that allow animals to cross roads safely – are scarce in the Eastern U.S. But there have been some built in North Carolina as the concept is coming into wider acceptance at the start of road-building or road-improvement projects.
“It’s a really good idea, but the practicality of it is the big question,” said Mike Carraway, wildlife biologist with the state wildlife commission. “Wildlife crossings on I-40 would be very expensive. It would also be critical in finding the right place – if you don’t put them where animals are crossing, but are convenient for engineers, they would be wasted”…
The state Department of Transportation has had a handful of wildlife connectivity projects, including one in Graham County on the Cherohala Skyway/N.C. 143 for flying squirrels, said Wanda Austin, project development engineer for the NCDOT Division of Highways. Duke Power put up telephone poles with platforms on top to help the squirrels jump and glide across the highway…
Some of the biggest success stories have come out of the West. Marcel Huijser, senior research ecologist with the Western Transportation Institute at Montana State University in Bozeman, said an example of successful mitigation measures to reduce wildlife collisions and install safe crossings is the Trans Canada Highway that runs through Banff National Park. “Dozens of corridors have been installed starting in the mid-’90s, which has led to 80-95 percent reduction of collisions with large mammals, mainly elk and deer,” said Huijser…
Fencing was used in conjunction with crossing structures, to funnel the wildlife to the safe crossings, with crossings every 1-1.75 miles. They found that bigger crossing structures work best, but human-wildlife crossings do not work and should be considered separately. Huijser is now working with the Flathead Indian Reservation in Western Montana to reduce the unnaturally high mortality for animals crossing U.S. 93′. SOURCE…
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