Having lived in the mountains for pretty much my entire life, I’ve gotten to see my fair share of wildlife. Everything from bears to mountain lions to elk to deer, I’ve seen wandering on the roads or lost in the city somewhere. Deer and elk are especially prominent in the area I live now, where it’s not uncommon whatsoever to see an entire family of elk sitting on the side of the road. So, naturally, my commutes every day are full of anxiety and worry that I’ll strike one of these animals, killing one and or both of us.
While some sort of wildlife bridge or bypass isn’t happening in southwestern Colorado at this time, it seems that the state of Washington has decided to undergo just such a task. The Washington State Department of Transportation announced back in June of 2015 that they plan to build a wildlife bridge over a busy stretch of interstate 90, near Snoqualmie Pass.
According to the I-90 Wildlife Bridges Coalition, over 28,000 vehicles travel along I-90 each day. Because of the heavy traffic, wildlife have difficulty crossing the highway, which has devastating consequences for the animals.
Jen Watkins, coordinator for the I-90 Wildlife Bridges Coalition, details the ramifications: “If we prevent [animals] from moving, we’re blocking their ability to find food, we’re blocking their ability to find places to live when conditions change, like the large wildfires we saw last year, and we’re blocking their ability to find new mates and have some genetic diversity in the population.”
Does this really work?
In Banff National Park, there are currently 41 wildlife crossing structures (6 overpasses and 35 underpasses) that help wildlife safely cross the busy Trans-Canada Highway. Since monitoring began in 1996, 11 species of large mammals—including bears, elk and cougar—have used crossing structures more than 200,000 times.
Wildlife bridges are fairly common in Europe, where there are over 600 wildlife overpasses and underpasses on roads through the Netherlands alone. Within the United States, however, they are not as common.
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