Roads cuts through the open space of Paradise Valley as seen from an EcoFlight to showcase potential wildlife crossings for U.S. Highway 89 in June 2023.
Roads cuts through the open space of Paradise Valley as seen from an EcoFlight to showcase potential wildlife crossings for U.S. Highway 89 in June 2023.
Roads cuts through the open space of Paradise Valley as seen from an EcoFlight to showcase potential wildlife crossings for U.S. Highway 89 in June 2023.
Roads cuts through the open space of Paradise Valley as seen from an EcoFlight to showcase potential wildlife crossings for U.S. Highway 89 in June 2023.
Roads cuts through the open space of Paradise Valley as seen from an EcoFlight to showcase potential wildlife crossings for U.S. Highway 89 in June 2023.
Roads cuts through the open space of Paradise Valley as seen from an EcoFlight to showcase potential wildlife crossings for U.S. Highway 89 in June 2023.
Roads cuts through the open space of Paradise Valley as seen from an EcoFlight to showcase potential wildlife crossings for U.S. Highway 89 in June 2023.
Roads cuts through the open space of Paradise Valley as seen from an EcoFlight to showcase potential wildlife crossings for U.S. Highway 89 in June 2023.
Montana-based researchers published a highly-anticipated study about wildlife crossings this fall, furthering efforts to reconnect animal habitat while preventing costly wildlife-vehicle collisions on busy roads.
The “West-Wide Study to Identify Important Highway Locations for Wildlife Crossings” was compiled by the Bozeman-based Center for Large Landscape Conservation (CLLC), Montana State University’s Western Transportation Institute, and David Theobald with Conservation Planning Technologies.
The 152-page study analyzed road segments from 11 western states — Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming — to find the best locations for wildlife crossings.
Researchers also created an interactive mapping website where people can see the different variables used to identify the best sites for crossings as map layers.
The research comes at a time of increased momentum for building wildlife crossings across the country. The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law allocated $350 million in federal funding to the Wildlife Crossings Pilot Program to be distributed among states.
Researchers said the goal of the study was to provide states with data they need to plan and apply for federal funding for wildlife crossings, which cost the western U.S. an estimated $1.6 billion a year in damages. Over a million large mammals are hit by cars each year, causing hundreds of human fatalities and injuring thousands more, the study found.
The ideal crossing sites were identified based on the rate of wildlife-vehicle collisions, if land on either side of the location was public, protected, or ecologically significant, and if the cost of the crossing would outweigh the existing costs of collisions.
“This study is unique,” Kylie Paul, road ecologist at the CLLC and co-author of the study, said in a press release.
“Rather than primarily focusing on wildlife-vehicle collision locations, we used several factors to highlight locations where building a wildlife crossing structure might address conservation needs and cost-savings, in addition to the standard focus on human safety.”
The study was also one of the first to look at several western states with a consistent methodology, allowing for cross-state and regional comparison alongside state-specific analysis. The research is meant to complement previous research conducted by states, like the work of the Montana Wildlife and Transportation Partnership, Paul said.
The Montana-specific analysis found that over 13 years (2008-2020) there were a total of 29,644 reported collisions with large wildlife, for an average of 2,574 collisions each year.
That equates to $212,511,197 in damages each year from wildlife-vehicle collisions, which Paul said is a minimum number due to underreporting of crashes.
Matthew Bell, a research engineer at the Western Transportation Institute and study co-author, said in a press release that often wildlife crossings — either underpasses or overpasses with fences — pay for themselves multiple times over.
While the cost of building the crossing is variable and depends on the size and design, researchers can use the costs of vehicle damage and injuries to do cost-benefit analysis.
“We showed that in several hundred locations across the West, constructing a crossing structure and fencing would actually be cheaper over the long-term than doing nothing, while also enhancing wildlife conservation efforts,” Bell said in the release.
The Montana analysis found 277 segments, or 56 miles, of road where underpasses would be cost-effective, and 200 segments, or 41 miles, of road where overpasses would be cost-effective.
The analysis then looked at where those cost-effective areas overlapped with ecologically important wildlife habitat and fractured connectivity. It found 38 segments ideal for underpasses and 10 segments ideal for overpasses.
In southwest Montana, the recommended areas stretched from U.S. Highway 89 past Chico and north of Gardiner, U.S. Highway 191 through Gallatin Canyon and past Big Sky, Interstate 90 through Bozeman Pass near Chestnut Mountain, and Interstate 90 west of Three Forks.
The bulk of the recommended areas were in northwest Montana. Interstate 90 east of Missoula by Iris and extending west of Missoula, U.S. Highway 2 west of Kalispell, and U.S. Highway 93 north of Kalispell were the roads with the most proposed crossings.
Researchers said the study is intended as a guidance document to help policymakers make more informed decisions.
“This study can be used to help supplement Montana’s existing approach to identifying areas where wildlife crossing structures would be valuable and feasible,” Paul wrote in an email to the Chronicle. Our next steps are to continue to share the document and further discuss its recommendations and relevance to state agencies and efforts. Numerous partner groups can use these results as well, such as land trusts, conservation coalitions, and others.”
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