What is “road ecology” and why is it important to NDOT? In its simplest form, road ecology is how roads can affect animal behaviors, movements, and the overall health and persistence of animal populations. Animals have to move to access necessary resources including food, water, shelter, mating grounds, birthing grounds, or season ranges. If roads create barriers to these resources, animals may not thrive to their fullest potential creating a variety of negative consequences to their populations as well as the potential of direct mortality to those individuals involved in animal-vehicle collisions. Therefore, as we operate and maintain all of the national highways and interstates that go through Nevada, we try to be good stewards of the lands and resources we interact with. One way to reduce our impacts is the addition of wildlife crossing structures.
What are wildlife crossing structures and are they the only solution to reduce animal-vehicle collisions? A wildlife crossing is a structure that goes over or under that roadway that completely removes animals from the roadway and out of the way of motorists. Other solutions might also include species specific fencing, the addition of dirt pathways under bridges, lighting, the addition of signage where we have high animal movements and public education.
Why aren’t there more projects related to reducing animal-vehicle collisions around Nevada? Nevada has a large list of needs that have to be prioritized within our limited budget. When looking at safety concerns across the state, budgets are typically allocated to the highest safety risks first, and animal-vehicle collisions don’t always rank high. Regardless, we still believe that this is an important topic and we are trying to reduce collisions with animals to increase the safety to both motorists and wildlife while increasing habitat connectivity for the health of our environment. Only 10 years ago Nevada had zero wildlife crossing structures. Since 2010 we have built 15 structures dedicated to wildlife, 8 multi-use structures that act as wildlife crossings and also fit another transportation need, have designated an additional 10 existing structures as wildlife crossings so that wildlife passage must always be perpetuated, and have made numerous modifications to existing infrastructure to increase the movement potential for wildlife.
How much do we spend on animal-vehicle collisions each year? The US spends approximately 8 billion dollars annually on animal-vehicle collisions and that cost is increasing as our population increases and we expand into more rural areas. In Nevada, we spend an average of 20 million dollars on animal-vehicle collisions each year. This includes infrastructure damage, human injuries, loss of both human life and animal life, emergency response, traffic control, travel delays and other associated economic costs. If we invest a fraction of that cost into solutions to reduce those collisions, we can save taxpayers money, save lives, and reconnect habitat.
Is there a lot of controversy about this topic? No, this is a topic that has a lot of wonderful science behind it and most people love the results. These projects are a win-win for both motorists and wildlife. Therefore, when it is practical to do so, NDOT is proud to include crossing structures or other kinds of mitigation methods into our transportation infrastructure to reduce conflicts and increase habitat connectivity.
To learn more about wildlife crossings in Nevada, watch our 12 minute short-film documentary, (Re)Connecting Wild.
Warning: This video contains graphic content and may not be suitable for all audiences.
(Re)Connecting Wild tells the remarkable story of the decade-long effort by the Nevada Department of Transportation (NDOT) and its partners to improve human safety by re-connecting an historic mule deer migration that crosses over both US 93 and Interstate 80 in rural Elko County, Nevada. Witness the wildlife crossing structures along I-80 from construction to the restoration of safe passage for migratory mule deer to more than 1.5 million acres of summer and winter habitat.
The documentary has been named an official selection for numerous film festivals, and has been shown internationally in the United Kingdom, Romania, and Hungary.
Nevada DOT. Safe and Connected.