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Ten Years on the Road

Habitat and Highways Program Turns 10!

A decade ago, Defenders of Wildlife recognized the importance and urgency of addressing the impacts of highways on our nation’s wildlife. Our ubiquitous network of roads and highways has fragmented wildlife habitat and millions of animals are killed in wildlife-vehicle collisions. Defenders' Habitat and Highways program works to reduce the negative impacts of roads and highways on wildlife and supports efforts to keep new roads and development out of wildlife habitat. As we mark our tenth year of the Habitat and Highways program, we celebrate our many victories.

Top Ten Habitat and Highways Victories

Building Bridges for Wildlife
Protecting Panthers in Florida
Writing the Book on Wildlife and Highways
Teaching Americans to Watch Out for Wildlife
Forging an Alliance for Wildlife
Planning for Wildlife
Creating Crossing Zones in Colorado
Helping Jaguars on the Move in Mexico
Creating Safe Passages for Salamanders
Witnessing the Wolf’s Return in Washington

Building Bridges for Wildlife

The U.S. highway system consists of more than 4 million miles of public roads and highways. That’s enough pavement to wrap around the planet over 160 times. Many of those roads cut through wildlife habitat, creating barriers to movement and causing deadly wildlife-vehicle collisions. To allow animals to safely move across the landscape again, transportation agencies can build passageways under or over the road.

In 1998, Defenders of Wildlife lobbied Congress to include funding for these wildlife crossings in the highway bill. To date, more than $12 million has been spent on various projects to restore habitat connectivity and help wildlife move safely across the landscape.

Protecting the Panthers in Florida

With only 100 or so individual cats remaining in the wild, the Florida panther is one of the most endangered mammals in the world. Due to excessive road building and development in their habitat, panthers are left with precious little room to roam and are forced to cross dangerous highways to find food, mates and shelter.

Since Florida’s transportation agency finished the first underpass for panthers in the 1990s, more than 50 crossings have been built. However, many more are still needed. At one key location in the Big Cypress Preserve, eight panthers have been struck and killed by vehicles on US 41. Defenders of Wildlife secured $675,000 in federal funds to install a state of the art detection system. When the system senses a panther near the road, an electronic sign warns drivers on the road to slow down and be alert.

For more information, see the article, Panthers' Road to Redemption, in the Spring 2010 issue of Defenders magazine.

Writing the Book on Wildlife and Highways

Since 2000, the Habitat and Highways program has produced five groundbreaking publications on wildlife and transportation:

More than 30,000 copies of these publications have been distributed to transportation and wildlife agency staff and advocates in all 50 states and around the world, and thousands more have been trained and mobilized to reduce the impact of highways on wildlife.

Teaching Americans to Watch Out for Wildlife

Every 26 seconds, there’s a wildlife-vehicle collision occurring somewhere in the country. While the number of all motor vehicle accidents has been holding steady, the number of accidents involving wildlife has increased by 50 percent in a 15-year period. This increase is not only disastrous for wildlife—it’s also deadly for humans.

While our government agencies are doing their part to reduce these incidents, we as motorists can do our part too. The Habitat and Highways program sponsors a “Watch Out for Wildlife” week every September to raise awareness and teach people how to drive more safely in wildlife areas. Since 2007 the WOW web page where visitors can download a driver tip sheet and take the WOW pledge has been visited over 33,000 times. And in 2009, Montana’s Governor Brian Schweitzer formally recognized Watch Out for Wildlife Awareness Week in Montana.

Forging an Alliance for Wildlife

Defenders of Wildlife isn’t the only wildlife conservation group working to protect wildlife from highways and cars, though it seemed that way when we started ten years ago. In fact, there are several excellent local and regional conservation organizations across the country that are fighting bad highway projects and advocating for safe passage for wildlife.

Over the past five years, the Habitat and Highways program has organized and mobilized these groups into the TransWild Alliance, a coalition of conservation advocates dedicated to reducing the impacts of roads on wildlife. The Alliance now has 40 members across the United States, Canada, Mexico, and even South America. We have distributed $75,000 in grants to help Alliance members protect wildlife and natural resources from the devastating consequences of highways and associated development.

Planning for Wildlife

Historically, transportation agencies have planned and built roads without regard for wildlife or natural resources. But when highways are built in sensitive areas, we fragment habitat, open the area to even more development and increase the frequency of wildlife-vehicle collisions.

In 2005, Defenders of Wildlife convinced Congress to pass a law requiring transportation agencies to work with wildlife agencies when they are planning new and expanded roads. Using maps of wildlife habitat, planners can avoid building new roads in important habitat areas and can actually restore habitat connectivity where it has been cut off by roads. Wildlife is now one of the first things highway planners think about, rather than the last.

Creating Crossing Zones in Colorado

Wildlife-vehicle collisions are on the rise everywhere, but in some parts of Colorado, they are an epidemic. In Carbondale, wildlife-vehicle collisions increased by a third in just one year. Near Durango, wildlife-vehicle collisions are the most common type of accident, accounting for 60-75 percent of all accidents on US Highway 160.

In early 2010, more than 2,500 Defenders of Wildlife members told Colorado legislators to pass a state law establishing “wildlife crossing zones” on the most dangerous stretches of highway. Much like school and construction zones, Colorado’s wildlife crossing zones will be equipped with special signs to alert drivers that they are in a dangerous area and reduce the speed limit. Revenue collected from the increased speeding fines will be used to pay for the signs and for future wildlife crossing projects.

Helping Jaguars on the Move in Mexico

Although the jaguar is revered as a culturally iconic species in Mexico, the Mexican government is widening federal highway 186, which cuts through the Calakmul Biosphere Reserve and Balam Ku State Reserve where jaguars live and thrive. With increased traffic volume and speed, more jaguars will be killed on the highway or cut off from their essential habitat.

In 2009, Defenders of Wildlife was invited to tour the area and advise the Mexican government and a coalition of conservation allies on how to protect the jaguar and its habitat. As a result, the Mexican government is considering building safe passages for jaguar into the highway project.

Creating Safe Passages for Salamanders

Every spring, salamanders in the town of Monkton, Vermont attempt to migrate from their underground homes on the eastern side of the road to their wetland breeding pools on the western side of the road. Some will make it, but thousands will be killed by passing cars. The death toll continues to rise as traffic along this stretch continues to increase.

In 2006, the Habitat and Highways program began supporting the efforts of local conservation organizations to build salamander passages under the road. Since then, more than $155,000 has been raised and two salamander tunnels will be constructed by 2011.

Witnessing the Wolf's Return to Washington

Washington State’s transportation agency will be widening the highway passing through Snoqualmie Pass, correcting for safety and adding wildlife crossings. To better understand the wildlife that live in and move through the area, Defenders of Wildlife members have been working with the Cascades Citizen Wildlife Monitoring Program to install 30 remote digital cameras in key areas to capture wildlife activity.

In 2008, the cameras captured photos of wolf pups, the first photographic evidence of wolves in Washington State in over 70 years. Later that summer, Defenders of Wildlife sponsored more cameras to track these wolves throughout their lives and their range.

Thank you Defenders of Wildlife members and supporters for a decade of Habitat and Highways victories. Together, we are making a difference for wildlife and we couldn’t do it without you.

Stay tuned for our next decade of victories by visiting HabitatandHighways.org.