Links
This page will link you to websites with useful information about highway/wildlife interactions. Be sure to check out the Helpful Articles page, which has a few links to specific articles about wildlife/highway interactions.
Click on the link icon (
) to skip the summary and go straight to the site referenced.
Connectivity and Crossing Structures
• Center for Transportation and the Environment
• FHWA
• Trans-Canada Highway
• US Highway 93 Memorandum of Agreement
• FHWA International Technology Exchange Program: Wildlife Habitat Connectivity Across European Highways
• Critter Connections
• Infra Eco Network Europe (IENE)
• The Berryman InstituteNGO’s
• Deer/Vehicle Crash Information Clearinghouse
• Defenders of Wildlife Habitat and Highways
Campaign
• Environmental Defense
• Friends of the Earth
• Mule Deer Foundation
• National Wildlife Federation
• Natural Resources Defense Council
• Surface Transportation Policy ProjectOther Infrastructure Information
• Federal Railroad Administration
• International Dark Sky Association
• Fatal Light Awareness Program
• Noise Pollution Clearinghouse
• Towerkill.com
• Water Canals/Aqueducts
Quotable Quote: “The design of the reconstructed <Highway 93> is premised on the idea that the road is a visitor and that is should respond to and be respectful of the land and the Spirit of Place…. The Spirit of Place includes more than just the road and adjacent areas—it consists of the surrounding mountains, plains, hills, forest, valley and sky, and the paths of the waters, glaciers, winds, plants, animals and native peoples.”
US Highway 93 Memorandum of Agreement, page 1.
Connectivity and Crossing Structures
Center for Transportation and the Environment
As a US DOT University Transportation Center at North Carolina State University, CTE’s function is to be a clearinghouse of information on transportation and environmental issues. The CTE should be your first stop for links to other sites on this topic. CTE has an excellent searchable database on research in progress and a bibliographic database of literature and Web sites on wildlife issues in transportation.
The following links provide additional sources of information more specific to connectivity, crossing structures, and how land management agency personnel can find and use information.The FHWA has an organizational structure that may be confusing to land management agencies. The FHWA recognizes two major categories of highways: Federal Aid Highways and Federal Lands Highways. Each has somewhat different rules for planning and implementation of highway projects. Two good sources for weaving your way through the important differences are to visit the FHWA’s website and read the USDA Forest Service’s San Dimas Technology and Development Center’s Technical Report, Innovative Approaches to Transportation.
The FHWA website has several specific helps for federal land management agency resource specialists. The FHWA’s environmental streamlining is an important concept for federal agencies to understand, and two sites on the FHWA page help explain the FHWA approach. The Environmental Streamlining National Memorandum of Understanding affects most land management agencies involved in highway projects http://www.fhwa.dot.gov///////environment//nmou4.htm . TEA-21 can assist in streamlining by allowing state DOTs to fund land management agency personnel working on highway projects; this page suggests approaches to interagency funding agreements that assist in streamlining projects http://environment.fhwa.dot.gov/strmlng/index.asp.
The FHWA site has an excellent short summary of the current surface transportation bill, the Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century, or TEA-21. This summary is also available in a hard copy brochure. http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/tea21/sumcov.htm
The FHWA website has a new list of good examples of streamlining. Check these out: http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/environment/strmlng/bestprac.htm
The "Successes in Streamlining" Newsletter is a Federal Highway Administration newsletter highlighting current environmental streamlining practices from around the country.
http://environment.fhwa.dot.gov/strmlng/index.asp
This site is entitled Highway Effects on Wildlife: A Research, Monitoring and Adaptive Mitigation Study. It has a wealth of information on the crossing structures and the monitoring that has been done on them. A major asset of the site is the exhaustive Bibliography on connectivity and crossing structure issues. See Clevenger’s entries in the Wildlife Crossings Toolkit Database also. http://www.pc.gc.ca/pn-np/ab/banff/
US Highway 93 Memorandum of Agreement
US Highway 93 in western Montana goes through some of the most spectacular wildlife habitat in the United States. The 56-mile section of the highway covered by the MOA goes through the Flathead Indian Reservation, the homeland of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes. The MOA is an agreement between the Tribe, the FHWA, and the Montana Department of Transportation to maintain a special ‘sense of place’. The MOA contains numerous excellent insights into planning a highway project in a wildlife-friendly manner, including specific information on locations and structures. (These structures will be included as a case history in the Wildlife Crossings Toolkit Database at a future date.) http://www.skillings.com/us93/index.html
FHWA International Technology Exchange Program: Wildlife Habitat Connectivity Across European HighwaysThis summary report of a tour of European countries and their methods to maintain wildlife habitat connectivity includes recommendations for applications in the United States. The summary report contains many useful images and suggestions that can be readily incorporated into highway projects. Case histories from this tour will be posted into the Wildlife Crossings Toolkit Database in 2003.
This website on some of the basic concepts of wildlife corridors and habitat connectivity is being developed by the USDA Forest Service. It is a companion website to the successful Critter Crossings developed by the FHWA. (No URL yet, please check back.)
Infra Eco Network Europe (IENE)
IENE is a European network of experts and institutions involved in the field of habitat fragmentation and transportation infrastructure. By bringing together experts, IENE contributes to decrease the differences that exist among European countries regarding the knowledge and experience on habitat fragmentation caused by infrastructure. Many of these concepts can be used worldwide, of course. http://www.iene.info
The Berryman Institute is a national organization dedicated to seeking integrated solutions to human-wildlife conflicts through research, teaching, and extension programs. The Berryman Institute is housed in the College of Natural Resources on the Utah State University campus. Utah State University is a major land grant University. http://www.berrymaninstitute.org
NGO’s
The following sites are non-governmental organizations that have programs dealing with transportation and wildlife issues, particularly sprawl. Sprawl affects public lands as well as private lands by isolating patches of habitat and situating developed lands near wildlands.
Deer/Vehicle Crash Information Clearinghouse
This Clearinghouse is the product of a regional effort of 5 Midwestern states (Iowa, Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, and Wisconsin) and the Midwest Regional University Transportation Center at the University of Wisconsin. The goal of the DeerCrash website is to provide a central location where users can deposit and retrieve reliable, timely and pertinent information that will assist them in identifying means of significantly reducing deer-vehicle collisions and enhancing public safety on roadways. Wildlife Crossings Toolkit users will find many of the methods to reduce deer-vehicle collisions useful for all species, however some are more applicable to the safety aspect of collisions than to the ecological aspect of connectivity. http://www.deercrash.com/about.htm
Defenders of Wildlife Habitat and Highways CampaignThe mission of this campaign is to reduce the impact of surface transportation on wildlife and habitat, and to incorporate wildlife conservation into transportation planning. One of the best tools on this website is the list of laws and regulations that affect wildlife and highways. This list is not limited to laws pertinent to federal land management agencies. http://www.defenders.org/habitat/highways/
This organization focuses on the best, most equitable way for America to get from here to there without harming the environment. http://www.environmentaldefense.org/ system/templates/page/issue.cfm?subnav=18
Friends of the Earth has two programs related to wildlife/highway interactions. They are: Reducing the Government's Contribution to Sprawl, and Economic Incentives for Sustainable Transportation. FoE-North East is exploring how federal agencies contribute to sprawl-style development in the Lake Champlain watershed. Using a unique strategy, Friends of the Earth educates the public about the link between federal investments and permits and sprawl-style development including the loss of habitat and open-space, impaired water and air quality, and community livability standards.http://foe.org
The Mule Deer Foundation is a national non-profit conservation organization dedicated to stopping the decline of the deer of the West. Among other informational items on their website http://www.muledeer.org/ is a summary of some ways to reduce the chances of having a deer/vehicle collision. This brochure http://www.muledeer.org/dvc.htm was published for visitors to the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, Utah.
The National Wildlife Federation's Smart Growth and Wildlife campaign is working across the US to protect and restore species and habitats threatened by sprawl, by promoting "smart growth" alternatives. Highway systems are one of the most important factors influencing growth and land use. http://nwf.org/smartgrowth/
Natural Resources Defense Council
NRDC has several programs dealing with transportation and Smart Growth. NRDC is working with federal agencies, smart-growth caucuses in the U.S. Congress, and the Smart Growth America on a range of related issues including tax policy, federal facilities location, and inner-city investment to promote smart growth. http://nrdc.org/cities/smartGrowth/default.asp
Surface Transportation Policy Project
The goal of The Surface Transportation Policy Project is to ensure that transportation policy and investments help conserve energy, protect environmental and aesthetic quality, strengthen the economy, promote social equity, and make communities more livable. They emphasize the needs of people, rather than vehicles, in assuring access to jobs, services, and recreational opportunities. http://www.transact.org
Other Infrastructure Information
Highways are not the only infrastructure type that has impacts on wildlife, but frequently highway corridors are co-located with other infrastructure features such as railroads, towers, powerlines and canals. Cumulatively, these features may create more impacts than highways alone.
Federal Railroad Administration
The Federal Railroad Administration was created pursuant to section 3(e)(1) of the Department of Transportation Act of 1966 (49 U.S.C. 103). The purpose of FRA is to promulgate and enforce rail safety regulations, administer railroad assistance programs, conduct research and development in support of improved railroad safety and national rail transportation policy, provide for the rehabilitation of Northeast Corridor rail passenger service, and consolidate government support of rail transportation activities. http://www.fra.dot.gov/site/index_sub.htm
International Dark Sky Association.
This organization attempts to reduce light pollution from all sources. One excellent section of their website is a technical document on techniques to reduce the environmental effects of roadway lighting. It has been estimated by some researchers that up to 50% of all light pollution may be the result of roadway lighting. According to this article, “this firmly puts light pollution in the hands of traffic engineers, and it will become their responsibility to find adequate and economic solutions. “ http://www.darksky.org/infoshts/is125.html
Buildings and towers lit with artificial light are lethal to huge numbers of migrating birds. FLAP provides information on ways to reduce this threat. http://www.flap.org/
Noise from highways can disrupt many wildlife species by frightening them away from otherwise suitable habitat, disrupting birds’ territorial song, or causing stress. The Noise Pollution Clearinghouse is a national non-profit organization with extensive online noise related resources. The site’s search function on ‘highway’ brings up extensive online resources for noise research. http://nonoise.org/
Towers kill millions of birds each year. This site assists with mitigation methods for these towers. http://towerkill.com/
These infrastructure features can cumulatively increase the barrier effect of highways because they frequently parallel highways but are very difficult for many species to cross (including humans). At present, no website could be found that provides insight on impacts and potential mitigation for canals or aqueducts. The Wildlife Crossings Toolkit administrators would appreciate information to include as a link or a short feature article.
