Americans are hitting the road for summer vacation, and many will be heading to Grand Teton and Yellowstone National Parks via US Highway 26.
Daryl Lutz – Lander region wildlife management coordinator with the Wyoming Game and Fish Department – said Department of Transportation biologists and engineers are focused on plans to reduce collisions with vehicles wild along a 35 mile stretch near Dubois.
Lutz said state-of-the-art Global Positioning System radio collars helped finalize the best locations for wildlife crossings.
“Literally tens of thousands of location data points,” Lutz said, “of elk, mule deer, and bighorn sheep. This helped us delineate where wildlife is approaching and/or crossing the more often the highway.”
Wildlife-vehicle collisions along this stretch of Highway 26 kill up to 250 animals each year, costing over $800,000 in property damage, emergency response and cleanup.
Once engineering plans are set, Lutz said they expect workers to break ground on one overpass, three underpasses and modifications to four other structures within the next year or two.
Tourism and recreation is Wyoming’s second-largest industry, adding $1.7 billion to the state’s economy in 2019.
Grand Teton National Park Superintendent Chip Jenkins said much of this economic activity depends on strong wildlife populations.
“People come to see, people come to hunt, people come to photograph wildlife,” Jenkins said. “Thus, these wildlife migration corridors are absolutely essential to maintain, not only for the health of the ecosystem, but also to help sustain the state’s economy.”
Lutz said while overpasses and fences that separate animals from vehicles are expensive, they allow herds to maintain access to critical habitat on both sides of the road. He said he believes they are a good investment.
“It’s expected that we will have paid for them, given the number of crashes that occur and the costs associated with those crashes, in about 30 years,” Lutz said. “And then the longevity of these structures is at least 75 years.”
Support for this report was provided by The Pew Charitable Trusts.
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Young people are leading the charge this weekend in calling for the removal of four dams conservation groups say will help salmon survive in the North West.
The rally and march for salmon and killer whales is taking place Saturday in Seattle, to urge Washington state leaders to remove four lower dams from the Snake River.
Owen Begley-Collier, a junior from Roosevelt High School in Seattle who helps organize the event with his band, Snake River Savers, said killer whales have been one of his great loves since he was a child, but he worried about their future.
“Since four federal dams were built on the lower Snake River, wild salmon populations have plummeted,” Begley-Collier said. “What deprived these ecosystems and communities.”
Gov. Jay Inslee and Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., plan to release their recommendations for lower Snake River dams by July 31. Conservation groups have encouraged the public to contact them to suggest breaking down the dams. Proponents of dams have argued that they are important for power generation, traffic control and irrigation.
Begley-Collier stressed he would take action beyond the vote to remove the roadblocks.
“If you vote for someone you think matches your values, but you don’t hold them accountable to do what you want them to do, they won’t act unless you put pressure on them. on him and don’t just vote anymore,” Begley-Collier argued. “I think as young people we’ve kind of realized that, because we can’t do that yet.
Begley-Collier noted that Inslee and Murray promised the salmon would not go extinct under their watch, and he thinks they need to back up their claim.
“The scientific consensus is, and has been for decades now, that the only way to make sure these species don’t go extinct is to break down the Snake River dams,” Begley-Collier said. “The only way to make sure you’re not lying about it is to break down the Snake River dams. That’s the only option left.”
The event begins at 11 a.m. at Central Lutheran Church Hall. Other organizations involved in the rally include the Endangered Species Coalition, Save Our Wild Salmon and the Washington Environmental Council.
Disclosure: The Endangered Species Coalition contributes to our Endangered Species and Wildlife Reporting Fund. If you would like to help support news in the public interest, click here.
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As the Wyoming Game and Fish Department enters the third phase of its elk feeding ground management plan, conservation groups are calling on the state to prioritize the health of wild herds in the Greater Greater Area. Yellowstone and to begin closing 22 state-run feeding grounds in northwest Wyoming, where tens of thousands of elk are artificially fed each winter.
Kristin Combs, executive director of Wyoming Wildlife Advocates, said the move was key to mitigating the spread of the chronic wasting disease.
“And we know that CWD is definitely going to have a significant impact on the health of the herd,” Combs pointed out. “Food sites just put together this perfect recipe for basically a petri dish for disease overgrowth.”
Comprehensive recommendations presented this week by Combs’ group and five others call on the agency to phase out all state-run feeding grounds by 2028 away from livestock and pasture.
After a series of public presentations and meetings with designated stakeholders, Game and Fish is expected to publish a draft foraging area management plan early next year. Combs noted that Wyoming is the only western state that still feeds wildlife, and that there are other proven methods for separating cattle and elk.
“Fence hay stores or fence to separate cattle and elk,” Combs explained. “Other states have certainly done this and have relied on landowners to take responsibility as well.”
Other groups calling for removal include the Gallatin Wildlife Association, Jackson Hole Conservation Alliance, Sierra Club, Western Watersheds Project and Yellowstone to Uintas Connection.
The recommendations call for protecting existing elk migration corridors and restoring corridors disrupted by decades of artificial feeding. Conservation groups also want the new plan to recognize the important role native carnivores play in reducing the spread of chronic wasting disease and brucellosis.
“They detect these infirmities and are able to determine which animals are the weakest,” Combs explained. “It has a cleansing effect on the herds and can remove some of these sick animals before they have a chance to spread the disease.”
Disclosure: Wyoming Wildlife Advocates contributes to our fund for endangered species and wildlife reporting, and public lands/wilderness. If you would like to help support news in the public interest, click here.
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Billions of dollars in federal funding to build or improve wildlife crossings are up for grabs, and nonprofits, government agencies, and California tribes are working to secure those funds.
Wildlands Network is co-sponsoring a series of webinars to promote best practices in railway crossing siting and financing.
Erin Sito, US public policy associate for the Wildlands Network, said the $350 million wildlife crossing pilot program was just the start.
“There are also billions of dollars being unlocked with existing Federal Highway Administration programs when the infrastructure bill also made wildlife-related projects eligible for funding under those programs,” Sito pointed out. . “There really is a lot of money on the table.”
The first two webinars covered the need for wildlife crossings and best practices for collecting data on where to improve or add them. The next one, June 9, explains which federal programs are accepting applications.
Sito pointed out that the funding opportunity notice will be released this summer for programs targeting culverts and bridges.
“Culvert replacement can be critical for aquatic and terrestrial species,” Sito said. “Removing smaller types of culverts and replacing them with much larger culverts can create a safe underpass for larger animals like deer, bobcats and cougars.”
Mari Galloway, California program manager for the Wildlands Network, said the webinars attract people from agencies such as Caltrans and California Fish and Wildlife, as well as teams from conservation-minded nonprofits who want to reduce the number of collisions and remove barriers to wildlife migration. .
“These webinars have been a way to really educate both practitioners and agency people about the funding available to them,” Galloway said. “It’s helpful to orient everyone working on these issues and provide information on how they can take the next steps.”
A report by the University of California-Davis Road Ecology Center found more than 44,000 wildlife-vehicle collisions in California from 2016 to 2020.
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