During a Senate Environment and Public Works Committee hearing on Dec. 6, Sen. Thomas Carper (D-Del.) spoke numerous times about a road trip he took with his wife over Thanksgiving when they listened to a radio countdown of the best Beatles songs. But he also talked about the troubling sight of roadkill on the side of roads, including a deer.
“That still happens,” he said, and it underscores the importance of the committee’s work.
The hearing was to look at the implementation of ecosystem restoration, pollinator-friendly roadside practices, and wildlife crossings funded by the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.
The Federal Highway Administration this week announced the first round of grants under the Wildlife Crossings Pilot Program.
With $350 million allocated to the program, 13 grants totaling nearly $110 million were announced to reconnect wildlife habitat and reduce the number of wildlife-vehicle collisions.
“Sometimes we focus just on the vehicular accidents because it may be of interest to drivers and passengers and so forth. But the ones who are dying in many cases are God’s creations, and we have a moral responsibility to do everything we can to reduce that loss of life,” said Mr. Carper.
It was not mentioned in the hearing, but people are also sometimes injured or die in collisions between vehicles and animals. According to the Insurance Information Institute, in 2021 there were 164 human deaths from such accidents in the United States.
The wildlife crossing pilot project will fund overpasses and tunnels for animals to use to cross highways safely. The funds will also be used to improve habitat connectivity for terrestrial and aquatic species.
Habitat connectivity is one goal of the 30x30 plan, a global effort to conserve 30 percent of lands and waters by 2030.
The National Wildlife Federation has been directly involved in supporting a number of these habitat connectivity projects, according to a statement from the federation this week praising the funding.
“The science is clear: conserving and restoring 30 percent of lands, waters, and ocean worldwide is the bare minimum needed to save nature and buffer against the worst impacts of climate change,” the letter said.
“Our future depends on the natural systems that provide our food, clean air, and fresh drinking water, and are the source of our well-being and economic security.”
Sen. Pete Ricketts (R-Neb.) called the 30x30 plan a government overreach and said there is no congressional authority to authorize the plan’s “egregious land grants.”
“There is still no clear definition of conservation. It’s led to uncertainty and instability for private landowners,” Mr. Ricketts said during the hearing.
“The administration has consistently neglected to specify whether working lands, conservation, multiple use, and active management will be considered as part of the conservation criteria for 30x30.”
Numerous congressional oversight groups have gone unanswered, he said, and it has contributed to a state of confusion and uncertainty regarding the 30x30 initiative.
“It is my belief that private landowners are the best stewards of our lands, and Nebraskans are a prime example of this. Nebraska has demonstrated that landowners can effectively balance the productive use of their land with conservation efforts,” Mr. Ricketts said.
“Nebraska is a national leader for acres utilizing no-till practices on farms. Our agricultural producers are voluntarily making decisions. You don’t need the federal government coming in to tell them how to do their business.”
He asked Martha Williams, director of the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service, how the agency would collaborate with private landowners to incorporate local knowledge into conservation strategies.
The Projects
Here are some of the projects approved in this first round of funding.The Arizona Department of Transportation will receive $24 million to construct the I-17 Munds Park to Kelly Canyon Wildlife Overpass Project. It includes 16.8 total miles of new wildlife fencing to reduce wildlife-vehicle collisions and increase habitat connectivity for local species, particularly elk.
California’s Department of Transportation will get $8 million to connect animal habitats between protected state park lands on either side of U.S. Highway 101 in Goleta.
The Colorado Department of Transportation will get $22 million to build an overpass on I-25 between Denver and Colorado Springs, the state’s two most populous cities. Once completed, the Greenland Wildlife Overpass will be one of the largest overpass structures in North America and keep big game species such as elk and mule deer away from traffic.
The Connecticut Department of Transportation will receive $363,000 to develop a statewide plan identifying critical habitat blocks, wildlife corridors, and priority road segments needing wildlife crossings.
Missouri’s Department of Transportation will get $320,000 to develop a statewide plan to identify hot spots and mitigation measures, then rank priority areas and conduct feasibility studies to develop site-specific recommendations to improve the safety of travelers and help promote habitat connectivity.
The Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes in Montana are to get $8.5 million to construct a wildlife overpass spanning U.S. Highway 93 within the Ninepipe National Wildlife Management Area. The project will help improve habitat connectivity for grizzly bears and reduce crash-related mortality.
The Mescalero Apache tribe will get $480,000 to conduct a feasibility study to evaluate solutions for reducing wildlife-vehicle collisions along U.S. Highway 70, the area with the most crashes in New Mexico, and improve connectivity for elk and mule deer.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will receive $1.8 million to protect endangered ocelot by installing multiple wildlife underpass crossings on the Steve Thompson Drive at Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge near Los Fresnos, Texas.
The Virginia Department of Transportation will develop a $600,000 statewide plan to identify roads with the highest risk of large mammal collisions, through a collaboration with the Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources, the Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation, and the Virginia Department of Forestry.
The Vermont Agency of Transportation is to get $1.6 million to design a wildlife crossing to reduce collisions and reestablish wildlife connectivity in the heart of the Green Mountains, for large animals such as black bears, white-tailed deer, and moose, as well as small aquatic animals such as salamanders and wood turtles.
The Wyoming Department of Transportation will be given $24.3 million to implement strategies to improve wildlife connectivity for pronghorn and mule deer along U.S. Highway 189 in southwest Wyoming. The proposed project includes a wildlife crossing overpass, several underpasses, and the installation of high-barrier wildlife fencing.
