safe roads for animals

TUCSON, ARIZ. - A stream of traffic flows along Picture Rocks Road, past two roadside culverts where Natasha Kline is checking for animal tracks. The tunnels, intended to drain a sandy wash, are serving instead as life-saving byways for wildlife along this busy commuter route through Saguaro National Park.

As a park biologist, Ms. Kline knows such crossings can be crucial. A recent study counted as many as 53,000 animals killed on Saguaro's roads each year. "It's a huge problem," she says, "and our issue will be every park's issue in 10 years or so."

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Increased roadkill in national parks and on America's roads is a serious issue. About 275,000 animal-related crashes occur each year in the US, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. An estimated 1 million animals are killed on America's roads each day.

Scientists and transportation planners are seeking to reverse the trend.

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"The first step is understanding where the wildlife passages and corridors are," says Alison Berry, director of the Road Ecology Center at the University of California at Davis. "Then you can go on to [developing] structural barriers, various kinds of underpasses or culverts, and wildlife crossing structures."

Here in Westchester County, deer-car crashes are a danger. Last summer a deer jumped the stone wall at the bottom of our road and landed in the path of a car doing 40 mph.

I happened to be walking home with my neighbor at the time, and when we reached the car, we found the driver sitting inside crying. The deer lay in the road, dead. Terrible.

Culverts like the one in the photograph are one solution.

source:
A push for animal-friendly roads: In road ecology, transportation engineers and biologists cooperate on projects so fewer animals are struck by cars.
By Tim Vanderpool
December 20, 2005 edition
Christian Science Monitor