Why did the animal cross the road? To get to the other side for food, mating, and breeding. How do they cross the road? With great difficulty, since many are hit by cars and trucks daily. Add up all those deaths, and you realize that whole species are becoming extinct through road kill.
Most people do not want to hurt an animal. They would prefer to swerve than to hit one. Meanwhile, others do not want a deer crashing into their windshields, and having to pay for the damage. (Insurance companies have estimated the cost of an accident with a large mammal to be $US 2,000 (two thousand U.S. dollars).) However, everyone can agree that a solution is needed to provide safe road crossings for animals.
While many of us consider large animals like deer, the smaller ones such as toads and salamanders also need our help. Even squirrels seeking nuts would prefer a car free future. With our friends and neighbors, we can arrive at simple solutions benefiting both ourselves and the animals.
It could be as simple as a sign declaring “Salamander Crossing” In Scotland, rope bridges were constructed to help endangered red squirrels to cross safely over the road. In the Dismal Swamp of Virginia, road crews provided large underground culverts for foxes and other mammals to use. In Poolsville, Maryland, the local people collect salamanders and carry them to their breeding ponds.
The people of Central Florida (USA) noticed how many frogs, snakes, and turtles were being killed crossing a busy highway. According to the U.S. Department of Transportation, about a thousand animals of eighty species were being killed a year along a two mile stretch of U.S. 441, which crosses a nature preserve. The local people with state transportation and natural resource agencies, environmental groups, and the University of Florida worked together to develop a safe crossing for the animals. The result was a tipped wall that diverted the animals to highway underpasses. Since building the wall, animals have been safely crossing under the road.
Salamanders in a Massachusetts (USA) town were being killed, trying to crossing a busy street to get to their breeding ponds. The people of Amherst tried to save the salamanders by carrying them across in buckets. To find a better way of saving the amphibians, the local people worked with the British Fauna and Floral Preservation Society, ACO Polymer of Germany, the Amherst Department of Public Works, University of Massachusetts, Massachusetts Audubon Society, and Hitchcock Center for the Environment (a local conservation group) to design and build a tunnel for the salamanders to use to cross the street in safety. The tunnel was built, and hundreds of salamanders were saved.
To prevent Eurasian badgers from becoming road kill, badger tunnels (first built in Heumen Municipality, the Netherlands) provide a solution for the tradition-minded badgers. The tunnels connect municipal greenways with established badger setts. Since the implementation of the badger tunnel program, the population of badgers in Heumen has doubled.
For large and small animals, help is on the way. If we act as a determined group, we can help them. The (U.S. Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century (TEA-21)) sets aside funds to pay for habitat connectivity measures (including crossing structures). The U.S. Federal Highway Administration will aid local groups in providing solutions for wildlife crossings. Contact the U.S. Department of Transportation, U.S. Federal Highway Administration: Paul Garrett at (303) 969-5772 or Paul.Garrett@fhwa.dot.gov. Their site, U.S. Department of Transportation, Federal Highway Administration: Critter Crossings: “Linking Habitats and Reducing Road Kill”, provides examples of community action. Remember working together we can prevent the carnage of the roadside.
Road Crossings: Simple Solutions Already in Practice
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Salamanders' Crossing Sign, Ecopassage, and Badger Tunnel photos courtesy of U.S. Department of Transportation, Federal Highway Administration: Critter Crossings: “Linking Habitats and Reducing Road Kill”.
Va. Carper
May 20, 2008