Washington Wildlife Crossings Field Course

"Creating Connections through People and Processes"

Overview

From June 2-4, 2008, the Washington Wildlife Crossings Field Course was conducted in Roslyn, Washington. The Southern Rockies Ecosystem Project (SREP) again served as host and lead organizer for the event. Held on alternate years from the International Conference on Ecology and Transportation (ICOET), the field course is designed to be complementary to ICOET and provide an additional education forum for attendees of both conferences and new attendees alike.

Joining SREP as hosts for this year’s course were the Washington State Department of Transportation, the U.S. Forest Service, and the I-90 Wildlife Bridges Coalition. The course also received generous support from several other sponsoring organizations including the Center for Transportation and the Environment, Western Environmental Law Center, Western Transportation Institute, Yellowstone to Yukon Conservation Initiative, Conservation Northwest, Defenders of Wildlife, The Wilderness Society, URS Corporation, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Wilburforce Foundation, The Brainerd Foundation, and the Bullitt Foundation.

Trisha White with Defenders of Wildlife, and a national expert on surface transportation policy and wildlife-vehicle collision prevention, led course attendees through a comprehensive agenda of presentations, discussion sessions, and field tour activities. The course drew a total of 114 participants from the U.S. and Canada, including biologists, engineers, planners, consultants, state transportation agency officials, non-profits and foundations, and state elected representatives.

The three-day course provided a constructive forum for sharing experiences and exploring new ideas, perspectives, and concepts leading to an expansion of the knowledgebase on issues involving wildlife crossings. The event drew on an extensive range of expertise from professionals engaged in creating successful wildlife crossings. Presentations by more than 30 speakers were given to address the complex issues of planning, design, funding and monitoring of wildlife crossings.

Washington State’s Snoqualmie Pass East – the site of a major planned transportation and wildlife crossings project on Interstate 90 – provided an exceptional opportunity for course participants to learn from a project that is currently underway. By using this project as a case study and the focus of a field tour on the second day of the course, participants were able to observe first-hand the hurdles as well as the achievements that have resulted in a comprehensive proposal to construct a suite of wildlife crossings along this stretch of interstate highway.

Based on the positive evaluations received from attendees, SREP and other event hosts hope this year’s course will facilitate communication and information sharing between these multi-disciplinary groups as well as build enthusiasm for wildlife crossings throughout Western North America.