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Workshop Introduction
 On April 11 – 13, 2005, the Rockies Wildlife Crossing Structures Field Course was conducted at Camp Tontozona in Payson, Arizona. The Southern Rockies Ecosystem Project served as the lead organizer for the workshop, welcomed the group and acknowledged the other sponsoring organizations:
The course drew a total of 138 participants from 16 U.S. states and three Canadian provinces, including biologists, engineers, consultants, agency officials, non-profits and foundations, as well as delegates from FHWA headquarters, division offices and state transportation agencies. (View list of participants.)
This three-day course provided examples of regional connectivity analyses. The course also allowed environmental and highway professionals to share their challenges and successes with incorporating effective wildlife mitigation measures in transportation planning and highway construction in efficient and economic ways. The second day of the course was conducted in the field, where real-life wildlife crossings were examined and compared. The topics of discussion of the three-day course, which included a field trip along State Route 260, were:
- Planning: Compare and contrast connectivity analyses from different regions and their effectiveness
- Integration: Integrating broad-scale connectivity analyses and fine-scale wildlife mitigation measures into the transportation planning process to increase efficiency and save money
- Funding: Conservation banking and other means of facilitating the construction of crossings, and non-governmental organization participation and efforts
- Engineering: Technical considerations of crossing structures and fencing (e.g., cost, design, landscaping, maintenance)
- Monitoring: Performance monitoring and effectiveness of crossing structures
Highways impact wildlife by inhibiting movements, restricting genetic exchange and causing mortality that can impact population viability. When wildlife moves across roadways, animal-vehicle collisions can become a safety and maintenance challenge for Departments of Transportation and cause injury and fatalities to drivers. The magnitude of these impacts and the costs to drivers, transportation agencies and wildlife is important to understand.
Construction of wildlife crossings is one approach to mitigating these impacts. In both Canada and the United States, transportation engineers, research scientists, and planners across the spine of the Rockies are in various stages of addressing these challenges. These experts have experience and insight into conducting statewide connectivity analyses as well as designing, constructing and monitoring wildlife crossing structures in the field.
Because of the complexity of the issue and the broad geographic range where work is being completed, bringing together experts from the spine of the Rockies (Alberta, Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, New Mexico and Utah) gave these experts a chance to come together and learn from each other's experiences. The field course also built enthusiasm for designing and constructing wildlife crossing structures in an ecological and cost-effective manner.
As momentum for the construction of wildlife crossings grows, taking the time to share expertise, identify key regional wildlife corridors and discuss ways to make the construction of these structures scientifically sound, properly engineered and economically feasible was absolutely crucial.
Attendees of this workshop learned the best management practices and newest available science used to incorporate wildlife crossing structures into the planning, design, construction, maintenance and performance monitoring of ecologically sound and economically efficient transportation projects. They also had the opportunity to view a suite of wildlife crossings in various stages of development on State Route 260 near Payson, Arizona.
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