Wildlife bridges are found on every continent: there is an elephant underpass near Mount Kenya the Netherlands has a network of ecoducts that may help the country’s first wolf pack in more than 140 years gain a foothold across the densely populated country suspended water pipes are helping Java’s endangered lorises and a bison bridge may help the animals cross the Mississippi. Even out in the plains, we’re getting moose crossings in North Dakota.” In some cases, 85% to 99% reductions,” says Rob Ament, a road ecology expert at Montana State University. Now they’ve shown they get huge reductions in collisions. We didn’t know whether they would work or not. According to the Commission, the state legislature could allocate resources to wildlife passages that could be leveraged to match the available federal funding.Īnd maybe, just maybe, the next time a big doe gets ready to cross a highway in front of me when I’m hauling butt, headed to Avon to catch speckled trout, she’ll cross under my vehicle through an underpass.“Ten years ago, wildlife bridges were experimental. Included in the infrastructure bill passed by Congress in 2021 was $350 million for a wildlife crossings pilot program that will fund projects in all 50 states. Help is on the way from, of all places, the federal government. NCDOT reported 20,331 wildlife-vehicle collisions reported on North Carolina highways in 2019, and a 2021 estimate puts 7% of all vehicle crashes involving strikes with animals, almost half of them after dark from October through December. The Commission and NCDOT have another 11 projects in various stages of planning and design. Department of Transportation for the purpose of making the roads safer for automobiles and whitetails.Ī passage corridor along Cold Springs Creek and Harmon Den Road under I-40 in Haywood County exists, and three more underpasses are on I-140 south of Wilmington in Brunswick County. Wildlife Resources Commission, announcing that it planned to continue to work with the N.C. I thought about that predawn accident the other day when a press release arrived via email from the N.C. Bonner Bridge across Oregon Inlet and later caught speckled trout in a marsh pond near Manns Harbor. I still got to Manteo – albeit a few hours late, and Dudley and I fished for reds under the Herbert C. The passenger side of the fender and door were wrinkled up pretty good, but other than that, the old tank survived. My passenger side window was broken by the rear-view mirror being slammed into it. We don’t need to talk about the cottonmouth water moccasin we dragged out from under the passenger’s seat when I pressure-washed the interior and exterior of the vehicle an hour or so later after a short tow to a used-car lot where I refilled my oil, transmission fluid and power-steering fluid reservoirs. I crawled through the window, grabbed the helping hands and hopped down onto dry ground. Some prison guards who had just gotten off the late shift knocked on the driver’s side window about the same time I got out of the seatbelt. I tried to correct and found myself sliding backwards, eastbound, in the westbound lane, before sliding all the way off the highway and into a watery ditch, the old SUV flipping up on the passenger side. Instinctively, I swerved right to miss her – I did – but when I jerked the steering wheel back left, aiming to get off the shoulder and back on the asphalt, my old GMC Jimmy started to spin.
#HIGHWAY UNDERPASS WILDLIFE PRO#
It was 30-some years ago, and at 6 a.m., I was heading east on US 64 between the tiny eastern North Carolina towns of Creswell and Columbia, headed to Manteo to fish for trout and red drum with bass pro David Dudley, then doubling as a saltwater guide.Īn approaching vehicle caused me to flick off my high-beams and go to low-beams (headlights), and before I could get back to high beams, a doe deer appeared out of nowhere, heading south to north, almost straddling the yellow lines in the center of the road, maybe 50 feet in front of me. I have had one dangerous encounter with an animal crossing the road while I was on a highway.
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