Wildlife use bridges and tunnels too, but it’s spendy

Every year on U.S. roads millions of vehicles crash into wildlife. It is one of those things you don’t really think about until it happens, and then you find out how much it will cost to fix your car.

There is a federal program that helps build wildlife-specific bridges and underpasses to provide safe passage for deer, bears, elk and other critters. But it runs out of money this year.

The projects that have received federal dollars have been quite successful at keeping drivers safe and wildlife off roads.

A wildlife freeway

U.S. Highway 191 connects the town of Pinedale, Wyoming, to Jackson Hole as well as Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks. Tourists, daily commuters, and livestock trucks drive it everyday and there used to be a dangerous stretch.

“It was an absolute gauntlet, and it was terrifying to drive, especially after dark,” said Jill Randall, Wyoming Game and Fish Department’s big game migration coordinator.

Randall stood on a hill above the stretch.

“A half a dozen pronghorn would get hit by a semi or something like that, and it would just be a bloodbath right down the highway,” she said.

The road slices through a sagebrush ecosystem that is hundreds of miles long, and is home to about 40,000 pronghorn — which some people just call an antelope. They travel through the area to get to their summer and winter ranges.

“Pronghorn have been using this area to cross for over 7,000 years,” she said.

So even with a highway and traffic, they still tried to dart across. But that bloodbath gauntlet stopped about 12 years ago when a wildlife crossing was built.

“So this is kind of a bridge that goes over the highway,” Randall said as she walked through the sagebrush toward it.

The bridge is a grassy path lined with tall dirt berms. It is 150 feet wide.

“It feels a lot more connected to kind of the range land. You don't feel like you're standing on top of the highway right here,” she said.

The cost of doing nothing

It is one of two crossings in the area. Tall fencing lines the highway to funnel pronghorn to the bridges. Once completed, the system was almost immediately effective.

“For pronghorn, we've had about 100% reduction in mortality,” Randall said.

Other animals use this grassy freeway, like mule deer and sage grouse. They do not have to pay a toll, but people do. The project cost $11 million. It’s kind of a bargain, said Randall.

“The cost of doing nothing was going to exceed the cost of constructing the project in less than 15 years,” she said.

Pew Research estimates about 200 people die each year from wildlife collisions. Thousands more are injured, and car repairs cost drivers at least $8 billion a year.

“I've hit a deer before; it's absolutely terrifying,” said Rebecca Boslough King with the Center for Large Landscape Conservation.

She was driving at night in Montana and going relatively slow, but visibility was not great.

“I mean, we just absolutely smashed a deer in the front of the car,” she said. “Fortunately we were OK.”

But the car was not. And it all likely could have been avoided if there was a wildlife crossing structure.

“They prevent collisions,” she said. “They support public safety. They save money.”

Federal dollars in question

Congress set aside $350 million five years ago for these kinds of crossings, and dozens of projects got money. The money built a panther and alligator crossing in Florida. In Nevada, it funded 61 underpasses for the Mojave desert tortoise.

“The demand when those grants have opened, has been like five to one in terms of available funding,” Boslough King said.

But the money is drying up.

“There's so much work to do. It is, it is overwhelming,” said Marcel Huijser with the Western Transportation Institute.

He said some communities have gotten creative. Like in Teton County, Wyoming, voters approved a 1% sales tax increase. In Montana $20 from each wildlife license plate goes toward crossings.

But when it’s a $10 million-plus project, Huijser said federal help is needed.

“Mostly because our roads are similarly funded,” he said. “So the problems are associated with having roads and traffic.”

It is an infrastructure problem. There is another five years of funding earmarked in a bill that is sitting in Congress.