California has begun construction on a series of wildlife bridge projects that cross state highways, allowing wildlife to safely cross without being struck by motorists. The crossings will also improve biodiversity in the area and allow several species that the highway has separated to reconnect.
Most of the projects are in Southern California. However, the first positive results have already happened in Northern California on a wildlife bridge that is still under construction and scheduled to open later this year. On March 24, three mule deer were caught by cameras crossing the Wildlife Crossing Project on U.S. 97 in Siskiyou County, not far from Mount Shasta. The deep arrived 15 hours after workers left the project for the day.
Wildlife is already using the new structure
“While the contractor is still completing final touches, it’s incredible to see wildlife already embracing the new structure, even with workers still in the area. In addition to deer, a bobcat and other wildlife have also been spotted using it,” Caltrans District 2 wrote on its Facebook page. “This wildlife overcrossing was designed to provide animals with a safer way to cross the highway while helping reduce wildlife-vehicle collisions for motorists traveling through the corridor. Seeing animals use the structure this quickly is an exciting sign of the positive impact this project will have for both wildlife connectivity and public safety for years to come.”
The new bridge should significantly reduce wildlife fatalities on the highway. Vehicles killed over 50 deer and 16 elk in the area between 2015 and 2020. “The primary problem on the highway was the mortality,” Fraser Shilling, director of the UC Davis Road Ecology Center, told SFGATE. “There’s truck traffic that goes through there, and they don’t slow down. They hit whatever’s on the road, so a lot of deer and elk were getting killed.”
The project also includes a concrete tunnel beneath the highway that provides the animals with an alternative crossing, as well as about 3 miles of 8-foot-high fencing. The goal is to help protect not only deer but also Rocky Mountain elk, a local pack of gray wolves, black bears, and mountain lions.
“It’s nice to see all the hard work that everybody’s put into this paying off, and that’s what those deer showed me,” Wesley Stroud, an environmental program manager for Caltrans, told SFGATE. “You build these things in the right location where the animals want to be, and you’re going to get usage.”
Early success in Northern Alifonia gives hope to the project down south
The first wildlife crossings in Siskiyou County should provide a shot in the arm for the largest wildlife project underway miles south in Agoura Hills, near Los Angeles. The Wallis Annenberg Wildlife Crossing is an overpass that crosses 10 lanes of the Ventura Freeway connecting the Simi Hills with the isolated Santa Monica Mountains. It’s scheduled to open later this year.
“Wildlife crossings restore ecosystems that had been fractured and disrupted. They reconnect lands and species that are aching to be whole. I believe these crossings go beyond mere conservation, toward a kind of environmental rejuvenation that is long overdue,” Wallis Annenberg, who donated $25 million to the project, says on the project’s website.
