When Wildlife and Coloradans Collide.
In Colorado, turkeys are not the only wildlife that dread Thanksgiving weekend. More wildlife collisions with vehicles occur in November than any other month according to the Colorado Department of Transportation. Ski season is partly to blame.
Interstate 70’s Mountain Corridor directly connects skiers to the base of truly incredible slopes. Vail, Copper Mountain, and Breckenridge are only a short drive away. But this 144-mile stretch of pavement cuts through a significant amount of Rocky Mountain habitat, putting wildlife in the direct path of drivers.
Coloradan drivers in general are no strangers to wildlife collisions.
Just last year vehicles killed over 6,200 wild animals, according to road kill survey data from CDOT. The majority were deer. In fact Coloradans have a 1 in 253 chance of hitting a deer according to State Farm Insurance.
Moose, deer, elk, mountain lions – pretty much every species of wildlife one associate with the mountains of Colorado—have been sighted alongside I-70, according to Paige Singer a conservation biologist.
“Whenever a roadway bisects habitat it changes wildlife behavior,” said Singer.
Access to basic necessities, traditional breeding grounds, even the likelihood of finding a mate is put at risk due to the interstate. Some species are so deterred by the traffic that they avoid it completely, forever altering their migration route.
“Sometimes an animal’s den is on one side of the highway but needs to get water and food on the other side,” said Erica Prather of Rocky Mountain Wild.
This situation means multiple interstate crossings are required each day to gain access to these resources. Crossing six lanes of high-speed traffic is no easy feat. Each time an animal crosses the interstate their likelihood of being hit by oncoming traffic exponentially increases.
Some species, like the lynx, cannot afford to lose numbers in their population. Lynx disappeared completely from Colorado in the 1970s – habitat fragmentation is a leading factor behind their decline. Lynx were reintroduced in 1999 and the population itself has slowly increased over the years. However, the population as a whole is still considered threatened. Just one lynx getting hit on the road will have a significant impact on the population as a whole according to Singer.
But these collisions do not just impact the wildlife.
“Every collision with an animal has a cost on society,” said Singer.
Insurance rates increase, medical bills add up, and lives are lost due to wildlife collisions. Time itself caused by traffic even becomes an expense. More collisions mean more expenses.
Singer firmly believes that increasing wildlife crossings will decrease wildlife collisions.
The state of Colorado has seen the success of wildlife crossing firsthand. In 2016 the Highway 9 project introduced two wildlife overpasses and five underpasses in the 11-mile stretch of road south of Kremmling.
Scientists studying the wildlife crossing have documented several species utilizing the wildlife crossing. Not only that but parents have begun teaching their young how to use the crossings as well.
Since its completion, wildlife-related crashes along Highway 9 have reduced by almost 85 percent according to Singer.
“They pay for themselves in the future,” said Singer.
Singer is a strong proponent of constructing wildlife crossings along I-70, especially in the Vail Pass region.
The Wild I-70 Audio Tour was released last May to educate Coloradans about their surroundings in a fun, interactive way on their journey from Golden to Glenwood Springs.
“People do this drive so much they forget its habitat,” said Prather, who also produced and wrote the audio tour. Many are in a rush to get to the slopes and completely disregard their surroundings.
The tour itself is GPS-triggered with a total of 16 hotspots. Each hotspot delves into an interactive and educational segment aimed at getting listeners to connect with their surroundings.
“We can feel really disconnected from the natural systems around us,” said Kaitlyn Merriman, community programs manager at Walking Mountains Science Center. “It’s important for people to feel like they have some kind of personal investment and connection to whatever place they are in.”
This is the goal of the audio tour.
These segments cover various topics ranging from the biology of bison, the reintroduction of wolves, and traditional migration routes of Rocky Mountain wildlife. One segment even highlighted the need to increase wildlife crossings along the interstate, especially along Vail Pass.
“Hopefully people listen to this audio tour, learn something new about wildlife, and then make the connection that ultimately we’d like to see a wildlife crossing structure built near Vail Pass,” said Prather.