More than a million animals are killed each year trying to cross the road in the United States -- far more than just the proverbial deer in the headlights. Black bears, coyotes, bighorn rams, and panthers are among the frequent victims on American highways, and vehicle crashes are considered a major threat to the survival of 21 threatened and endangered species. Wouldn’t it be nice if someone would build something to help, like, say… a football-field-sized overpass covered with trees and other vegetation that would let wildlife safely cross a six-lane highway? That’s exactly what a team of landscape architects, engineers, and ecologists have proposed for a stretch of Interstate 70 between Vail and Denver, Colorado, known as the West Vail Pass. Their wildlife bridge was selected last month in a competition sponsored by the Western Transportation Institute and the Woodcock Foundation to help reduce animal-vehicle collisions. Now it’s up to the Colorado Department of Transportation whether the $8 million project will be incorporated into its future building plans. OnEarth spoke with Robert Rock, a landscape architect with Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates in New York, about his team’s winning design...
more
That crossing looks like it would be a good place to hunt.
2 comments:
Do these people really think that a "wild" animal will really run down to the wild crossing to cross? HOw many out there is the world have tried to make an animal, a cow for example, cross any crossing? More times than one it results in a wreck. Ask the Cowboys at the Corralitos (Dona Ana County, NM)how many times they have wound up with cattle on the highway in oncoming traffic trying to cross cattle. IT is a scary deal.
Just shows how out of touch with reality these enviro organizations are when it comes to these things.
Post a Comment