Overview: Potential Solutions to Transportation-Wildlife Conflicts
Dr. Tony Clevenger, Western Transportation Institute
Transportation corridors present some of the most severe human-caused impacts in the vast Yellowstone-to-Yukon ecoregion. Roads can occupy and fragment important wildlife habitat in addition to being a source of mortality from collisions with vehicles. Typically road mitigation projects occur when there is a concern for public safety, sensitive or endangered species are impacted or significant mortality results. Mitigation is one of several solutions to be considered by transportation agencies prior to road improvement or construction. Road alignments can (1) avoid critical habitat, (2) mitigate habitats (and populations) affected, or (3) compensate for the loss of habitat. If mitigation is chosen, then it is important to have predefined project goals and objectives. What is the intended goal of mitigation? It will be important to know how agencies might weight the importance of reducing collisions and barrier effects as that will influence design and performance evaluations. Mitigation planning begins with selecting the alignment with least environmental and social impacts. Alignment impacts can be reduced by having highways traverse the least favourable habitat for wildlife (e.g., north-facing slopes). After alignment selection efforts go into determining wildlife crossing placement; where are the best locations for reducing road-related mortality and barrier effects? Mitigation is permanent and structures last 70-80 years so it is important to consider ecosystem dynamics and landscape changes (natural and human-induced). Mitigation strategies need to be contemplating two scales: site level or local scale planning in design and adjacent habitat and regional scale planning to ensure that the crossing mitigation fits within a regional corridor context. There are many methods used to identify the optimum location for wildlife crossings, including road-kill data, radio-tracking, transects and surveys, GIS-based modeling and local knowledge. Monitoring animal use of wildlife crossings and their populations will allow for performance evaluations. Performance is generally evaluated by amount of mortality reduction, restored movement patterns and also higher population level benefits leading to functional connectivity (increased survival, breeding, and genetic and demographic connectivity). The science of road ecology and mitigating road impacts on wildlife in particular was poorly developed 10-20 years ago. But today significant advances have been made in technologies used to assist with evaluating and mitigating road impacts (modeling, genetic tools, and telemetry). In North America the amount of science-based data available for decision-making is increasing, however, it is essential to have buy-in by transportation agencies and local communities. The anticipated growth in population and projected highway improvement plans in the Rocky Mountains, coupled with the resounding concern for maintaining large-scale, landscape connectivity will continue to generate interest in conservation tools and applications for addressing the diverse issues linking transport, ecology and local communities.
Download Tony's PowerPoint presentation in pdf: Overview: Potential Solutions to Transportation-Wildlife Conflicts
Elk Migration and Movement in Southwest Alberta
Dale Paton, University of Calgary
Elk are an important wildlife resource in southern Alberta and British Columbia. Dale's study is one of a group of 4 graduate students' studies, ranging from elk migration to trophic cascades and the affects of disturbance on elk habitat use. The collection of studies are all part of a 5 year program called the Southwest Alberta Montane study.
One objective of Dale's study is to investigate landscape permeability of elk migration in southwest Alberta. Using GPS and Argos/GPS radio telemetry collars on 90 elk from seven herds will provide data to identify seasonal home ranges, migration corridors used between ranges and the potential effects of linear and patch disturbances to migration and seasonal habitat use. The Crowsnest elk herd is a part of the Montane Study, with 5 collared elk tracked this year and another 5 elk to be collared in February, 2008. Information about elk movement and seasonal use data could be used in planning strategies to maintain elk movement within the Highway 3 transportation corridor.
Download Dales PowerPoint presentation in pdf: Elk mitigation and movement in southwestern Alberta
Wildlife Movement Across Highway 3: A Citizens Approach
Dr. Michael Quinn, Tracy Lee and Danah Duke, University of Calgary, Miistakis Institute for the Rockies
The Miistakis institute has assisted in developing three spatial datasets with a goal of improving the understanding of large mammal movement across Highway 3 in the Crowsnest Pass of Southwestern Alberta. Recognized as an information gap for the region, Miistakis's approach has been to tap into and develop existing knowledge sources and engage local citizens in the research process. The sources of information we will be discussing today include, a three year citizen derived wildlife point observation dataset, a ten year wildlife traffic mortality dataset and local knowledge documentation of large mammal movement zones across Highway 3. Together the three datasets enable us to gain a better understanding of collision hotspot crossing areas and multi-species movement zones.
Through the successful implementation of Road Watch in the Pass, a community based monitoring project where citizens enter their wildlife point observations into an interactive mapping tool, a dataset with over 3000 large mammal observations has been collected. The majority of the species are ungulate (deer, bighorn sheep, elk and moose), but there are also rare occurrences of carnivores crossing Highway 3. We have developed a number of methods to identify key crossing areas for different large mammal species. The raw data can be viewed on the mapping tool at http://www.rockies.ca/roadwatch, mapping products, reports, journal articles and thesis can be viewed on the results page of the Road Watch website.
Highway Maintenance Contractors in the Pass document wildlife traffic mortality information. Miistakis has used this information to identify high collision zones along Highway 3.
In 2005, 25 local citizens, whom where identified as knowledgeable about wildlife movement in the region by Alberta Fish and Wildlife staff were interviewed. Citizens were asked to draw movement zones on a map for a suite of large mammals and to provide contextual information (temporal information or interesting observations). Interview results were summed and areas where there where high levels of agreement were identified. For the rarer species individuals were asked if they had ever witnessed a crossing event.
Together these datasets greatly assist us in understanding where large species are crossing Highway 3; The datasets compliment each other and highlight the value in assessing multiple sources of information for the development of effective mitigation strategies.
Download Dr. Michael Quinn's PowerPoint presentation in pdf: Wildlife Movement Across Highway 3: A Citizens Approach
Resources
Road Watch results including reports, peer reviewed papers and thesis can be downloaded from the results page of the Road Watch website.
A Partnership with Canadian Pacific Railway
Tracy Lee, Miistakis Institute for the Rockies
CP Rail owns and operates the railway line that runs the length of the Highway 3 Transportation Corridor. Their train engineers are required by legislation to report strikes with wildlife to CPR's environment section. Reports generally include species, number of individuals involved in the strike, date, time and location to the nearest mile post. Unfortunately, consistency in reporting is unknown and likely varies between individual train engineers. The data collected by CPR represents our only source of documented knowledge for the region. To better understand the issue of wildlife mortality due to train strikes, Miistakis and CPR have agreed to partner on a research projects.
Phase 1 includes an assessment of CPR strike data to identify possible hotspots along the railway line. These results could also be compared to the Highway 3 wildlife traffic mortality data to identify areas where mitigation of the highway and railway should be simultaneously addressed.
Phase 2 includes documenting the knowledge of train engineers that are interested and knowledgeable on wildlife. This process has not been developed but will likely involve a series of half day workshops and a community based mapping approach.
Together, we hope these two phases identify hotspots where eventually a systematic wildlife survey could be implemented.
A multi-species approach to prioritizing wildlife corridors along the Alberta segment of Highway 3
Download Tracy Lee's PowerPoint presentation in pdf: A Partnership with Canadian Pacific Railway
Ranking corridors along Highway 3 in Alberta and the application of a Grizzly Bear habitat model as an umbrella model to identify multi-species carnivore concerns.
Dr. Carita Bergman, independent scientist
Carita described an "expert opinion" process used to identify and rank areas of connectivity for large mammals across Highway 3 in Southwest Alberta, combining information from several sources on habitat models, animal movements, wildlife mortality, and previous foci of conservation by non-government organizations. She further elaborated a habitat suitability model derived for grizzly bears, and validated using grizzly bear movement data. In management planning, grizzly bears are often selected as a special species of interest, with the intention that managing for their needs will also cover off the needs of many other species. The application and utility of the grizzly bear to two other large carnivore species, cougar and gray wolf, was presented. Validation of this model for these species was presented through an overlay of wolf and cougar activity kernels that show a high correspondence with high quality grizzly bear habitat, as defined in the model. The utility of this model in accurately predicting movement patterns of other carnivore species is unique.
Download Dr. C. Bergman's PowerPoint presentation in pdf: Ranking corridors along Highway 3 in Alberta and the application of a Grizzly Bear habitat model as an umbrella model to identify multi-species carnivore concerns.
Resources
C. Bergman 2004. Habitat suitability index model Grizzly Bear (Ursus arctos) Pp. 108-114 in Blouin, F., B.N.Taylor, and R.W.Quinlan (eds). 2004. The southern headwaters at risk project: A multi-species conservation strategy for the headwaters of the Oldman River. Volume 2: Species Selection and Habitat Suitability Models. Alberta Sustainable Resource Development, Fish and Wildlife Division, Alberta Species at Risk Report No. 90, Edmonton, AB.
Carnivores, core areas and connectivity across the crowsnest highway
Dr. Clayton Apps (1). Dr. John Weaver (2), Bruce McLellan (4), Bryce Bateman (1), Dr. Paul Paquet (3)
1. Aspen Wildlife Research, 2. Wildlife Conservation Society, 3. World Wildlife Fund and 4. British Columbia Ministry of Forests and Range
The southern Canadian Rocky Mountains support an assemblage of carnivores that appears unique in North America for its intact diversity, and the region is also one of the most strategically important sections in maintaining broad ecological connectivity in the western mountains of North America. The natural connectivity afforded by the predominantly north south orientation of the Rocky Mountain ranges is vulnerable to fracture by the Crowsnest Highway (Hwy 3) transportation and development corridor that runs mostly east west. Expanding human developments and activities - along the Crowsnest Highway but also throughout the region - pose a threat to maintaining the security and connectivity of habitats and populations across this landscape. The increasing extent and intensity of this network may fragment carnivore populations into smaller and more vulnerable units, reduce gene flow, and restrict options for ecological and geographic shifts in response to climate change.
To address this problem of habitat and population fragmentation, the authors conducted modeling and field research during 2001-2004 to provide critical information pertaining to the viability, security, and connectivity of carnivore populations across the southern Canadian Rockies. In stage 1, they selected a suite of six carnivore species - grizzly bear, lynx, badger, bobcat, wolf, and wolverine - that represent a broad variety of ecological conditions. For each of these landscape species, they developed and applied regional models of distribution and vulnerability across the entire southern Canadian Rockies (30,000 km2). In stage 2, we used hair-snaring and DNA analysis to sample the actual distribution of two species (grizzly bear and lynx) within a zone (10-20 km wide) that paralleled and included the Crowsnest Highway. The authors collected these field data to assess and refine the regional models and to determine occurrence and general movements relative to the highway. In stage 3 (in progress), they placed GPS collars on a sample of GBs captured in landscapes adjacent to the hwy in order to characterize more detailed patterns of landscape occupancy and movements, and to evaluate the human and natural factors that influence these patterns. They discussed results and conservation implications of each research stage.
Resources
An expanded summary and report addressing the first 2 stages of this work can be found at: http://www.wcscanada.org/media/file/crowsnest_web.pdf.
Where to draw the line: using resource selection functions to identify corridors for grizzly bears Ursus arctos and cougars Puma concolor in the Crowsnest Pass, southwestern Alberta, Canada
Cheryl-Lesley Chetkiewicz, University of Alberta
Corridors are the cornerstone of many carnivore conservation initiatives at both the local and regional scales. One impediment to advancing corridor planning and implementation is the lack of integration between the structural connectivity inherent in corridor identification and design with the behavioural processes of resource selection and movement that corridors are purported to facilitate. Cheryl collected Global Positioning System (GPS) telemetry data for four (2 females, 2 males) grizzly bears and 13 (7 female, 6 male) cougars captured in the Crowsnest Pass during 2001-2004. A total of 6,643 grizzly bear GPS locations and 5,741 cougar GPS locations were used to develop and validate seasonal resource selection function models to predict the distribution of grizzly bears and cougars. Greenness, a surrogate for forage resources, figured prominently in resource selection function models for grizzly bears whereas topographic measures were more important predictors of cougar occurrence in the Crowsnest Pass. Seasonal resource selection functions were used to develop source nodes and the inverse of the models were used as a surface for least-cost path (LCP) analyses. Merging seasonal paths by species highlighted potential species-specific corridor locations throughout the year. Intersecting paths for both species highlighted potential corridor locations for both species as well as highway crossing zones in each study area. Some of potential highway crossing zones were corroborated with telemetry data. Through static models, RSF and LCP models illustrated potential corridor locations for two carnivore species in the Crowsnest Pass. These species- and landscape-specific tools offer an objective and adaptive approach for managers and conservation planners attempting to design and identify corridors at a local scale for grizzly bears and cougars in the Canadian Rocky Mountains.
Download Cheryl Chetkiewicz PowerPoint presentation in pdf: Where to draw the line: using resource selection functions to identify corridors for grizzly bears Ursus arctos and cougars Puma concolor in the Crowsnest Pass, southwestern Alberta, Canada
Badger Roadkill Risk in Relation to the Presence of Culverts and Jersey Barriers
Trevor Kinley, Sylvan Consulting Ltd.
The subspecies of American badger found in British Columbia (Taxidea taxus jeffersonii) is provincially red-listed and nationally endangered. The primary cause of mortality is roadkill. European badgers (Meles meles) and other carnivores are known to pass under highways using culverts, and there are indications that American badgers do also, suggesting that the presence of more culverts might be associated with lower roadkill risk for American badgers. Furthermore, it has been speculated that roadkill risk is positively associated with the presence of Jersey barriers. These concrete barriers are used along highway edges or between lanes and may trap badgers on roadways. The author compared 39 1-km highway segments in which badger roadkills had occurred to 39 random segments, to see if they differed in the number of culverts and bridges useable by badgers or in the presence or distance covered by Jersey barriers.
About 18% of structures in random segments and 40% in roadkill segments were not passable by badgers. In comparison to random segments, roadkill-associated segments were less likely to have =2 structures/km passable by badgers (26% of roadkill segments vs. 59% of random segments; ?2 = 8.877, P = 0.003). The mean number of passable structures was apparently also lower for roadkill segments (1.33/km) than for random segments (1.62/km), although the difference was marginally significant (Z = -1.542, P = 0.123). Using only roadkill records with the highest accuracy (from an existing telemetry database, n = 6), differences between roadkill and random segments were apparently greater but the limited sample size resulted in low significance. Collectively, these results support the notion that culvert or bridge frequency is negatively related to badger roadkill risk. The presence or amount of Jersey barrier was not significantly related to roadkill risk, whether considering the full roadkill sample or only those from radio-tagged animals. This may have related to the limited use of Jersey barriers in the study area and their deployment in locations where badger habitat is less abundant (steep, rocky terrain) or where there are options for passing under highways (adjacent to bridges and overpasses).
The author recommended that steps be taken to maximize opportunities for badgers to use culverts to pass under highways. Recognizing the high cost of installing new culverts at a high frequency over extended lengths of highway, options include: (a) repairing or retrofitting existing structures where needed to make them more useable; (b) increasing the odds of badgers finding culverts by clearing vegetation where it obscures entrances, ensuring that marker posts are in place, and potentially installing drift nets to guide movements; c) selectively installing more culverts, either when highway construction occurs or possibly by boring under highways; and (d) seeking opportunities to investigate culvert or landscape characteristics associated with the use of culverts by badgers.
Download Trevor Kinley's PowerPoint presentation in pdf: Badger Roadkill Risk in Relation to the Presence of Culverts and Jersey Barriers
Resources
T. Kinley and N. Newhouse 2006. Ecology and Translocation-Aided Recovery of an Endangered Badger Population. Journal of Wildlife Management. 72 (1) 113-122.
Wildlife-Vehicle Collision Reduction Study
Rob Ament, Western Transportation Institute.
Under Section 1119 (n) of the Safe Accountable Flexible Efficient Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy for Users (SAFETEA-LU), the US Congress directed the Secretary of Transportation to conduct a national Wildlife Vehicle Collision (WVC) study. The Western Transportation Institute conducted this study that details the causes and impacts of wildlife vehicle collisions and identifies potential solutions to this growing safety problem that are applicable in the U.S or Canada. The report demonstrates that WVCs are a growing problem and represent an increasing percentage of the accidents on U.S. roads. It includes an important economic review of the direct costs of WVCs for deer, elk and moose. The report focuses on mitigation methods that reduce the number of collisions between vehicles and large wildlife, such as deer, because these accidents present the greatest safety danger to travelers, and cause the most damage. The study reviews 34 mitigation techniques, a number of which are effective in reducing WVCs, show promise, or are considered good practice, including integrated planning efforts, wildlife fencing and wildlife crossing structures, animal detection systems and public information and education. A major challenge that must be addressed before WVCs can be systematically reduced is improving the consistency and precision of data collection on WVCs. Inconsistent and imprecise data make it difficult to identify and prioritize road sections that require mitigation.
Resources
The report can be downloaded from: http://www.wti.montana.edu/RoadEcology/documents/Wildlife_Vehicle_Collision_Reduction.pdf
Dynamic Knowledge and Static Infrastructure: Wildlife Monitoring and Mitigation in British Columbia
Leonard Sielecki, British Columbia, Ministry of Transportation
The British Columbia Ministry of Transportation (BCMoT) is a pioneer and leader among transportation agencies globally in wildlife monitoring and mitigation. Since the late 1970's, BCMoT has closely monitored wildlife activity at the highway-wildlife habitat interface on major numbered highways under its jurisdiction across British Columbia. In the mid-1980's, BCMoT began designing and building wildlife exclusion systems to protect motorists and wildlife on high speed, limited access Provincial highways. In 1987, BCMoT designed and constructed the first wildlife overpass in Canada. Now, with approximately 480 kilometres of wildlife exclusion fencing and over 100 wildlife passage structures in place, BCMoT has the most extensive wildlife exclusion network among transportation agencies in North America. Following the guidance of leading wildlife specialists, BCMoT has designed wildlife exclusion systems to safely and effectively protect motorists and wildlife while ensuring critical wildlife habitat connectivity and supporting natural genetic diversity. Initially, wildlife exclusion systems were designed for large ungulates, primarily deer and moose. As the significance of smaller mammals, amphibians and reptiles in the larger ecosystem context has been recognized, BCMoT has responded to accommodate the needs of a growing number of species. Efforts are made to improve and protect wildlife habitats and integrate wildlife passage structures into new highway construction projects, and, when opportunities arise, with highway rehabilitation projects. BCMoT's designs of wildlife fencing and passage structures are evolving to increase their suitability for different species, as the behavioural, movement and habitat characteristics of wild animals are becoming better understood. However, highway infrastructure has a long-term, static, physical nature which limits opportunities to modify it. Consequently, like its counterparts throughout the world, BCMoT faces the challenges of retro-actively improving its existing highway infrastructure for wildlife as advancements in scientific knowledge occur and are published.
