In the News
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Conserving Crucial Connections
Durango Herald
April 10, 2008
By Will Sands
Major effort
under way to preserve wildlife habitation and corridors
The Sixth Mass Extinction may be
just around the corner, according to many biologists. Just like
five previous events in the last 250 million years, scientists
are forecasting a major die-off where rats, cockroaches and
other urban species are expected to take the place of lynx,
raptors and sensitive species. Unlike the five other events,
human impacts – whether global warming, sprawl, energy
development or new highways – are the culprits this time.
However, a major regional effort is currently working to hold
off the Sixth Mass Extinction, and Durango is figuring heavily
both in terms of involvement and the result. The Western
Governors’ Association has undertaken a Wildlife Corridors
Initiative in an effort to preserve critical habitat and lighten
human pressures on wildlife throughout the West and beyond.
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I-70 Wildlife Bridge Update
Colorado Matters - KCFR
Friday, March 14, 2008
Vail, CO - Officials have decided where to put a planned
wildlife bridge spanning I-70 near Vail Pass. The decision was
helped by photographic data collected by the Southern Rockies
Ecosystem Project. Dan Meyers talks with Program Director Julia
Kintsch.
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Slideshow: Crossing the Berlin Wall
for Wildlife
High Country News ONLINE
March 10, 2008
View Slideshow |
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Seen a
Lot of Roadkill Lately?
Vail Daily
March 2, 2008
By Steve Lynn
Some
drivers think more deer and elk have been hit by cars
EAGLE COUNTY, Colorado - Scott
Schlosser said he has never seen so many dead deer and elk on
Interstate 70. Schlosser cannot stand looking at their carcasses
anymore, so he takes U.S. Highway 6 instead, he said. “It’s just
a brutal winter for everybody and unfortunately the deer have
been taking the brunt of it,” said Schlosser, who lives in
Eagle.
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Durango HeraldThursday,
January 31, 2008
by
Will Sands
Cooperative effort targets road
removal in the San Juans
The San Juan Mountains are filled with enough
dirt roads to stretch from Durango to Honolulu and back again.
More than 6,400 miles of road lace San Juan public lands, and
more than half of those miles are either user-created or no
longer maintained. A collaborative effort is now hoping to
enhance the area’s wildlife habitat and water quality by erasing
some of that unnecessary mileage.
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Helping Wildlife Cross Roads
Denver Post
February 6, 2008
Plans for under- and overpasses are response to surge in
animal-vehicle accidents
By Howard Pankratz
In the mountains near Vail, the state is planning to build the
first wildlife bridge in Colorado history, while near Boulder,
wildlife specialists are considering protecting elk by either
building a wildlife underpass or fitting the animals with
collars that would trigger lights warning of their
presence.
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Sensors to detect big game animals in DOT pilot project
Montrose Daily Press
November 14, 2007
By Lisa Huynh
Without seeing incoming wildlife, drivers on a mile-long stretch
of southwestern road will soon get ample notice that big-game
animals are nearby.
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Safe Crossing
High Country News
November 12, 2007
by Peter Aleshire
Armed with new research, traffic engineers are finding ways to
stop highway carnage. The 600-pound elk hesitates in the dark
meadow, pausing in the doorway of the small mesh enclosure,
tantalized by the smell of a pile of alfalfa. Not far away,
Arizona Game and Fish wildlife biologist Jeffrey Gagnon sits in
a trailer and watches the elk through a night-vision
camera.
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Group Works on Wildlife Linkages
Durango HeraldNovember 8, 2007
By Dale Rodebaugh
Five of the 12 most dangerous areas where deer and elk cross
Colorado highways are in Southwest Colorado, said a spokeswoman
for the Southern Rockies Ecosystem Project.
"The emerging science of road ecology is beginning to unveil the
real impacts that transportation infrastructure has on wildlife
movement," Monique DiGiorgio, director of development for the
project, said. "We're pleased to work with the Colorado
Department of Transportation to provide wildlife safe passage
across Colorado."
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Collision Course
Durango Telegraph
October 15, 2007
by Will Sands
Partnership looks for answers to wildlife-vehicle collisions
Cars and wildlife are colliding head-on on all over Southwest
Colorado. Wrecks involving vehicles and wildlife are now the
leading cause of accidents in the region and a unique
public-private partnership is hoping to reverse the trend.
Conflicts between cars and creatures are nothing new to the
region. However, increasing population has intensified traffic
on area roads and led to a huge jump in the number of wildlife
vehicle collisions. Accidents involving cars and animals have
risen nearly 300 percent in Colorado since 1993, according to
the Colorado Department of Transportation.
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I-70 Planners Consider Wildlife & Eco Protection
CBS4
October 4, 2007
Written by Andrea Lopez
(CBS4) FRISCO, Colo. More traffic and higher speeds on
Interstate 70 will mean more wildlife collisions. If the future
holds a wider I-70, and faster speed limits through areas
currently riddled with tight curves and slower speed limits,
more animals will likely get hit as they try to cross the road.
The Division of Wildlife has been involved with the Colorado
Department of Transportation from the start in its process of
exploring the problems along the mountain corridor and its
presentation of possible solutions. It, along with the Bureau of
Land Management, the US Forest Service, and the US Fish and
Wildlife Service were all part of a committee called the ALIVE
committee (A Landscape Level Inventory of Valued
Ecosystems).
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All Clear!
Audubon Magazine Sept/October 2007
October/November 2007
Wildlife Corridors
High in the Colorado Rockies, Interstate 70 crests over Vail
Pass, cutting a four-lane asphalt slash through the sur-rounding
national forests that carries 20,000 cars and trucks daily. In
recent years dozens of animals have been killed trying to cross
I-70, which bisects Colorado from east to west, including black
bears, deer, elk, and the endangered Canadian lynx.
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Project to Reduce Collisions Gets Nods
Ouray Sun
April 18, 2007
Sun Staff Report, Ouray County
Eight miles of eight-foot fence isn't protecting anyone on
either side.
Back in the 1980s, during the construction of the Ridgway Dam,
the fence was put along Highway 550 to keep wildlife off the
roadway. But while the fence is a barrier, it?s full of gaps and
a coalition of local governments, conservation groups and the
Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT) now has the data to
begin working to reduce wildlife-vehicle collisions along this
particularly dangerous stretch.
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A different kind of footprint
Vail Daily
December 29, 2006
Matt Terrell
EAGLE COUNTY - It might be just you and your iPod on mile three
of a cross country skiing adventure, but certainly you'll notice
that something beat you to the trail. Maybe it's the tracks of a
snowshoer or the wake of a snowmobiler- sights you know well.
But then again, maybe it didn't walk upright. Maybe it was furry
and lives in a hole.
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Critter cams track wildlife near Vail Pass
Summit Daily
November 5, 2006
BY BOB BERWYN
SUMMIT COUNTY - With a little volunteer help and a funding boost
from the National Forest Foundation, the Southern Rockies
Ecosystem Project (SREP) has successfully launched a wildlife
monitoring program near Vail Pass, capturing nearly 400 images
of elk, deer and other critters with motion-triggered cameras.
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Wildlife Monitoring Program Studies I-70 Corridor
Colorado Matters
November 24, 2006
This summer, volunteers placed motion-triggered cameras in the
woods along I-70 between Copper Mountain and Vail. The goal:
learn which animals travel near the interstate, then locate the
best place to build Colorado's first wildlife bridge over the
highway. Ryan Warner talks to Julia Kintsch, program director
for the Southern Rockies Ecosystem Project, which is leading the
effort.
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Whitetails, white knuckles
Rocky Mountain News
November 22, 2006
Big game taking big toll in property, life on state's roads
By Deborah Frazier
Collisions with deer, elk and other wildlife are the
third-largest cause of vehicle crashes on Colorado highways, but
the numbers dipped after the drought relented...
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Car hits and kills bear in Eagle-Vail
Vail Daily
June 19, 2006
Nikki Katz
EAGLE-VAIL - A vehicle hit a large black bear on westbound
Interstate 70 in Eagle-Vail Saturday night. It appears the
vehicle hit the bear and dragged it to the side of the
interstate, where it died.
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Vail Pass wildlife bridge gets $500,000 boost
Vail Daily
November 18, 2005
Alex Miller
VAIL - A proposal to build a multi-million dollar wildlife
bridge near the summit of Vail Pass got a lift Friday - to the
tune of $500,000. Colorado Sen. Wayne Allard announced the money
was approved by a House-Senate committee for inclusion in the
2006 Transportation Appropriations Bill. Final passage is
expected next week.
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Wildlife crossing scouted from above
Vail Daily
August 28, 2005
Alex Miller
VAIL PASS - Twenty people climbed into four small planes Tuesday
morning to have a look at a proposed site for a wildlife
overpass near the summit of Vail Pass. The idea is to some day -
possibly within the next five years - have a vegetated bridge
linking wildlife habitats on either side of Interstate 70.
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Be wary of wildlife
Denver Post
Wednesday, November 10, 2004
By Kim McGuire
Denver Post Staff Writer
At first glance, Ron and Cathy Rosset reckoned the glimmer in
the darkness was a highway marker's reflector. Seconds later, as
the Littleton couple traveled along Interstate 70 near Eagle,
the truth crashed against the hood of their new Subaru
Impreza.They had struck a deer, which vanished, presumably
mortally injured.
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