Consensus is lacking regarding the influence of vehicle speed and traffic volume on deer–vehicle collision (DVC) rates. Yet, annual average daily traffic fl ow (AADT) and posted speed limit (PSL) typically are used to measure these variables. To resolve this confl ict, we studied the effects of traffic volume and vehicle speed on DVCs in Utah. Our ...
Globally, human activities impact from one-third to one-half of the earth’s land surface; a major component of development involves the construction of roads. In the US and Europe, road networks fragment normal animal movement patterns, reduce landscape permeability, and increase wildlife-vehicle collisions, often with serious wildlife population a...
Collisions between large vertebrates and vehicles along roadways are an increasing concern, not only because of ecological consequences, but also because of associated economic and social costs. We used a large-scale, long-term data set comprising several databases from Utah to summarize and analyze these costs. The overall cost for 13,020 collisio...
The Migratory Bird Treaty Act (MBTA), a federal law enforced by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), has no provision for incidental (i.e., unintentional) take of migratory birds during transportation projects. Because more than 400 species of migratory birds live in Oregon and more than 300 of them nest in highway right-of-ways and on bridg...
Habitat loss and fragmentation is generally considered to be the greatest threat worldwide to the survival of species. Habitat fragmentation is a process generally regarded as comprising three major components: reduction in total area, increase in isolation, and reduction in average size of patches of remnant natural vegetation. Today’s land use pr...
Ungulate-proof fencing has been used successfully to mitigate the incidence of wildlife-vehicle collisions on highways throughout North America. And while fencing is often regarded as an integral component of effective wildlife passage structures, limited information or guidelines exist for the application of fencing in conjunction with wildlife pa...
The success of wetland mitigation projects nationwide is typically assessed by comparing the total number of wetland mitigation acres attained to the total number of mitigation acres required by Section 404 permits. In the absence of performance measurements on mitigation wetlands, the success of compensatory mitigation in replacing the ecological ...
Habitat fragmentation in the southeastern Coastal Plain is widely regarded as a central issue in the management of black bear (Ursus americanus) populations. Further habitat loss and fragmentation, and increases in human density, may influence the persistence of black bears throughout this region. Therefore, tools to evaluate these impacts are need...
Though unprecedented in the sunshine state, plans for a prescribed fire on US319/SR61, Kate Ireland Parkway in north Florida sparked enthusiasm and excitement among roadside managers. The recently expanded high speed corridor passes for ten miles through the Red Hills Region (www.ttrs.org/rhcp); a rural landscape that is host to America’s largest r...
To properly mitigate road impacts for wildlife and increase motorist safety, transportation departments need to be able to identify where particular individuals, or species are susceptible to high road-kill rates along roads. Researchers have relied on a variety of statistical methods to determine the specific explanatory factors associated with wi...
