Developing effective highway wildlife mitigation measures is an interdisciplinary and collaborative effort involving highway agencies, wildlife, and land management agencies, as well as concerned communities, including local governments and policy makers. Individuals from many different professions, often without much understanding of each other’s disciplines, must work in concert to produce effective highway projects that are safe, cost effective, and mitigate ecological impacts. Communication problems can contribute to misunderstandings and trust issues, which are factors that may hamper progress and must be worked through to reach sound, defensible, common sense solutions.

Considerations for Biologists: Get to know your Forest Service, local and State Department of Transportation (DOT), and Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) engineers and environmental staff. Many engineers are not trained in ecological sciences, so it may be helpful to provide basic information on habitat connectivity, mortality impacts, and habitat loss before critical project decisions are made. Presentations at local and regional engineering meetings to communicate this information will also help. Informal meetings with highway project planners, engineers, and community leaders can establish a rapport and be beneficial to understanding issues for both parties. Often other professionals do not understand ecological issues that you may have studied for years. Gaining trust and credibility takes time and effort, and must be earned. Listen to what the concerns are and be willing to help planners and engineers address these issues. Engineers often have creative solutions to biological problems, so be open minded to their ideas.

Biologists should understand that a cost-efficient and effective wildlife mitigation program on a highway should be a negotiation process. If you do not have highway mitigation experience, contact a credible biologist that works on highway projects. Do this in consultation with the highway project manager and environmental staff from the State DOT. Remember that project and DOT managers are often very concerned with factors such as motorist safety, cost, and project delivery deadlines. Learn how to work within these parameters.

Considerations for Engineers: If your highway project is going across public lands or sensitive wildlife habitat, invite local biologists from a variety of agencies to discuss which species and ecological issues might be important. Explain the transportation planning process and the importance of timeliness when addressing concerns and issues so you can deliver your project on time and within budget. Remember, that most biologists know little about engineering, so you will need to explain these concepts as well. Most resource agencies find the state transportation planning process confusing and different than their process, so be patient. Often resource agencies do not expect to be involved until the NEPA alternatives are developed. This may be disastrously late for project engineers to learn about serious wildlife issues and conflicts.

If wildlife connectivity issues are identified as a concern during planning or project scoping, State DOTs should build in funding for wildlife crossings and other ecological mitigation measures as part of the up-front cost estimate. Explain the importance of delivering a project on time – not only for the current project but to enhance the likelihood that future projects will consider similar wildlife mitigation measures. If a considerable amount of resource agency staff time is needed to assist in project development, the DOT should consider providing funding to the resource agency so they are not taking resources away from delivering their mission. Resource agencies are operating on minimal budgets and do not get funding to coordinate large, complex highway projects. Planning for mitigation measures from the outset will save money in the long run.

Other Partners: Conservation groups often play pivotal roles in identifying and planning wildlife habitat linkages. They have valuable expertise and can bring agencies together to work cooperatively. They may also be more effective in dealing with wildlife habitat linkages on private lands than agencies. Conservation groups are often key to gaining local support for highway projects and can work with concerned citizens and political leaders for project support and funding.

Training: Wildlife, land management, and transportation agencies usually have very different priorities and missions. Effective wildlife habitat linkage assessments and wildlife crossing implementation require agencies and different professionals to work as a team. Progress occurs when agencies pool information and achieve consensus, as quickly as possible, on the locations and types of wildlife crossings that are needed. Agencies should consider working together on training sessions that help key players share expertise and reach consensus quickly. Traffic safety, cost containment, and meeting deadlines should be part of this training as should habitat connectivity, wildlife mortality reduction, and structure design and effectiveness.