Talking Michigan Transportation
The Talking Michigan Transportation podcast features conversations with transportation experts inside and outside MDOT and will touch on anything and everything related to mobility, including rail, transit and the development of connected and automated vehicles.
Talking Michigan Transportation
What we can learn from western efforts to create safe highway crossings for wildlife
On this week’s edition of the Talking Michigan Transportation podcast, the first installment of two focusing on ways to enhance the safety of animals, and human drivers, with wildlife crossings. In Part I this week, a conversation with Tim Johnson, a landscape connectivity specialist with the Yellowstone to Yukon (Y2Y) Conservation Initiative.
Going back some three decades, Canadian transportation and wildlife officials have collaborated on ways to build safe crossings to protect both animals and humans in Alberta. A system of 38 underpasses and six overpasses and fencing on 82 km of the Trans-Canada Highway in Banff National Park are also part of the longest ongoing wildlife crossing research and monitoring program in the world.
Johnson explains how the crossings work, how different animals use them and, especially, why these are just as beneficial to humans as the animals.
The hope is that Michigan officials can learn from the success from western officials as state officials pursue a federal grant for crossings here. Michigan State Police say more than 58,000 deer-related crashes occurred in the state in 2022. That’s a 13 percent increase from 2021, a decade high. Repairs from those crashes could be just as high.
In Wyoming, a $24.3 million federal grant awarded in 2023 was the largest made from the U.S. Department of Transportation’s first tranche of $109 million for a novel Wildlife Crossings Pilot Program. Wyoming will use the money to fund the bulk of the $37 million construction project that will involve fencing 30 miles of the highway, building six or so new underpasses and a wildlife bridge for skittish antelope that won’t go through a tunnel.
Podcast photo courtesy of Yellowstone to Yukon Conservation Initiative.
Hello, welcome to the Talking Michigan Transportation Podcast. I'm your host, Jeff Cranson. As you know, if you live in Michigan, or really just about anywhere, wildlife crossings for highways and other roads is a huge safety concern. It's not just for the animals but for humans and the toll it takes. You can certainly measure this in the costs of repairs to vehicles and hospitalizations and the cost of dealing with animal carcasses that's borne by various road agencies. So, lots of people have tried some creative things.
Jeff Cranson:Today, I'm going to talk with Tim Johnson, who is a landscape connectivity specialist with the Yellowstone to Yukon Conservation Initiative that's known as Y2Y. They've done some really innovative things in western states and the western provinces of Canada to incentivize wildlife to use safe crossings, bridges or tunnels that they create, obviously, using fences to guide them in that direction. The Biden administration and Secretary of Transportation, Pete Buttigieg, have also incentivized states to apply for grants aimed specifically at this that were part of the Bipartisan Infrastructure law grants aimed specifically at this that were part of the bipartisan infrastructure law. MDOT is applying for one of those, hopefully to implement some things for the wildlife that caused some of the biggest problems or are often the victims of these encounters with vehicles on Michigan roadways. So, we'll talk about how things have worked out West, what they've learned from it and more. I hope you enjoy the conversation.
Jeff Cranson:Tim Johnson, thank you for taking time out of what I know is a busy schedule out west doing important work. Let's talk first a little bit--. I introduced this segment as you doing the wildlife crossing kind of landscape planning for
Tim Johnson:yeah, absolutely so. So, Y2y the Yellowstone to Yukon Conservation Initiative. We are a trans-boundary conservation organization that looks to keep landscapes connected and protected in what's essentially one of the most intact mountain regions left on the planet. So you know the, the fates that have befallen other iconic mountain ranges the Andes, the Himalaya, um, the.
Tim Johnson:The Y2Y region is unique and in the sense that it's sort of this 3,400 kilometer long stretch of of the spine of North America, essentially from Yellowstone up to the Yukon, it still has the, the full suite of mammals that were on the landscape, sort of, you know, in the pre-European arrival time, I guess.
Tim Johnson:So it's also, you know, home to many iconic national parks. It's the watershed that provides source waters for millions of people in Canada and the US, and so we're the only organization that's dedicated to this landscape on a grand scale. And a big part of keeping that landscape connected and protected is finding ways for wildlife to cross roads and highways. You know, it's part of keeping wildlife alive and thriving, and it's also a human safety issue in that these projects to get animals across the road help reduce wildlife vehicle collisions as well too so for my work with the landscape connectivity team at Y2Y, a lot of my time is spent on looking at solutions to get animals across busy highways, and, being based here in Canmore, alberta, we're right next door to Banff National Park, which is probably the most known and most studied example of a network of fencing and crossings that's had a real impact on improving wildlife populations and human safety.
Jeff Cranson:Yeah, and that's how it first got on my radar.
Jeff Cranson:Long before I worked for a DOT, I was out there skiing in the Banff area, lake Louise both downhill and cross-country, where there's just beautiful cross country skiing right off the highway, and I saw those crossings in the late 90s and I thought then wow, what an innovative idea. And since then, since I've been at MDOT, some people who are really focused on this not necessarily the same species, although you know we do have elk and moose and black bears in Michigan A lot of the focus is on smaller animals like turtles, which can often be the victims of crossing roads because, as you know, they don't go very fast. So I always thought it was pretty cool and our environmental folks feel like they're a little late to the game, but they're hoping to get one of the grants made available in the bipartisan infrastructure law that have gone to other states, including some big ones, to the state of Wyoming, which I'm sure you're familiar with, since Yellowstone is one of the Ys. Could you talk about how you know that these crossings work? Sure?
Tim Johnson:Yeah.
Tim Johnson:So Banff again kind of being this really unique kind of iconic test pilot program to to implement fencings and crossings, and so a big part of the Banff project was monitoring, so being a national park. You know, obviously one of the mandates of Parks Canada is is maintaining and conserving, you know, biodiversity and healthy wildlife populations and and recognizing that the Trans-Canada Highway, which cuts right through the park, was having a real impact on wildlife populations and also a real impact on motorist safety. For example, the first sort of easternmost stretch of Highway 1 as it comes into Banff National Park, just west of where I am in Canmore, that first stretch to the town of Banff it's about 22 kilometers and there was on average over 100 collisions, mostly with elk and deer, every year. So a real impact on wildlife populations and a real danger to motorists driving through the park. So the idea of creating this network of fencings and crossings really was aimed at, you know, meeting Parks Canada's mandate related to ecological integrity and biodiversity and healthy wildlife populations. But you know soon realized that there's a human element to it as well too.
Tim Johnson:So in Banff that sort of first stretch of crossings that was put in really was mostly a network of underpasses connected to wildlife fencing. So the fencing, funneling wildlife to these crossings, and that sort of first phase had a real impact on reducing collisions in that stretch of road. And the initial way to monitor these crossings is that Parks Canada, biologists and researchers would go to these underpasses and kind of rake out these sandy areas that they put down to be able to capture wildlife footprints, and every couple of days they would go out and record the footprints and tracks that they were seeing and then rake it out again and then, you know, do this every once in a while Eventually got to putting in wildlife monitoring cameras, monitoring cameras, and so the camera program in Banff, you know, over time has captured nearly 300,000 recorded crossings of wildlife using these underpasses and then later the overpasses that were put in, starting in the mid-1990s. And so through the camera monitoring we know that the crossings work and we know that you know each animal that uses one of these bridges or one of these tunnels under Highway 1 is one less animal that's trying to cross the road and risking its life and, you know, risking the safety of motorists that potentially are hitting these deer or elk or bear or moose.
Tim Johnson:So, um, I think banff is is just a really good example of like a connected network.
Tim Johnson:The whole system in banff is just over 80 kilometers kilometers from parks western gate, where it meets Yoho park in BC, to the eastern boundary near Canmore. That stretch of road now has 38 underpasses and six overpasses, all connected with fencing and, as I said, the camera monitoring has shown that it's it's recorded hundreds of thousands of wildlife crossings. So a real, real success story and it's sort of become a well-studied example. We got people from around the world coming to Banff to learn about how the crossings were. You know how the idea was generated, how money was raised for it, how they're implemented, some of the adaptive monitoring to modify the fencing and things like that to keep animals that like to dig from getting under. That was one of the first issues that some animals would dig under the fence, so modifying the fencing to prevent the diggers from getting on the highway. But yeah, it's probably the most known example in the world of how a network of fencing paired with crossings can work to help wildlife and to keep motorists safer.
Jeff Cranson:So, I know you're not necessarily an animal behaviorist, but I tend to think that these large mammals are probably smarter than we tend to give them credit for. Do you think they learn? And even without the fence, at some point they would go to those crossings because they figured out that that's just a good, safe, efficient way to get over.
Tim Johnson:Yeah, I think, first of all, talking about animals using crossings without a fence directing them to it. There is some evidence of that, like there are some sites outside the national park where wildlife are often using, you know, drainages that potentially have a culvert, or you know a small bridge going under a highway have a culvert, or you know a small bridge go under a highway. Often these drainages, you know, because they're maybe less vegetated, provide easier passage for animals and so if they're sort of taking the easiest route for me to be across the landscape and following a drainage that may lead them to a bridge or a culvert under a highway. But it's really the fencing that's key to directing animals to these crossings and there is a learning curve for sure, like certain species will tend to use these structures, oftentimes before they're even finished being built. I know probably the most recent example was state highway 21 in Idaho, where an overpass was being constructed and their monitoring cameras were capturing deer and elk using the crossing even before it was finished being constructed.
Tim Johnson:That same thing happened on I-90 in Washington State. So some animals that are, you know, maybe more habituated to human presence deer and elk in Banff National Park, for example often use these crossings quite quickly, and especially when the fence is directing them to them, we'll use them almost immediately as soon as they're open for business. Other animals are a bit more wary cougars, wolves, bears, especially female grizzlies with cubs can take up to five years to be comfortable using a crossing, and so there is a learning curve for certain animals, but for the most part, in terms of the number of animals that are most likely to get hit, being these ungulate populations here in Alberta, they show generally pretty quick uptake on using these crossings.
Jeff Cranson:So have you found that attitudes and perceptions have changed in the 30 years since this? I ask because when MDOT first introduced a fence to protect some turtles on the western shore like western Michigan shore of Lake Michigan on a busy road there that happened to run near a very big river so there were a lot of turtles crossing and it was grandstanded by some politicians as a big waste of money and you know you can't fix potholes but you can do this, missing the environmental importance of it and really, I think, turning into a bit of a surprise at how much people love turtles and the backlash that was created against those opponents. I know the western provinces at least have some parts like Alberta that are more conservative than the eastern. Did you ever get any kind of grief like that from anybody grandstanding on the issue?
Tim Johnson:I would say it's less common. Wildlife crossings and investment in them seem to be a fairly non-partisan issue that has pretty broad public support. Occasionally there's pushback from, say, hunters or anglers that are worried that a fence is going to cut off access to their favorite spot to go and fish or hunt. But you know, human access gates can often be part of these projects to allow continued access to parts of the landscape. But overall I think in general crossings enjoy broad support and especially when you can make the case that by reducing collisions you're sort of reducing the burden on society of the very significant and real costs that come from hitting animals. And you know, even with the smaller species, the turtles, the snakes in Waterton National Park, a few hours south of here, there's a crossing that's dedicated to a threatened salamander species.
Tim Johnson:So it's not necessarily all about, you know, the big animals that are sort of the more obvious threat to human safety and especially when you can get departments of transportation and departments of fish and wildlife working together and sort of recognizing that both of them have goals that are met by these crossings, whether it's improving motorist safety or improving conservation of biodiversity and keeping threatened or endangered species alive. But you know, even the smaller animals can still pose a threat to motorists, especially if it's, you know, a two-lane highway and someone's swerving to suddenly avoid a turtle that they see in the road. There's a very real possibility of a collision with an oncoming vehicle. So, yes, hitting a large animal is probably the most common and likely risk, but there are dangers too from motorists reacting to whatever they see in the road and potentially swerving or changing lanes quickly, and that can lead to collisions as well too. But I think it's really important to recognize that, yeah, the crossings are about, yeah, trying to keep wildlife populations healthy, as much as they are about keeping motorists safe.
Jeff Cranson:You know, if you just focus on the turtles I mean, they're all part of an ecosystem right, things get out of balance, so it's important that we try to protect them all, great and small. But I'm glad you brought up that point about motorists swerving, because something else that goes on and has gone on on roadways near waterways in Michigan is that people pull off to try to help the animals across, and that creates its own dangers. So yeah, absolutely, yeah, definitely, stay with us. We'll have more on the other side of this important message.
Tim Johnson:Hey, did you see that sign on the side of the road? What about those workers? Are you even paying attention to how you're driving? Work zone awareness takes all of us.
Jeff Cranson:So talk about how different animals use the crossings. I mean there's all kinds of species that you're talking about.
Tim Johnson:I mean, I guess in Banff, as I mentioned, there's a mix of underpasses and overpasses, you know, the overpasses generally being the largest structures. The ones in Banff are typically around 50 meters in width and that type of width is really important in the sense it allows you to kind of create landscaping and to create a ground cover that will make more wary species like grizzly bears, wolves, cougars, sort of comfortable with using those crossings. And then there's other animals that sort of prefer the cozier, narrow, darker confines of, say, a small culvert running under the road. So I think sort of having a mix of structure sizes and locations is really key.
Tim Johnson:You know a lot of the sort of best investments and sort of the low-hanging fruit in terms of costs are using existing highway bridges or culverts and adding slight modifications to make them more amenable to wildlife. Passage can be a really low cost opportunity to use an existing structure versus building something brand new. So yeah, I think you know like black bears generally are going to use the tunnels and the overpasses, grizzlies, especially with cubs, tend to favor just the overpasses and look for that more sort of broad crossing pathway to get safely across. And then deer and elk again typically will use the larger structures. Often that's just related to their size, especially the males with antlers and everything. A narrower culvert may not work for them. But yeah, a variety of wits is going to see different uses by different species. And you know one thing in Banff too, the research there found that a lot of opposition to these crossings says you know that they may function as a prey trap and that you know wolves are just going to hang out and decimate the deer population.
Jeff Cranson:But that's been I was going to ask you about that because I wondered about ambushes at the ends of these tunnels and I was thinking about the wily wolves in particular.
Tim Johnson:Yeah, yeah, no, I think that's generally. Again, banff, being this sort of long-term case study, has disproven that idea that crossings function as prey traps for predators there.
Jeff Cranson:It's not like a bear would stand by a little waterfall in a river where salmon run right, right, yeah, so talk about why this matters as much to humans as to animals. You hit on that a little bit, with even the fear of people swerving for turtles, but I think that should seem obvious and be self-evident, but I don't know that it always is to people. So can you talk a little more about that?
Tim Johnson:Yeah, self-evident, but I don't know that it always is to people. So can you talk a little more about that? Yeah, yeah, I think you know in the West, where you have a lot of deer and elk populations and from reading the abstract, I know deer is a huge issue in Michigan as well too. But you know wildlife collisions here in Alberta outside the national park. They account for 60% of recorded collisions in the province. So it's a big problem and it does have a real cost.
Tim Johnson:You know, I think researchers have estimated that the average cost of hitting a deer in 2020 US dollars is around $14,000 in terms of vehicle repair and injuries and fatalities and insurance claims. And then there's, like the passive use costs of, you know, the value of having that animal on the landscape, whether it's for, um, you know, hunting or just for having animals. That people you know tourists come to see the rockies or come to see parts of michigan, I'm sure. And you know it's great, it's a great thing to be able to see a deer or moose. So if you add up those direct costs of 14 000 and the passive costs of 5 000, you know the average cost of hitting a deer is around $20,000. Elk is about $75,000. A moose over $110,000. So these are very real costs to society that everyone is payingings in the best locations you can really make a case that they are saving money in the long term, that there are types of infrastructure that pay for themselves over time.
Tim Johnson:So I think you know I've had the unfortunate incident of hitting a coyote and it was totally unavoidable. It was just sprinting across the highway and luckily it's. You know, it's a smaller creature so it didn't really do a whole lot of damage. But um, it's traumatizing and I think anyone that's hit an animal will will definitely share that. It's a very traumatic experience. But in certain parts of the of alberta and and all through the us as well too, in various states like, I think, the, the chances of hitting a deer quite high.
Tim Johnson:So anything that can be done to keep animals alive and keep them from sprinting across the road, especially at nighttime. It's a huge issue with deer out west here in areas that are unfenced, and it's really hard to react in time. So crossings and fencing sort of statistically, are the best known solutions to mitigate this problem.
Jeff Cranson:So I know you had mentioned that you were relatively new to Alberta and the Banff National Park area when these things were first installed and, talking to some of the people involved in this for a number of years, do you know what is maybe surprised them most? What did they? They learn that they you know that took them by surprise, from what they might've expected, that's a great question.
Tim Johnson:I think maybe one of the learnings was how quickly animals adapt to these new structures and also, I think, for Banff, especially looking at, you know, rarer species like grizzly bears or wolverines, how important these structures were at keeping these animals moving across a broad landscape, that animals use huge areas and that roads are often a barrier to allowing them to reach their full potential in terms of finding mates and an adequate habitat to live their lives.
Tim Johnson:So I think the BAF example really gave a huge foundational research as to how animals move across a very broad landscape that may not have been known otherwise when they were getting, you know, hitting this barrier wall, essentially of a very broad landscape that may not have been known otherwise when they were getting, you know, hitting this barrier wall, essentially of a very busy highway preventing them from moving across their full ranges. And I mentioned a bit earlier some of the adaptive management, like you know, figuring out ways to keep the diggers from getting under the fence. I think you know most projects now will include sort of a chain link apron that extends underground about two meters on the inside of the fence so that keeps animals that like to dig from. You know the dig under, and then in Banff as well too, certain areas. They're finding that black bears are actually climbing the fence. So they've put low voltage electric wire on the inside of the fence.
Jeff Cranson:That's sort of another adaptive piece that they've learned over time so that's probably pretty similar to what's used in farms for agricultural uses in terms of a hot wire fence. Yeah, exactly.
Tim Johnson:Yeah, yeah, so just a single wire running along the inside and that's kept the numbers of bears climbing the fence down to a much lower number. Yeah, I guess I mean overall. I think just the number of animals that use these crossings was really surprising. I think just the number of animals that use these crossings was really surprising, just in the sense of having a real robust data capture system with these crossings and having cameras at each location really provided a breadth of data that wasn't there before these crossings were up, showing where animals were moving and actually how many of them there were using these crossings.
Jeff Cranson:There's a lot of beautiful things to see between Banff and Lake Louise on that stretch of road, but I think one of the coolest things I always remember and enjoy because I'm there in the wintertime is to see these elk basking in the sun. You know, sitting in the snow just a little ways from the freeway. You know, looking at humans like why are you taking my picture?
Tim Johnson:Yeah, yeah, absolutely yeah, that's a huge part of the Banff experience is seeing the elk herds out and, uh, yeah, in the summer months we saw three grizzlies yesterday just driving home from a camping trip, so it's really cool. It definitely is a part of the. You know why people come to the Rockies. And that experience of seeing the elk hanging out in some of the aspen groves in the winter just on the opposite side of the fences, yeah, pretty special.
Jeff Cranson:Yeah, and I guess the reason I don't see grizzlies on the trips where I've been there is because they're probably sleeping right.
Tim Johnson:Yeah, you bet. Yeah, they're sort of going into their dens in mid to late October, usually sort of around 7,500 feet elevation. So kind of right now feeding in the valleys and getting ready for the winter months ahead.
Jeff Cranson:Well, tim thanks a lot for talking about this. I think the success that you've had is really helping the states that are applying for these grants, including Michigan, and it gives them a lot to you know base their applications on, and you know we can show that there are really tangible results from this that do benefit humans, both in terms of safety and in terms of the hit to their wallet. So this is all great information.
Tim Johnson:Yeah, well, fantastic, and I really appreciate you inviting me on the chat. And, yeah, because we work sort of cross boundary, I'm getting more and more up to speed on what's going on on the US side of things. But I think, yeah, the funding that's provided by that infrastructure bill is definitely a good opportunity for states to advance some of these projects, and I know YOY has written letters of support for several partners in Wyoming and Montana to tap into some of this funding. So, yeah, great to see and maybe catch up on our skis sometime. If you ever go this way again, keep in again.
Jeff Cranson:Oh yeah, that'd be great. I'll definitely. I'll look you up when I when I get to the park gate, for sure. All right, thanks, tim. Ok, take care. I'd like to thank you once more for tuning in to Talking Michigan Transportation. You can find show notes and more on Apple Podcasts or Buzzsprout. I also want to acknowledge the talented people who help make this a reality each week, starting with Randy Debler, who skillfully edits the audio, Jesse Ball, who proofs the content, Courtney Bates, who posts the podcast to various platforms, and Jacke Salinas, who transcribes the audio to make it accessible to all.