Safer Wildlife Crossings

On the afternoon of April 5th, Wildlife Expeditions provided transportation for a field trip along Hwy 89 between the town of Jackson and Hoback Junction for representatives of the Jackson Community concerned with safer highways for wildlife. A group called Safe Wildlife Crossings for Jackson Hole (SWC) organized the field trip. SWC is a partnership made up of Jackson Hole Conservation Alliance, Greater Yellowstone Coalition, The Murie Center, Jackson Hole Wildlife Foundation, and other community members whose mission is to encourage innovative solutions for wildlife crossings that provide safe highways, prevent habitat fragmentation and promote connectivity for Jackson Hole’s wildlife. SWC is going about this mission by gathering and disseminating information pertaining to wildlife corridors and roadkill data, raising public awareness, and providing input to Wyoming Department of Transportation on wildlife crossing location and structure design. SWC is working very closely with WYDOT and the Wyoming Game and Fish Department to come up with plans.Representatives from Western Transportation Institute (based in the College of Engineering at Montana State University) have been brought into the process to provide direction on possible physical manipulations along the road corridor (e.g. fencing, underpasses, or overpasses).Wildlife are such a significant part of our Jackson Hole culture, and we all see how many, deer, moose, elk, and other animals are killed on our highways. It is encouraging that the community is coming together to work towards safer roadways.