Season 2 Episode 12 - Wildlife and Transportation with TRCP’s Ed Arnett and the Colorado Wildlife and Transportation Alliance
On this episode of Talking Mule Deer, Steve and Jodi are talking with Ed Arnett with the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership and David Singer with the Colorado Department of Transportation and the Colorado Wildlife and Transportation Alliance. We learn a little bit about the organizations before diving into the work happening on issues related to wildlife/vehicle collisions and road ecology. The TRCP hosted a workshop in January, co-sponsored by a number of other organizations including MDF, that was inspired by Secretarial Order 3362 on big game migration corridors. The meeting brought together key players in conservation organizations, state fish and wildlife agencies, and state and federal transportation agencies. This meeting helped to bring in existing knowledge related to wildlife and transportation issues and talk through what can be done to improve planning to help ensure wildlife is able to continue to move through traditional migration corridors that might be fragmented by highways. We talk about how MDF members and chapters could get engaged on transportation issues by working with local and state governments early in the planning process for highway development. Ed tells us about how planning, design and fencing are the keys to improve designs to allow wildlife crossings – and just wait to hear the statistics for how big an impact wildlife/vehicle collisions have on the car insurance industry! We wrap up by talking about what’s on the horizon and how interested individuals can get more information at the TRCP workshop home page and the Colorado Wildlife and Transportation Alliance webpages.