Our Roadways Threaten Wildlife

It is a horrible sight that we come upon too often on the highway—animals dead in the road. Our roadways have become a severe threat to wildlife, particularly deer, raccoons, squirrels and other animals whose habitats are continually being displaced by development.

In fact the dangers of traffic to wild animals are so severe that animal road fatalities, commonly called roadkill, have become the primary human source of wildlife mortality. The death toll continues to increase as the numbers of roads, developed areas and cars on the road grow.

The impacts of highways go beyond the problem of roadkill. As they are built, highways cause the destruction of animal habitats, forcing them into ever-increasing human and automobile contact. In addition, roads and cars introduce toxic chemicals and heavy metals into the animals' environment.

There are ways, however, to limit the effects if not the roads themselves. For decades European countries have been building structures to assist wildlife in crossing roadways. Beginning in the 1960s, Europeans have added overpasses and underpasses designed to assist wildlife. Today, they are a routine part of European highway construction. The structures are aimed at identifying protected animal habitat areas and providing movement corridors where necessary. Essentially, they are crosswalks for wildlife. Animals ranging from brown bears to insects have been aided by these projects.

The U.S. Highway Administration and the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials sponsored a tour of the countries of Slovenia, Switzerland, Germany, France and the Netherlands to study their animal "crosswalks" and bring ideas back to the United States. These passageways range from viaducts in Slovenia that bears, lynxes and wolves use to pass under highways to amphibian overpasses in Switzerland and tunnels for badgers in the Netherlands.

The United States must join the international community in this effort to protect wildlife as highway construction continues. The survival of many species could depend on it.

Richard Johnston is President of the CT Humane Society; for more info call 860-594-4502.