Photo credit: Montana Department of transportation. One of numerous engineered interventions included when the highway was widened in the early 2000s on request by the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes to mitigate the road’s impact on landscape and near-by communities. Wildlife overpass spans US highway 93 in Montana. Ultimately, the reconstruction of the 90.6 km-stretch of roadway resulted in a number of innovative design elements and one of the densest collections of wildlife crossing structures in the world. With leadership and agency over their land, the CSKT pushed for a departure from business-as-usual road reconstruction to instead showcase opportunities for coexistence-based design by designating that “the road is a visitor and that it should respond to and be respectful of the land and the Spirit of Place”. The negative and long-felt impacts that highways can exert on communities and ecosystems are well documented. “Protecting cultural, aesthetic, recreational, and natural resources located along the highway corridor and communicating the respect and value commonly held for these resources pursuant to traditional ways of the Tribes” was a guiding philosophy for the highway’s redesign. In the early 2000s, when a proposal was put forward to widen the highway, the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes (CSKT) pushed for a “context-sensitive design” that included the wildlife crossing structures. The presence and number of crossing structures along highway 93 in the Flathead Reservation is no coincidence. Road barrier effect on wildlife, and promote human-wildlife coexistence. Structures are becoming an increasingly popular tool employed to mitigate the In Montana, across the US, and globally, wildlife crossing Together these engineered interventions allow species like white-tail deer ( Odocoileus virginianus), mule deer ( Odocoileus hemionus), black bears ( Ursus americanus), coyotes ( Canis latrans), raccoons ( Procyon lotor), bobcats ( Lynx rufus) amongst others to safelyĬross the highway. Movement out of the road corridor and back outside the exclusion fence. Get stuck inside the exclusion fences, the wildlife jump-outs allow for one-way Reduced when fence sections are greater than 5 km long ) all while aiding inįunneling wildlife towards the crossing structures.

Off the road, away from traffic (wildlife-vehicle collisions are most reliably

Sections of wildlife exclusion fences keep large mammals In addition to the overpass, culverts,īridges, and underpasses (38 in total) act as valuable conduits for movement Underneath the highway, sections of wildlife exclusion fencing flanking the What motorists may not see as theyĬontinue north from Evaro, through Ravali, and past the Bison Range (previouslyīison Range), are underpasses that facilitate wildlife movement Built to facilitate wildlife movement across theīusy road, the overpass is a visible reminder that motorists are not the only Reservation, vehicles on US Highway 93 pass under a semi-circleĪrch of a vegetated overpass. Driving north of Missoula through the Flathead

Underpass wildlife crossing