Conservation groups, state agencies hope for funding for wildlife crossings
About 10,000 cars make their way through Gallatin Canyon on Highway 191 every day. Many animals also make their way along this road, making this stretch of road one of the worst in the state for wildlife collisions.
Just before entering the mouth of the canyon Liz Fairbank, a road ecologist with the Bozeman based non-profit Center for Large Landscape Conservation , pulls over.
"Well , yeah, this is kind of the spot. Where the guard rail is up on both sides of the road that's where the stock pass is," Fairbank said.
Other than a small stretch of guard rails, this location just past mile marker 72 is unremarkable at the moment, but Fairbanks is working to change that. The non-profit in collaboration with the Montana Department of Transportation, recently applied for a $26 million grant to build a new wildlife overpass.
It's one of three projects in the state, aiming this year to get a piece of the Federal Wildlife Crossings Pilot Program , the first dedicated federal infrastructure funds to reduce the number of wildlife-vehicle collisions and improve habitat connectivity.
Fairbank says an average collision with a deer can cost $15,000 just in direct costs including vehicle repair and human injury. Wildlife crossings can reduce collisions by 90%.
"Over the course of the 75-year lifespan of a project at the cost savings just from reducing those collisions often it can actually cost less in the long term to solve the problem than to continue doing nothing" Fairbank said.
If the grant application is approved the project would encompass three different crossings: a new wildlife overpass, upsizing an existing underpass, and retrofitting the Gallatin River bridge.
This location at the mouth of the canyon rose to the top priority slot based on collision data, wildlife collar tracking, engineering feasibility and land security.
Most collisions in the area are with Elk and deer however the crossings would have enough room for many more animals.
