Research Idea Details

Research Idea Scope

Key tasks:

*Literature review

*Interview states with similar initiatives (e.g., NJ,
Maine) *Recommend best practices

This idea came to mind today during National Trails
Training Partnership discussion of publication: Planning Trails with Wildlife
in Mind: A Handbook for Trail Planners

I did a quick search to see if there is a similar guide
for roadway planning and found little immediate guidance, but some places to
start looking:

Planning Wildlife Friendly Roads http://www.conservationmagazine.org/2008/07/planning-wildlife-friendly-roads/

http://www.conservewildlifenj.org/protecting/projects/roads/
This group has been established in order to proactively identify potential
conflicts between roads and wildlife as well as stretches of road where
wildlife will benefit from crossing structures to allow safe passage.

http://www.defenders.org/publications/linking_conservation_and_transportation.pdf

http://www.fws.gov/refuges/roads/Transguide.html

Some of the other resources listed have broken links,
like:

Conserving Wildlife On and Around Maine’s Roads –
Beginning with …

www.beginningwithhabitat.org/…adsWildlife-FINAL.pdf

Found on: Google

the good news is that road planning and building
strategies and wildlife-crossing structures can help make Maine roads less
dangerous to wildlife and people.

Note: I’m not sure APBP is the best organization to do
this research but APBP could support it with a small grant from our Ken Cross
Research Scholarship fund.

Urgency and Payoff

The message of a dead animal along a roadway is that safety doesn’t really matter on U.S. roadways; it’s our getting there that matters, at whatever cost to another being’s life.