The Government of British Columbia, Ministry of Transportation, Environmental Management Section has a mandate to develop and maintain policies, standards, specifications and procedures on highway related environmental matters. The BC Ministry of Transportation (BC MoT) website has information on exclusion fencing, wildlife reflectors, and wildlife warning signs. The BC MoT administers the Wildlife Accident Reporting System (WARS). The WARS system is designed to analyze wildlife accident data collected by BC Highways Maintenance Contractors on numbered highways in British Columbia. It is a valuable information resource. The latest WARS report WARS 1988-2007, Wildlife Accident Monitoring and Mitigation in British Columbia, Special Annual Report is available on the BC MoT website. Further information can be obtained from: Environmental Management Section Engineering Branch PO Box 9850 STN PROV GOVT Victoria BC Canada V8W 9T5
In 2003, the Government of British Columbia, Ministry of Water, Land and Air Protection developed a Wildlife-Human Conflict Prevention Strategy which identified wildlife vehicle collisions as an area of conflict.
The Government of Alberta, Ministry of Transportation posts annual collision statistics on their website.
The Government of Alberta, Ministry of Sustaiable Resource Development has information posted on the their website: Reduce the risk of deer collisions
For further information contact: Alberta Transportation Driver Safety, Research and Traffic Safety Initiative Transportation Safety Services Division Main Floor, Twin Atria Building 4999 – 98 Avenue Edmonton, Alberta T6B 2X3
The Ontario Road Ecology Group is comprised of government and non-government scientists, educators, and transportation planners.Their goal is to raise awareness about the threat of roads to biodiversity in Ontario, and to research and apply solutions. Three workshops have hosted.
2011 Integrating Road Ecology into Transportation Planning in Southern Ontario
Goals
2008 Ontario Road Ecology Stewardship Symposium & Habitat Connectivity Workshop
Ojectives:
2007 Roads & Ecopassages Forum
The forum consisted of a series of moderated presentations followed by open discussions about designing and planning locations of road networks, and developing a framework for ecologically sound, feasible, and cost-effective designs for ecopassages. Forum presentations focussed on mitigating road effects on species-at-risk populations in southern Ontario.
Department of Transportation Think Moose
Moose-Vehicle Collision Poster
Deer Can Be a Roadside Hazard
Slow Down and Save a Buck!
Manitoba Public Insurance
Moose-Vehicle Collision Awareness in Newfoundland and Labrador
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In response to high and rising traffic volumes, sections of the Trans-Canada Highway have been upgraded from a two-lane to a four-lane divided highway in Banff National Park. Twinning the Trans Canada highway has been undertaken in phases as funding allowed since 1981. The final phase of twinning is currently within budget and on-schedule to be in service by 2013. To reduce the negative impacts of a four-lane divided highway on wildlife populations in Banff National Park:
Parks Canada has researched and implemented many wildlife mitigation methods in the Mountain Parks along the Trans-Canada highway.
The Transportation Association of Canada (TAC) is a national association with a mission to promote the provision of safe, efficient, effective and environmentally and financially sustainable transportation services in support of Canada's social and economic goals. In Canada as a whole, TAC has a primary focus on roadways and their strategic linkages and inter-relationships with other components of the transportation system. TAC hosts an annual conference on transportation issues.
A conference is held is held annually. Conference proceedings are available.
TAC 2003 Wildlife Collision Prevention Program researchers attended the TAC Annual Conference and Exhibition, held in St. John's Newfoundland, September 21-24, 2003. The theme of this conference was "The Transportation Factor" and the conference was designed to focus attention on may road and transportation topics as well as the importance of transport sector in our daily lives. Sylvan Consulting Ltd. hosted a workshop on Wildlife-Vehicle Accident Mitigation. Topics discussed were:
A summary of the discussions is provided. [PDF - 12kb]
The North Carolina State University based Institute for Transportation Research and Education (ITRE) conducts research, education, and technical assistance projects on a wide variety of surface transportation issues. ITRE provides quality end products and technical support that improve the transportation systems of the region and nation.
The University of California at Davis Road Ecology Center brings together researchers and policy makers from ecology and transportation to design sustainable transportation systems based on an understanding of the impact of roads on natural landscapes and human communities.
The Road Ecology Center and the Information Center for the Environment collaboratively developed and distributed the California Roadkill Observation System (CROS). The goal of the CROS is to encourage participation of large numbers of people in both understanding the extent of roadkill and helping develop innovative ideas for reducing roadkill. IN a one year period, >200 people reported over 6,000 roadkill observations across the majority of the state using the website.
The federally funded Center for Transportation and the Environment (CTE) conducts research, education, and technology transfer that seek to mitigate the impacts of surface transportation on the environment. CTE is a national university transportation center, funded in part by the U.S. Department of Transportation and the North Carolina Department of Transportation. CTE is located in the offices of the Institute for Transportation Research and Education (ITRE) on North Carolina State University's Centennial Campus.
The Deer-Vehicle Crash Information Clearinghouse (DVCIC) is a project funded by the Wisconsin Department of Transportation that cooperatively involves committee members from the natural resources and transportation departments of Illinois, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, and Wisconsin. DVCIC is located at the University of Wisconsin - Madison.
The U.S. Department of Transportation, Federal Highway Administration website, Critter Crossings, describes the impact of transportation on wildlife and highlights exemplary projects and processes that are helping to reduce these impacts.
The U.S. Department of Transportation, Federal Highway Administration website Keeping It Simple - Easy Ways to Help Wildlife Along Roads provides more examples of how transportation agencies are reducing highways' impact on wildlife and fish in the United States.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service website Wildlife Crossings Toolkit is a searchable database of case histories of mitigation measures, and articles on decreasing wildlife mortality and increasing animals' ability to cross highways. The Toolkit project was initiated by the USDA Forest Service, San Dimas Technology and Development Center. Other partners include the Federal Highway Administration and Western Transportation Institute.
The mission of the Western Transportation Institute is to advance rural transportion through research and education. WTI is located at Montana State University - Bozeman. The Road Ecology Program seeks to provide national leadership in understanding the interaction between roads, natural resources, and the environment.
The Michigan Deer-Crash Coalition has published a "Don't Veer For Deer" brochure.
The Ecostudies Institute is a nonprofit organization committed to ecological research and conservation, which carries out programs of rigorous scientific research, on-the-ground management, and education and outreach. Ecostudies Institute is currently working with the Oregon Department of Transportation on a project that builds on an earlier study of hot pots for animal/vehicle collisions (Wildlife Hot Spots Along Highways in Northwestern Oregon).
Defenders of Wildlife Habitat & Highways Campaign has two objectives:
Defenders of Wildlife has released a new book, Getting Up To Speed: A Conservationist’s Guide to Wildlife and Highways. The handbook is written for conservationists to provide the necessary foundation to become better informed, more effective stakeholders in transportation debates.
Conducted every two years, the International Conference on Ecology and Transportation (ICOET) is designed to address the broad range of ecological issues related to surface transportation development, providing the most current research information and best practices in the areas of wildlife, fisheries, wetlands, water quality, overall ecosystems management, and related policy issues. ICOET is a multi-disciplinary, inter-agency supported event, administered by the Center for Transportation and the Environment. This international conference brings together key organizers and researchers who are working to reduce the ecological impacts of transportation.
The Berryman Institute is a national organization based in the Department of Wildland Resources at Utah State University and the Department of Wildlife & Fisheries at Mississippi State University. The Berryman Institute is dedicated to improving human-wildlife relationships and resolving human-wildlife conflicts through teaching, research, and extension. The Berryman Institute publishes the Human-Wildlife Interactions journal, and Volume 2, Issue 1, Spring 2008 was dedicated to wildlife vehicle collisions.
FHWA has launched a new Web site on “Planning and Environment Linkages.” The site offers a wealth of information, developed and compiled by the FHWA and its partners, to assist in strengthening planning and environment linkages, including:
The Arizona Wildlife Linkages Workgroup is a collaborative effort between nine public agencies and nonprofit organizations. The partners began collaborating on the "Missing Linkages" workshop in April 2004. Biologists, engineers, planners and land managers have worked together since then to identify large blocks of protected habitat, the potential wildlife movement corridors through and between them, the factors that could possibly disrupt these linkage zones, and opportunities for conservation.
The information in Arizona's Wildlife Linkages Assessment can help state/federal agencies, county planners, land conservancies, tribes, private landowners and other organizations work together with a comprehensive, landscape-scale approach toward conservation and highway safety goals, while accomodating the growth of Arizona's population, an expanding economy, and associated infrastructure.
Kennedy Space Centre has a roadkill prevention program called the Avian Abatement Team (commonly known as the Roadkill Posse).
Kennedy Space Centre is adjacent to a National Wildilfe Refuge, which incurs animal mortality due to wildlife collisions.
This roadkill attracts black vultures, which can jeopardize the safety of the Space Shuttle operations.
Space Shuttle launching with circling Black Vultures Photo www.icoet.org
Infra Eco Network Europe (IENE), established in 1996, is a network of experts working with various aspects of transportation, infrastructure and ecology. It was initiated in 1996 and is currently hosted by the Swedish Biodiversity Centre (www.cbm.slu.se). IENE arranges international conferences on ecology and transportation. The conferences provide a recurring interdisciplinary forum for the exchange of new scientific findings and practical experiences between the sectors of environment and transport. IENE international conferences aim at presenting cutting-edge research, identifying urgent questions and problems, discussing effective solutions, and outlining paths for upcoming activities in transport and infrastructure ecology.
IENE is hosting the 2012 International Conference and practical field excursions on ecology and transportation, on 21-24 October 2012 in Potsdam-Berlin, Germany. It is organised in cooperation between the Infra Eco Network Europe (IENE), the German Federal Government and the Swedish Transport Administration.
Click here for more details. IENE Conference 2003
A Wildlife Collision Prevention Program partner, Sylvan Consulting Ltd, presented a research paper on the Wildlife Protection System and a poster [PDF - 676kb] on Collision Risk Behaviour in Deer at the Infra Eco Network Europe Conference 2003 in Belgium in November 2003.
Deer Collisions UK, is part of The Deer Initiative, which is a broad partnership of statutory, voluntary and private interests dedicated to "ensuring the delivery of a sustainable, well-managed wild deer population in England and Wales." The aims of Deer Collisions UK are: