Evaluating Montana\u2019s ITEEM: Successes and Lessons for Eco-Logical

Volpe National Transportation Systems Center, Technical Reference Center;Federal Highway Administration;Climate Change Clearinghouse2011PDFResearch PaperJohn A. Volpe National Transportation Systems Center (U.S.)United States. Department of Transportation. Research and Innovative Technology AdministrationUnited States. Federal Highway Administration. Office of Project Development and Environmental ReviewUnited States. Federal Highway Administration. Surface Transportation Environment and Planning Cooperative Research ProgramJohn A. Volpe National Transportation Systems Center (U.S.)MontanaHabitat (Ecology)EcosystemsEnvironmental designEvaluation and assessmentData collectionCooperationState departments of transportationClimate changeIntegrated Transportation and Ecological Enhancements for Montana (ITEEM)Program evaluationSustainabilityUp until the late 1990s, the Montana Department of Transportation (MDT) performed environmental mitigation for transportation projects on an individual-project basis. Similar experiences at State Departments of Transportation (DOTs) nationwide have shown that this project-by-project approach to avoidance, minimization, and mitigation does not always provide the greatest environmental benefit and may do very little to promote ecosystem sustainability.In 2002, MDT partnered with resource and regulatory agencies to develop the Integrated Transportation and Ecological Enhancements for Montana (ITEEM) program with the aim of establishing a better approach to mitigation that addresses ecosystem sustainability. ITEEM was intended to create a multidisciplinary approach for delivering transportation projects while addressing mitigation on an ecosystem scale and to take advantage of vanishing conservation opportunities. This report documents the ITEEM process, the successes and lessons learned from ITEEM, next steps, and how ITEEM relates to FHWA's Eco-Logical program.119