Wildlife Crossings: Rethinking Road Design to Improve Safety and Reconnect Habitat

This guidebook provides Portland-area planners with relevant information about wildlife crossings in an urban context. While information on wildlife crossings and their effectiveness has been available for a long time, U.S. planners have very little experience with them. In addition, existing information is geared towards rural applications and is not easily transferred to urban environments. It is important to organize this information in a way that is useful to local planners for a number of reasons. First, users should be familiar with the range of available options. Second, there are a number of federal funding alternatives that could be used for wildlife crossings. Finally, there is a need to integrate better wildlife habitat mitigation measures into urban roadway projects. This book is designed to answer five basic questions that might face a planner or community member considering a crossing to mitigate the impact of roads on wildlife: What types of wildlife impacts do roads create, and how will a wildlife crossing help mitigate them? What should be the goals of a wildlife crossing project, and how should the success of a crossing project be measured? Where should wildlife crossings be located? What design options are appropriate for a given location and road project? What policy issues might affect a wildlife crossing project? This project was conducted under the supervision of Deborah Howe, Steve Johnson, and Connie Ozawa