Wildlands Network Secures $350 Million to Save Wildlife
For the first time in United States history, there will be dedicated federal funding for wildlife crossings. This is a game-changer for wildlife.
Late Friday, Congress passed the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. The complete bill is a vast collection of national infrastructure programs and spending measures designed to bring buildings, bridges, roads, water delivery systems and other infrastructure up to date and more resilient to the impacts of climate change here in the United States.
Wildlands Network is proud to announce that, due to our leadership, the Act contains $350 million in federal funding for a “Wildlife Crossings Pilot Program” to reduce wildlife-vehicle collisions. From North Carolina to New Hampshire and New Mexico to California, all 50 states will finally have access to desperately needed federal funds to build wildlife road crossings. This is a significant step toward addressing the biodiversity crisis at the national level.
Along with our partners, Wildlands Network identifies areas of critical concern for wildlife and motorists across the United States, where the natural movements of wildlife and modern human transportation collide. These “hotspots” contribute to the death of millions of animals annually, as well as hazardous—and sometimes deadly—conditions for drivers.
And they are almost entirely preventable.
In the past 10 years, we’ve seen unprecedented interest from state and local transportation agencies and elected officials in mitigating wildlife-vehicle collisions, including building “wildlife bridges” across dangerous stretches of highways. We’ve designed projects hand-in-hand with state transportation and wildlife agency staff, collecting the data needed to design appropriate and innovative solutions to this deadly problem.
Based on successful projects, we know that wildlife crossing structures can reduce wildlife-vehicle collisions by more than 90%!
The most significant impediment to reducing death from wildlife-vehicle collisions is lack of funding.
That’s why we brought together experts in the fields of wildlife biology and transportation planning to design a grant program and related provisions to tackle this issue at the federal level, through the U.S. Department of Transportation.
We were successful in cultivating bipartisan support in the U.S. Senate and House for the infrastructure bill’s Wildlife Crossings Pilot Program by bringing together and leveraging the collective wisdom of our partners at ARC Solutions, the Center for Large Landscape Conservation, National Parks Conservation Association, and many others.
We are excited to transition our efforts on this initiative to educating and empowering peers, elected officials and agency managers across the country to bring this funding to much-needed improvements in highways that will benefit a multitude of wildlife species. This is the incremental change needed to preserve a resilient natural world—and can serve as a catalyst for bigger and bolder actions in D.C. and across North America.
We’re getting closer to breaking ground on our own priority hotspot projects, including:
Safe passage for cougars in the Eastern Sierra on Highway 395;
Reconnecting the landscape for bighorn and jaguar in New Mexico on Interstate 10; and Protection for movement of elk and black bear in the Great Smoky Mountains across Interstate 40
We look forward to continuing to elevate the importance of this issue at the national level in the U.S. to realize our vision of a connected, resilient and wild North America.
