An Action-Packed Year of Advancing State Legislation

Wildlands Network is celebrating an action-packed year of stewarding state wildlife crossing and environmental legislation across the finish line in the United States and Mexico.

In the U.S. alone, eight states passed wildlife crossing legislation in 2022 and Wildlands Network was a key player in the local partnerships crucial to the success of five of these bills.

California

Wildlands Network’s California Program Manager, Mari Galloway lead the charge along with J.P. Rose and Tiffany Yap from the Center for Biological Diversity as the co-sponsoring organizations for AB 2344 or the Safe Roads and Wildlife Protection Act. The bill was just signed into law by Governor Gavin Newson in early October. The new legislation:

1. Creates a state program to identify roads that impede important wildlife movement and have a high rate of wildlife-vehicle collisions;

2. Authorizes Caltrans to develop wildlife connectivity improvement projects as standalone projects;

3. Requires Caltrans and the California Department of Fish and Wildlife to develop an inventory of connectivity needs and a system to prioritize connectivity projects that address the most dangerous wildlife-vehicle collision hotspots and enhance important wildlife movement;

4. Requires Caltrans to incorporate wildlife passage features into the designs of road projects that overlap with “connectivity areas” as defined by the Act.

Mari, J.P., and Tiffany were heavily involved in bill drafting and negotiating amendments with Caltrans, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, and Assemblymember Laura Freidman’s Office. The Pew Charitable Trusts also provided instrumental advocacy efforts that led to bill passage. In total, over 100 organizations signed on to support Assemblymember Friedman’s bill. Wildlands Network thanks Assemblymember Friedman, a legislative champion for wildlife crossings in California, along with all the crucial co-sponsors of the bill in the state Assembly and Senate.

California also passed funding measures in its budget to support connectivity projects. The budget specifically set aside $118 million for fiscal year 2022-2023 to help fund wildlife corridor and fish passage projects. Funding was also separately made available for state projects addressing climate resiliency, watershed protections, nature-based solutions, and the state’s 30 by 30 initiative that could also potentially be put towards crossing and connectivity.

Colorado

The state legislature passed SB 22-151, which created the Colorado Wildlife Safe Passages Fund for the Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT) to use for road projects that reduce wildlife-vehicle collisions and improve connectivity. The fund, which secured an initial appropriation of $5 million, can receive private or public grants, gifts, donations, and legislative appropriations. CDOT can use the money for feasibility studies, planning, construction, retrofitting, and maintenance of crossing structures. The state can use this funding for any required non-federal matching funds needed to apply to federal grant programs. Our Western Program Director, Michael Dax, played a critical role in drafting and advocating for the bill as part of the Colorado Connectivity, Corridors and Crossings Working Group.

In New Mexico and Oregon, the 2022 state legislatures both approved of funding to help implement their respective state Wildlife Corridor Action Plans, which were required by laws previously passed in 2019: New Mexico Senate Bill 228, sponsored by Senator Mimi Stewart and Oregon House Bill 2834, sponsored by Representative Ken Helm. Wildlands Network was also heavily involved in drafting and advocating for both of those bills in 2019.

New Mexico

The state released its final Wildlife Corridor Action Plan in July, identifying 11 wildlife-vehicle hotspots and priority wildlife corridor projects that the New Mexico Department of Transportation (NMDOT) will work towards constructing. In February of 2022, the legislature passed House Bill 2, which appropriated $2 million to NMDOT for the design and construction of wildlife crossings as part of its annual budgeting process. Wildlands Network’s Michael Dax has been an instrumental coalition member and steward for both the 2019 bill and the 2022 bill.

Oregon

The Beaver State also passed funding legislation in 2022 to help implement its Wildlife Corridor Action Plan due out in 2023. House Bill 5202 passed in April, appropriating $7 million from the state general fund to the Oregon Transportation Infrastructure Fund, to help fund OR DOT projects that reduce the number of wildlife-vehicle collisions and improve habitat connectivity for wildlife. Oregon lawmakers have consistently seen the value in implementing wildlife crossings. In 2022 short session, they even increased the initial $5 million budget ask to a final $7 million budget line item.

Utah

The state legislature passed two bills to advance wildlife crossings within the Beehive State. HB 3 allocated $1 million dollars through the budget bill to help mitigate wildlife-vehicle collisions at one of the most dangerous places for wildlife and people driving in the state – the intersection of Interstates 80 and 84. The $1 million for a wildlife crossing will serve as a match for federal funding. The second 2022 bill, HB 427, requires UDOT to report annually on wildlife mitigation measures. This annual report will help formulate and guide investments in reducing wildlife-vehicle collisions and help leverage the federal dollars unlocked by the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act for wildlife crossings.

Rounding out the remainder of the 8 states who passed legislation in the U.S. in 2022, Massachusetts, Washington, and Wyoming also deserve a round of applause for passing wildlife crossing legislation.

2022 was a landmark year for state legislation focused on crossings and connectivity in the U.S., due in part to newly available federal funding through the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. However, the ground swell of state legislation supporting crossings and habitat connectivity has been building for years. For a full list of U.S. states that have passed legislation on this issue to date, see Wildlands Network’s snapshot on state bills supporting the study and funding of crossings and connectivity projects.

New York

In addition to state wildlife crossing legislation, Wildlands Network is actively involved in educating lawmakers about the need for legislation that protects core habitats in addition to corridors. For example, our Northeast Project Manager, Ed Marx, has been part of an effort to push state 30 by 30 legislation across the finish line in New York. The bill, which would preserve 30 percent of New York’s lands and waters by 2030, was passed by the state legislature in May and is currently awaiting Governor Hochul’s signature.*

*The legislation was signed on 12/23/2022.

Sonora

Additionally, Wildlands Network is celebrating another huge win for wildlife in North America, due to the passage of a new suite of environmental tax laws in the state of Sonora, Mexico legislation. The bill proposed and approved by the State Congress on June 7, 2022, incorporated several changes in the Ecological Equilibrium and Environmental Protection Law of the State of Sonora (LEEPAES) and The Municipal Tax Law to strengthen private and voluntary conservation initiatives. In whole, the bill:

1. Creates a new legal figure akin to conservation easements called Derecho Real de Conservación, which is a crucial new tool in Sonora’s conservation toolbox as conservation easements had not previously been a part of Mexican environmental law;

2. Authorizes the use seals or other distinctive symbols to identify products and services that are produced or provided sustainably inside state and voluntary protected areas (e.g. carnivore-friendly beef seal);

3. Gives the state's environmental agency (CEDES) authority to certify the level of protection of voluntary conservation areas;

4. Establishes the creation and management of protected areas as priority activities for receiving incentives;

5. Authorizes the State’s Environmental Fund to provide incentives for voluntary conservation areas commensurate with their level of protection as certified by CEDES;

6. Authorizes counties to provide property-tax discounts commensurate with the level of protection of private conservation areas (The more area under easement and the longer the easement the more the property-tax discount, up to 80%).

Our Senior Conservation Specialist for the Mexico Program, Carlos Castillo, worked hand-in-hand with the Bioconnect Project, the French Development Agency (FAD), VistoBueno Environmental Consultants, and Deputy Brenda Cordova Búzani, to bring this bill across the finish line. “Sonora is the first Mexican state to adopt this new environmental framework,” said Carlos. “While the approval of this bill is just the beginning of a long process, it is the first step to strengthening biological corridors and ecological connectivity in northern Mexico.”

We look forward to seeing how and where policy efforts will continue to grow across North America in 2023 and beyond.