Wildlands Network Celebrates the Announcement of $125 Million in Federal Grants for Wildlife Crossing Projects Awarded to 15 States and 1 Tribe
A wildlife crossing over a major highway. Video by Adobe Stock
Salt Lake City, UT, December 20, 2024 – Today the Federal Highway Administration announced that 16 grant winners will receive $125 million in federal funding from the new, highly popular Wildlife Crossings Pilot Program. These projects will support the creation of much-needed wildlife crossings designed to reduce animal-vehicle collisions and enhance public safety and ecosystem connectivity.
The Winners
The winning projects from this one-of-a-kind program will contribute to the construction of state-of-the-art wildlife overpasses, underpasses, and directional fencing, strategically placed in high-risk areas for wildlife-vehicle collisions. Some of the awarded projects that Wildlands Network is particularly excited to celebrate include:
Oregon’s First Overpass on I-5: Connecting the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument
Awarded Amount - $33 Million
The Beaver State will be building its first wildlife overpass with the largest grant awarded from the Wildlife Crossings Pilot Program to date! The I-5 corridor in Oregon sees 17,000 vehicles a day, creating a huge barrier and fragmenting the biodiverse ecosystem within the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument in Southern Oregon. In 2021, The Southern Oregon Wildlife Crossing Coalition, of which Wildlands Network is a member, was formed to provide safe passage for wildlife over the Siskiyou summit. After the Bureau of Land Management and Southern Oregon University worked together to collect wildlife movement data on a 14-mile stretch of highway south of Ashland, Oregon, the Coalition contracted for a Conceptual Design Study of the area. In the end, the Coalition and the Oregon Department of Transportation zeroed in on the need for one wildlife overpass near the Mariposa Preserve. The crossing will be 200 feet wide and 800 feet long, accommodating safe passage for a broad range of species including deer, cougars, bobcats, black bears, and many others that call the Monument home.
“Reconnecting the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument with a safe wildlife crossing over Interstate 5 has been a dream of wildlife supporters since I-5 was built in the 1960s and the Monument was designated by President Clinton in 2000. The time is now to get the bridge constructed, to help animals reconnect with their extensive habitat, and to allow faster movement during recurring area wildfires. We are excited to have the new national Wildlife Crossings Pilot Program grant available and look forward to getting this nationally biodiverse significant area reconnected and the public safely traveling through the Monument,” said Amy Amrhein of the Southern Oregon Wildlife Crossing Coalition.
A computer mock-up of the proposed wildlife crossing on I-5. Photo by The Oregon Department of Transportation
The Red Wolf Crossing Project on U.S.-64 in East Lake North Carolina
Amount Awarded - $25 Million
We are thrilled to share that the second-largest grant awarded to date will go to a project to protect the most endangered wolf species in the world (only 17-19 remain in the wild) – the Red Wolf. Wildlands Network has been conducting field research on endangered red wolves since 2015. For the past decade, collisions with vehicles have been the primary source of mortality for this critically endangered species. Over the past five years, six red wolves have been killed on U.S. Highway 64 where the road cuts through the Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge. The North Carolina Department of Transportation applied to this grant program for funding to build a set of 11 wildlife underpasses of various sizes, along with associated funnel fencing, to mitigate the worst hotspots for Red Wolf mortality on U.S. 64 near the junction with Buffalo City Road.
“These structures are expected to greatly reduce the road mortality threat to Red Wolves and other species, while also keeping motorists safe on the busy beach highway that heads to the famous Outer Banks,” said Dr. Ron Sutherland, chief scientist at Wildlands Network.
Realizing that non-federal matching funds were a limiting factor, Wildlands Network stepped forward and raised over $2.3 million dollars in private funds to help the state agency apply for U.S. 64 crossing funding. Our partners at the Center for Biological Diversity also raised close to $1.7 million for the campaign from over 13,000 donors.
“Marissa Cox and her team at NCDOT prepared an excellent proposal, with help from Joe Madison at U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and Travis Wilson at NC Wildlife Resources Commission. We were also really thankful that NCDOT Secretary Joey Hopkins gave this effort his strong and enlightened support,” said Nikki Robinson, NC project manager at Wildlands Network.
Wildlands Network also launched a daily roadkill survey on the target stretch of U.S. 64 on August 1, 2024, with funding from Animal Welfare Institute and Defenders of Wildlife. By December, we had counted over 2,400 dead vertebrate animals, confirming the extreme need for wildlife crossing structures at this location.
“The wildlife road crossings that will be built with funding from the Federal Highway Administration will benefit not just Red Wolves but all kinds of other wildlife too. U.S. 64 cuts right through the top end of the immense and biologically diverse Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge, and the combination of busy beach highway and high density of wildlife leads to carnage on the asphalt every year,” continued Ron Sutherland.
Captive Red Wolf pups. Photo by Ron Sutherland
Sandia-Jemez Mountain Wildlife Corridor Crossings Project
Amount Awarded - $6,372,354
Wildlands Network congratulates the Pueblo of Santa Ana’s significant award for the full engineering and design of a system of wildlife crossings along I-25 and U.S.-550 that will reconnect the Sandia Mountains with the Jemez Mountains. For years, the Pueblo of Santa Ana has collared elk, mule deer, pronghorn, black bears, and mountain lions on their lands that occupy low-elevation winter range between these iconic mountain ranges. Their data has clearly demonstrated animals will cross U.S.-550, occasionally resulting in wildlife-vehicle collisions, and I-25 is a total barrier to any wildlife passage. This project is one of 11 projects identified in the New Mexico Wildlife Corridors Action Plan, which Wildlands Network helped catalyze.
Maryland Statewide Wildlife Crossing Study
Amount Awarded - $387,424
Four states won funding this year to conduct preliminary statewide planning to identify priority locations for crossings and develop tools to access when crossings are needed. Wildlands Network is particularly excited to celebrate Maryland’s win in this category. In 2023, Wildlands Network co-founded the Maryland Connectivity Coalition, which consists of local conservation organizations, state agency representatives from the Department of Natural Resources and State Highway Administration, and state legislators and staff from the General Assembly, including Delegate Sheila Ruth and Senator Karen Lewis-Young. Over the past year, the coalition has worked together to identify connectivity needs and propose agency programs that could help reduce wildlife-vehicle collisions and habitat fragmentation. The State Highway Administration recognized a need for funding to help the agency identify wildlife-vehicle collision hotspots where crossings might be effective. Wildlands Network and many participants within the coalition provided support letters for the agency’s application, and we are thrilled to celebrate this early win for wildlife in Maryland that budded from the creation of this collaborative and effective coalition.
“I am delighted to learn that Maryland has been awarded a Wildlife Crossings Pilot Program grant. We have a very high incidence of animal-related vehicle accidents, which is dangerous for both humans and wildlife. This grant will enable us to take a significant step forward towards mitigating this challenge,” said Maryland Senator Karen Lewis Young.
“I’m excited to learn that Maryland has been awarded funding under the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act to begin laying the foundation for this important work. I’m grateful to the Maryland State Highway Administration and the Maryland Department of Natural Resources for their collaboration and effort in preparing this successful application. I look forward to continuing my work with the coalition to protect drivers and wildlife alike from wildlife-vehicle collisions,” added Maryland Delegate Sheila Ruth.
The Problem on Our Roadways
A family of bears crossing a busy road in California. Video by Pathways for Wildlife
The U.S. Department of Transportation estimates that 365 million vertebrate animals are killed on U.S. roads each year, which is roughly the amount of the entire U.S. human population. Collisions with wildlife on roadways have weakened many wildlife populations and fragmented ecosystems, making it difficult for animals to move across our landscapes to find the resources they need to survive, like food, water, and genetically diverse mates.
Humans are also at risk when wildlife steps onto the blacktop. American drivers collide with one to two million large animals each year, “causing approximately 200 human deaths, 26,000 injuries, and at least $8 billion in property damage and other costs.”
A New Program With New Solutions
The Wildlife Crossings Pilot Program, established by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law of 2021 (BIL), aims to reduce wildlife-vehicle collisions by funding projects such as statewide studies to identify collision hot spots (over 80% of applicants who applied for these studies in the first round received funding) and the design and construction of wildlife crossings. Advocated for by Wildlands Network and other partners, this program is unique in that it dedicates 100% of its funds to support the development of wildlife crossing projects. Additionally, BIL also made such projects eligible for funding through 15+ other federal discretionary and formula funding grant programs.
In this second round of grants, the demand for funding continues to far exceed what is available. In the first round, the Federal Highway Administration received over 65 applications from 34 states, requesting nearly $550 million to support more than $700 million in projects—almost double the program's total funding. Of those requests, about $288 million advanced to the highly recommended project round, representing more than half of the program’s total funds. In the second round, roughly the same number of applications were received, with only 16 being awarded funding.
What’s Next
There is still roughly $100 million in grant funding left in the program with the last application period opening between May 1, 2025, to August 1, 2025. Currently, the program remains a pilot program. However, with the high demand for funding not being met and the enthusiastic and bipartisan support for these projects (86% of Americans support dedicating resources to reduce wildlife-vehicle collisions), Wildlands Network is working with Congress to make the Wildlife Crossings Pilot Program permanent and increase the program funding. “The single most helpful thing that people can do is call or email their Congressional delegates and voice their support for making this program permanent,” said Erin Sito, U.S. Public Policy Director for Wildlands Network. “We encourage everyone who cares about reducing wildlife-vehicle collisions to learn more about what your state has done to address this issue, and how federal support can catalyze new or continued state action.”
Other Critical Projects in the Works
Wildlands Network supported 11 applications in total this year, and unfortunately, not all of them won funding this time around. We will continue to work with partners to move forward the following projects, which will help reconnect critical landscapes and protect local wildlife and people, including targeting grant funding in the next round of the Wildlife Crossings Pilot Program:
395 Mammoth Crossing
California
The proposed Mammoth Lakes U.S. 395/S.R. 203 Wildlife Crossing Project seeks to reduce wildlife-vehicle collisions and restore mule deer migration pathways in the Eastern Sierra Nevada. The project would finalize designs and permitting for two overpasses, one underpass, bridge enhancements, exclusion fencing, a wildlife detection system, and jump-outs. Katie Rodriguez of Caltrans stated, "This project is a significant step to make roads safer for the public while reconnecting habitats for deer migrations, sage grouse, black bear, and other wildlife."
Spooner Summit Crossing
Nevada
The proposed Spooner Summit project, located East of Lake Tahoe on U.S. 50 and led by the Nevada Department of Transportation (NDOT), aims to provide safe passage for wildlife and people. Currently, recreators using the Tahoe Rim and Clear Creek Trails and wildlife, like mule deer and black bears, must navigate a dangerous and busy highway to reach the other side. NDOT’s Nova Simpson highlighted the project's significance, stating, "By integrating wildlife and people's needs into a multi-functional crossing structure, we can protect and connect our wildlife while enhancing the safety and enjoyment of trail users." Wildlands Network assisted this project with a letter of support and is proud of NDOT’s efforts to make the highway safer for both wildlife and people to cross.
Wildlands Network congratulates all successful applicants and joins them in this nationwide celebration marking another significant step toward improving transportation infrastructure and safeguarding our nation’s iconic wildlife.
Contacts:
Erin Sito, U.S. Public Policy Director, Wildlands Network, erin@wildlandsnetwork.org
Tim Noviello, Communications Director, Wildlands Network, tim@wildlandsnetwork.org
About Wildlands Network: Wildlands Network is a conservation organization focused on reconnecting, restoring, and rewilding North America's wild places to ensure the survival of wildlife and the health of the planet.
Cover photo by Adobe Stock
