Assessing Traffic Threats for Amphibian and Reptile Species of Greatest Conservation Need on Texas Roadways: Final Report

Details

• Creators:
  Walkup, Danielle K ; Skow, Kevin L ; Hibbitts, Toby J ; Ryberg, Wade A ; Lopez, Roel R
• Corporate Creators:
  Texas A&M University. Natural Resources Institute
• Corporate Contributors:
  Texas. Dept. of Transportation. Research and Technology Implementation Office ; United States. Department of Transportation. Federal Highway Administration
• Subject/TRT Terms:
  Amphibians Collisions Reptile Conservation Endangered Species Environmental Impacts Fatalities Species Of Greatest Conservation Need Threatened And Endangered Traffic Mortality Wildlife-Vehicle Collision Wildlife Crossings

  More +
• Publication/ Report Number:
  FHWA/TX-21/0-6972-1
• Resource Type:
  Tech Report
• Geographical Coverage:
  Texas;United States
• Edition:
  May 2018–May 2019: Final Report
• Corporate Publisher:
  Texas A&M Transportation Institute
• Abstract:
  Many environmental impacts involve state and federally listed threatened and endangered (TE) species. Wildlife-vehicle collision (WVC) data can improve environmental impact assessments for TE species. Accurate WVC data has been collected for amphibian and reptile species on Texas roadways since 2012, in the form of observations in the “Herps of Texas” project on the citizen science platform iNaturalist. These data were used to create a database of species of greatest conservation need (SGCN) recorded and verified in the state that was joined with Texas road traffic data from the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) and used to evaluate SGCN species presence and mortality on and near roads. As of 3 April 2018, there were 11,527 Research Grade quality records of 62 SGCN species downloaded from the iNaturalist “Herps of Texas” project. Maps distinguishing live and dead SGCN Reptiles and Amphibians observations >100 m away from and 100 m within either side of 2,333 control sections across Texas are found in Appendix A of this report. There were 1,474 records of 44 SGCN near control sections with associated traffic data. We found shorter distances to roads, higher traffic volumes, latitude and longitude were important predictors of mortality in all SGCN observations together. With respect to environmental impacts involving state and federally listed TE species, we found that some amphibian and reptile species groups were more likely to complicate transportation project planning than others and for different reasons.
• Format:
  PDF
• Funding:
  0-6972
• Collection(s):
  US Transportation Collection
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:96db302cad1e61f60b5bde0cc716655d6744f51d274be8840e0a3be6ea6faf0b358d6b095ab2c7fab3a5edb6071ce738b42c7897e72fcb3e3c359e7f4d3563b7
• Download URL:
  https://rosap.ntl.bts.gov/view/dot/64568/dot_64568_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 101.36 MB ]