US 160 Dry Creek Wildlife Study

Details

• Creators:
  Cramer, Patricia ; Hamlin, Robert
• Corporate Creators:
  Colorado Department of Transportation. Office of Applied Research
• Corporate Contributors:
  United States. Department of Transportation. Federal Highway Administration
• Subject/TRT Terms:
  Animal Vehicle Crashes Collisions Crossing Structures Deer Deterrent Elk EnviroGrid® Geocell Fences Structures Wildlife Crossings Wildlife Vehicle Collision

  More +
• Publication/ Report Number:
  CDOT-2021-07
• Resource Type:
  Tech Report
• Geographical Coverage:
  United States ; Colorado
• Edition:
  Final Report
• Corporate Publisher:
  Colorado Department of Transportation. Applied Research & Innovations Branch
• Abstract:
  The study monitored the effectiveness of the CDOT US 160 Dry Creek Wildlife Mitigation Project, located between Durango and Bayfield in Southwest of Colorado. Mitigation included a wildlife crossing structure at mile post (MP) 97.42, wildlife exclusion fence on both sides of US 160 from MP 97.05 to MP 97.82, and two EnviroGrid® Geocell treatments placed to deter wildlife from moving into the fenced mitigation area rights-of-way at the east fence ends. The primary objectives of this research were to quantitatively evaluate the effectiveness of the wildlife crossing structure and the EnviroGrid® Geocell treatments using Reconyx Professional cameras. A second objective was to conduct analyses of changes in WVC reported crashes between pre- and post-construction of the mitigation. From August 14, 2018 through March 12, 2021 (934 camera days) there were 2,339 mule deer Total movements at the wildlife crossing structure and 2,066 mule deer Success movements through the wildlife crossing structure. The mule deer Success Rate was 88 percent, the Success per Camera Day was 2.2, and the Abundance was 2.5. While a camera on the north side of the right-of-way fence at the structure recorded 74 elk Total movements, no elk were detected by the structure entrance cameras. The fence end cameras documented 101 mule deer Total movements and 10 mule deer Interactive movements. There were six Repellency movements away from, and four Breach movements over the EnviroGrid® Geocell treatments.
• Format:
  PDF
• Collection(s):
  US Transportation Collection
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:44abb797caf6c70c125493cd8d1d9b6f2e09af2f42b520fbe2415fe6228da2c3e6962ebad8c04066ca2026d955b881aa1d691381f27f9e021ca3c4eb81dde214
• Download URL:
  https://rosap.ntl.bts.gov/view/dot/88562/dot_88562_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 2.29 MB ]