Safe wildlife road crossings are essential to prevent habitat fragmentation, and a citizen group in Park City is pressuring the Utah Department of Transportation (UDOT) to help stop excessive wildlife roadkill on Interstate 80 by connecting animal migration routes.
Save People, Save Wildlife says, “There is a nine-mile stretch of Interstate 80 through the Park City area that has no wildlife fencing and desperately needs wildlife bridges to maintain migration corridors across I-80. It is called the Snyderville Gap. We need UDOT to install wildlife fencing and wildlife bridges to help protect the wildlife and allow them to thrive in the Park City area and migrate through safely.”
Wildlife bridges covered with soil and natural vegetation have been proven to work for a wide variety of animal species. The first wildlife overpass in the United States was built in Utah over I-15 near the town of Beaver in 1975 to facilitate mule deer migration.
Save People, Save Wildlife: SavepeopleSaveWildlife.org; Wildlife and Roads: WildlifeAndRoads.org