Observations of wildlife entrapment in cattle guards, with special consideration for special-status herpetofauna

Emerging technology to exclude wildlife from roads: Electrified pavement and deer guards in Utah, USA

Author(s): Seamans, Thomas W.; Helon, David A. | Abstract: White-tailed deer pose economic and safety concerns for agricultural and transportation industries that may be addressed by reducing their access to areas of concern. Here, we review research findings relative to the efficacy of an electric mat and cattle guard as means to reduce deer access to protected areas. Intrusions of deer across a prototype electronic mat were reduced an average of 95% from pretreatment levels. Deer intrusions across a simulated cattle guard were reduced by at least 88% from pretreatment levels. Comparisons of other cattle guard studies show that when flat material is used instead of rounded for cross members, deer cross the guard. Initial expense for electric mats is lower than for cattle guards, but electric mats will require higher maintenance input than guards. When used as part of an integrated deer control program, properly constructed and maintained electric mats or cattle guards can reduce deer intrusions into areas of concern.

With this study the cattle guard joins the sod house, the windmill, and barbed wire as a symbol of range country on the American Great Plains. A U.S. folk innovation now in use throughout the world, the cattle guard functions as both a gate and a fence: it keeps livestock from crossing, but allows automobiles and people to cross freely. The author blends traditional history and folklore to trace the origins of the cattle guard and to describe how, in true folk fashion, the device in its simplest form—wooden poles or logs spaced in parallel fashion over a pit in the roadway—was reinvented and adapted throughout livestock country.Hoy traces the origins of the cattle guard to flat stone stiles unique to Cornwall, England, then through the railroad cattle guard, in use in this country as early as 1836, and finally to the Great Plains where, probably in 1905, the first ones appeared on roads. He describes regional variations in cattle guards and details unusual types. He provides information on cattle-guard makers, who range from local blacksmiths and welders to farmers and ranchers to large manufacturers.In addition to documenting the economic and cultural significance of the cattle guard, this volume reveals much about early twentieth-century farm and ranch life. It will be of interest not only to folklorists and historians of agriculture and Western America, but also to many Plains-area farmers, ranchers, and oilmen.

In response to increased white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) encroachment on airports, we evaluated the effectiveness of cattle guards as deer exclusion devices. We conducted three experiments in a 2200 ha fenced facility in northern Ohio with high (91/km2) deer densities during 1994 - 1995. In each experiment, we monitored deer crossings at two or three cattle guards (4.6\\[L] 3\\[W] 0.5 or 1.0\\[D] m) constructed at fence openings for 2 weeks pre- and postinstallation. For each experiment, the mean daily number of deer crossings after installation of cattle guards was reduced (P < 0.01) by 88% compared with respective crossing rates during pretreatment. Reduction in deer crossings using cattle guards with 0.5 or 1.0 m deep excavations were similar (95 - 96% vs 98%) overall. Cattle guards at permanent openings used for vehicular traffic appear a viable technique to reduce deer movements into fenced airports and other facilities where reductions in deer intrusions are desired.

Focus on GeographyVolume 46, Issue 1 p. 19-22 A Cowboy is a Cattle Guard: Michelle Behr, Michelle BehrSearch for more papers by this authorNeal W. Ackerly, Neal W. AckerlySearch for more papers by this author Michelle Behr, Michelle BehrSearch for more papers by this authorNeal W. Ackerly, Neal W. AckerlySearch for more papers by this author First published: 21 April 2010 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1949-8535.2000.tb00005.xAboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditWechat Volume46, Issue1Spring 2000Pages 19-22 RelatedInformation

School Days Kurt Caswell (bio) I heard the big yellow school buses cross over the cattle guard on their way out. It was the double pulse of the tires over the steel grate that drew me, a rhythm I would become so accustomed to I could keep time by it. I looked out the kitchen window and watched as the red lights high on the back of the bus faded out into the milky dawn. Most mornings, I was up early, and I would hear the buses twice, first on their way out, empty and cold, and then on their way in carrying the children, who were the center of everyone's work and life here. And when I came to know the bus drivers, I also came to know who drove which bus over which route, the drivers making the longer routes departing first, as they came to a stop at the cattle guard, idled a moment, and then pressed out into the darkness. These were no ordinary school buses. They sat high off the ground on huge knobby tires. They were tightly sprung, so as to negotiate the rough dirt roads. One of them had four-wheel drive, so it was dependable in every kind of weather. When it snowed or rained at Borrego, I listened for the buses, my indication that the weather was or was not going to stop us from holding school. Even on days of questionable weather, however, the children of Borrego had to eat, and there was likely nothing for them at home. Classes would be canceled, but the buses would be trotted out [End Page 71] to bring the kids in to breakfast, and then hustle them back home. Such days were known locally as "consommé days." It was a rare and violent storm indeed that forced Bob King to cancel school completely. But it did happen, like the winter storm some years ago, Bob King told me, when the National Guard air-dropped supplies into Borrego because the snow was so deep no one could get in or out for days. When Navajos were sliding off the roads in the mud and snow, abandoning their vehicles in the ditches, the Borrego buses motored on, delivering the schoolchildren safely to their homes and sometimes collecting people along the way who found themselves unexpectedly on foot. This was an unspoken law of reservation life: never pass by someone on foot on a dirt road. You stopped and offered them a ride because it was not a matter of if but of when that person on foot would be you. I readied myself and went to school. Deena Bell greeted me in the front office. She was a tall, graceful Navajo woman with light-colored skin and a round face. She paid a great deal of attention to making herself up, the colors worked into her cheeks and across her eyes, her nails long and manicured, her hair black as jet and sprayed up into a tent on top of her head. Her eyes were dark brown, maybe black, and warm and inviting. She was the most beautiful Navajo woman I had met. She sat eternally behind the front desk. I rarely saw her standing or walking, just there behind the desk, a bright face to greet me. Later I came to know her outside of school, and to know Kestrel, her son, and Frank, her husband. "Good morning!" she said. "How are the kids treating you? I sure hope they're not giving you any trouble." "It's okay," I said. "I think I'm doing all right." "Please ask if you need anything," Deena said. "The first couple weeks are always the hardest for new teachers. We'll make sure you get what you need. Right, girls?" "We sure will," said Arlene, who sat at the desk next to Deena. Betsy, who was busy digging in a file drawer, nodded her head. "Please ask us," Deena said, and she winked at me. "May I use your phone again?" I asked. [End Page 72] "Of course you can," Deena said. "I need to try Navajo Communications again about getting my phone hooked up...

Railroads. Negligence. Cattle Guards

Most wildlife mitigation measures along highways are aimed at improving human safety, reducing direct wildlife mortality, and providing safe crossing opportunities for wildlife. Fences in combination with wildlife crossing structures are the most effective combination of mitigation measures to achieve these objectives. For fences to reliably reduce collisions with large wild mammals by 80% or more, at least 5 kilometers (3 miles) of road length needs to be fenced, including a buffer zone that extends well beyond the known hotspots for wildlife-vehicle collisions. Collisions that still occur within the fenced road sections tend to be concentrated near the fence-ends. In addition, gaps in fences, including at access roads, can result in concentrations of collisions inside fenced road sections. Gates are commonly used at gaps in the fence at low traffic volume access roads, but they are often left open allowing wildlife to access the road corridor. While cattle guards or wildlife guards can be effective for some ungulate species, double wide cattle or wildlife guards consisting of round bars or bridge grate material, situated above a pit, are generally recommended for ungulates. However, such guards are not a substantial barrier for species with paws, including many carnivore species. Electrified mats or electrified guards can be a barrier for both ungulates and species with paws, but to prevent animals from jumping across the mat, they need to be 4.6-6.6 m (15-22 ft)) wide. For this project, a combination of wildlife guards and electrified barriers on top of these wildlife guards was evaluated. Both electrified mats that were tested (Crosstek and BS Fabrications) on top of existing wildlife guards resulted in a near absolute barrier for both ungulates and species with paws (97.9% barrier for the 2 deer species combined, 100% barrier for coyotes and black bears); an improvement to a wildlife guard only without an electrified mat (89.3% for the 2 deer species combined, 54.5% barrier for coyotes and 45.5% barrier for black bears). Based on the images, there is evidence that a shock is delivered to the animals that touch the electrified mats and that most of the animals respond by returning to the habitat side of the barrier. Specifically for bears, if it was not for the electrified barriers, likely at least 3 black bears and 1 grizzly bear would have crossed into the fenced road corridor where they would have been exposed to vehicles.

With this study the cattle guard joins the sod house, the windmill, and barbed wire as a symbol of range country on the American Great Plains. A U.S. folk innovation now in use throughout the world, the cattle guard functions as both a gate and a fence: it keeps livestock from crossing, but allows automobiles and people to cross freely. The author blends traditional history and folklore to trace the origins of the cattle guard and to describe how, in true folk fashion, the device in its simplest form—wooden poles or logs spaced in parallel fashion over a pit in the roadway—was reinvented and adapted throughout livestock country. Hoy traces the origins of the cattle guard to flat stone stiles unique to Cornwall, England, then through the railroad cattle guard, in use in this country as early as 1836, and finally to the Great Plains where, probably in 1905, the first ones appeared on roads. He describes regional variations in cattle guards and details unusual types. He provides information on cattle-guard makers, who range from local blacksmiths and welders to farmers and ranchers to large manufacturers. In addition to documenting the economic and cultural significance of the cattle guard, this volume reveals much about early twentieth-century farm and ranch life. It will be of interest not only to folklorists and historians of agriculture and Western America, but also to many Plains-area farmers, ranchers, and oilmen. Description Jim Hoy is professor emeritus of English at Emporia State University, where he also directed Center for Great Plains Studies. Hoy is the author of numerous books about cowboy life, including Flint Hills Cowboys: Tales from the Tallgrass Prairie and My Flint Hills: Observations and Reminiscences from America’s Last Tallgrass Prairie. With a New Preface by the Author. This Kansas Open Books title is funded by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Humanities Open Book Program.

The Cattle Guard

Etienne Benson considers the role that material interventions into the vernacular landscape play in solidifying our understandings of bodily difference across species. He focuses on the cattle guards that were installed along railways in the United States from around the 1830s in an effort to prevent cattle and other livestock from straying onto railroad tracks while still allowing free passage to trains. He suggests that common-sense understandings of the bodily capabilities of different species emerge from precisely these kinds of encounters in everyday landscapes.

Cattle guards

The One Who Held Her Hand

The Bozeman Pass transportation corridor between Bozeman and Livingston, Montana, includes Interstate 90 (I-90), frontage roads, and a railroad. The highway was a suspected barrier and hazard to animal movement in the Bozeman Pass area, which is considered a corridor for wildlife moving north and south between the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem and other habitat. In 2007, wildlife connectivity measures were incorporated into the reconstruction of a Montana Rail Link (MRL) bridge. These measures included wildlife exclusion fencing along approximately one mile of I-90, four jump-outs, cattle guards, and landscape design modifications. Data on wildlife crossings and animal–vehicle collisions (AVCs) were collected before and after construction to evaluate the effectiveness of the mitigation measures in reducing AVCs and allowing for animal movements under the highway. Ungulate–vehicle collisions (UVCs) decreased significantly inside the fenced roadway post-installation. There has not been a significant increase in UVC rates at either the fence ends or in the study area as a whole. Track-bed and remote camera data indicate increased wildlife movement under the MRL bridge and through culverts. An analysis of road kill density before and after fencing suggests that one road kill hotspot was been mitigated but that others remain. Suggestions for further mitigation as well as modifications to the jumpouts and fence ends are presented. Because the mitigation measures were added to a structure replacement project and largely made use of existing landscape features, the cost of the project was lower than direct installation of new mitigation measures. In three years post-fencing, the reduction in UVCs has resulted in savings that are greater than the cost of installation. Incorporating wildlife connectivity measures into scheduled road projects early in the planning stages can be a cost-effective way to reduce AVCs and preserve healthy wildlife populations

Hard rock drilling problems are frustrating. Hard rock pore pressure interpretation is baffling. Because of slow drilling in hard streaks and absence of kicks (in overpressured shale sections), it is generally assumed pore pressures are close to "normal" over long depth intervals. Many hard rock drilling problems (Table 1) could not be logically explained, if this were the case. Nothing could be further from the truth. Hard rocks are difficult to drill because of the extreme zig-zags from overpressured shales to sub-normally pressured sands and carbonates (Fig. 1). It is impossible to drill anywhere near balanced in both situations, simultaneously. Hard rock drilling problems caused by underbalance or overbalance (or both) are a result (Table 1). But, a better understanding of the presence and magnitude of these pressure shifts (Fig. 1) will help us minimize the worst extremes of imbalance and more intelligently strike an optimum compromise, realizing that mud density and, especially, mud chemistry can never completely solve these hard rock drilling problems. Well log pressure plots in these erratic stratigraphies are so difficult to interpret that they often have been considered useless. The example pore pressure plots shown here, including the Pressure Evaluation Profile (PEP) log – a side by side comparison of several different pressure sensitive responses (Figs. 5, 10) – help interpret and explain many of these problems in a simple, logical manner.