Road mitigation structures reduce the number of reported wildlife‐vehicle collisions in the Bow Valley, Alberta, Canada

Abstract

AbstractHuman population and economic growth have resulted in roads transecting much of the North American landscape and this has negatively affected wildlife populations by fragmenting habitat, impeding movement between populations and increasing the chance of wildlife‐vehicle collisions. A common conservation tool to counteract these effects is the incorporation of road mitigation structures (RMS, i.e., jumpouts and overpasses/underpasses/fencing) into highway systems. However, gaps remain in our knowledge on RMS efficacy due to a lack of long‐term multispecies studies that can assess temporal and species‐specific variation in use. We investigate the efficacy of the Alberta Environment and Parks and Alberta Transportation RMS on the Trans‐Canada Highway (TCH) in the Bow Valley by analyzing annual reported wildlife‐vehicle collisions over a 23‐year period and wildlife use of the underpasses over a ten‐year period. We found that the incorporation of multiple underpasses and jumpouts, along with fencing, reduced the number of reported wildlife‐vehicle collisions on the TCH. We also found that wildlife use of the RMS exhibited variation with regards to month and location. Overall, our results add to the research supporting RMS effectiveness and suggest that incorporating additional similar infrastructure has the potential to further reduce wildlife‐vehicle collisions on the TCH.