No more deer in the headlights
Why did the mule deer, moose and elk cross the road?
They didn’t. Thanks to the research of Professor Patty Cramer and the efforts of the Utah Department of Transportation and the Utah Division of Wildlife resources, four-legged forest dwellers and dusk-to-dawn motorists have less unfortunate encounters. Instead, animals bypass the road altogether, via wildlife crossings — carefully constructed bridges and tunnels near busy highways.
Cramer, a research assistant professor for the USU department of wildland resources, originally involved herself with the business of wildlife and transportation as a volunteer, she said. She came to Utah seven years ago to complete her doctorate, but said that wasn’t the sole reason behind her involvement. She said it stemmed from the innate passion she invests in everything she does.
“It definitely came from a passion to save animals,” Cramer said.
While on her way to Twin Falls, Idaho, to begin a new wildlife crossing project this week, she said she was saddened to see so much roadkill.
“I care so much,” Cramer said. “I react, even to a skunk.”
The proud owner of two dogs and a cat, Cramer said she worked at zoos in the Bronx and Honolulu before starting her work with wildlife crossings.
“I’m hands on with animals,” she said.
She is hands on to the point of dedicating her research to guiding woodland creatures safely over and under roadways, she said. The Twin Falls project is one of the newest efforts to keep animals off the streets. Other animal highway crossings exist in Washington, throughout Utah and in Montana’s Bitterroot Valley, Cramer said.
So how does one convince herds of wild animals to make use of a “The way we get wildlife to use the crossings is we install wildlife-proof fencing,” Cramer said.
This fencing is eight-feet high, instead of the highway-standard four feet that the hoofed mammals can easily jump over, she added. By installing this fencing for at least half a mile, on either side of the wildlife crossing, “you can start encouraging the animals to use the crossings instead of going on the roads,” Cramer said.
She said it is important that the crossings are accessible and natural looking to the animals.
“I help the departments of transportation develop the structures,” Cramer said. “If they look too much like bridges, the animals won’t use them.” They can’t look too much like caves, either, as the animals will assume they are inhabited by predators, she said.
There are four of these culvert-like wildlife crossings between Logan and Brigham City, Cramer said.
“Look for the fencing to come close to the highway,” she said. “When it comes closer it means — under the road — there’s a culvert.”
Cramer’s research largely consists of setting up motion-detecting cameras to capture the travel patterns of wildlife. The information gathered from these cameras is used both to survey land for future crossings and gauge the success of current crossings.
“In three years of monitoring, with 35 cameras all over the state, I have recorded more than 15,000 mule deer passes underneath and over the road in our wildlife crossings,” Cramer said. “They very much work.”
Cramer is giving a presentation on her research at the Swaner Preserve and EcoCenter in Park City, Utah, on Saturday, Oct. 1. The presentation, entitled “Road Kill to Road Wise,” requires a reservation and includes a field trip to a wildlife crossing near Lamb’s Canyon, according to the USU Event Calendar.
Sally Tauber, Swaner EcoCenter’s director of business development, said the center can accommodate up to 120 guests for the presentation.
“We wouldn’t want to turn someone away just because they didn’t RSVP,” Tauber said.
She said Cramer spoke at the Swaner EcoCenter last year and was well received. The reserve is one of the greenest buildings in Utah, and sits on 1,200 acres of preserved land, according to the Swaner EcoCenter website.
“About a year and a half ago, Swaner EcoCenter and Preserve was gifted to Utah State University,” Tauber said. She said this ownership gives the center a special connection to the work of researchers like Cramer.
A similar event will take place in Logan the following Saturday, Cramer said. At these presentations, she likes to be visionary and inform people that these crossings are the future of wildlife and transportation.
Cramer gave readers three pieces of advice to avoid automobile accidents with deer, moose and elk.
“Slow down in areas where you think there might be wildlife,” she said, “so that you can react.” Cramer sited a Wyoming study that showed drivers only slow down an average of five mph when they see a sign noting deer or other wildlife in the area.
“People do not slow down,” she said. “That’s one amazing thing that has baffled me. When people are warned there could be animals in the road we still barely get people to slow down.”
Her second caution regarded drivers’ reactions when faced suddenly with an animal in the road.
“Don’t swerve,” Cramer said. “We have students in the state that have swerved to avoid hitting an animal and have died because they flipped (their cars).”
“Be alert,” she said, as her final piece of advice. “If you do see an animal, know they travel in herds.”
Though she offers this advice, Cramer does not lead lectures on drivers slowing down or taking more care on highways. Instead, she said she continues to provide alternate routes for the animals.
“Wildlife are easier to train than drivers,” she said.
– noelle.johansen@aggiemail.usu.edu