I-90 wildlife sightings tallied
YAKIMA – The Interstate 90 Wildlife Watch, a multi-agency effort that enlisted public volunteers – commuters – to report wildlife sightings on I-90, has published its first-year results: 475 animals were reported, including 52 dead.
“That information is really hard to collect,” said Paula MacKay, an Ellensburg-based research associate with Western Transportation Institute. “You have to be in the right place at the right time.”
The Western Transportation Institute, a department of Montana State University, launched the project in November 2010 with the nonprofit I-90 Wildlife Bridges Coalition. The goal is to help the state Department of Transportation better understand the area’s wildlife as it plans construction of 24 wildlife crossings over and under I-90 between Easton and Hyak as part of a highway expansion over the next several years. The crossings are intended to reduce the number of animals killed by vehicles and maintain genetic diversity of species.
It works by asking drivers to report wildlife sightings at the project’s website, www.i90wildlifewatch.org.
The animals spotted most frequently were deer and elk. But there were also bobcats, black bears, foxes, mink, otters, cougars, turkeys and other species.
“There weren’t surprises in the species that were reported,” said Jen Watkins, outreach director for the I-90 Wildlife Bridges Coalition. “But for the public, seeing the breadth of species was surprising.
“When we’re traveling in our cars we really feel like we’re in a bubble,” she said. “This program has allowed people to really realize … they’re traveling through a wild place when we’re driving in that I-90 corridor.”
The WSDOT can design and place its wildlife crossings based on the project’s data. For instance, Watkins said, mountain goats tend to shy away from roadways. So if mountain goats are spotted at certain places along the highway, crossings at those places could be tailored to better resemble natural geography in a way that would encourage mountain-goat use.