Wildlife corridors can provide not just improved access to habitat but ways for people to interact safely with wildlife in ways that don’t disrupt animal communities.
While admitting that the efficacy of these structures needs more study, the Federal Highway Administration thought enough of the idea to develop a design guide in 2011. There’s lots of examples of multiple local and federal agencies teaming up to provide corridors across multiple public lands. According to this article from February 2012 Utah Standard-Examiner, a primary reason the state builds them is to avoid deaths of people that hit or swerve to avoid animals on their roads. The article also shows some video of wildlife captured by cameras in the tunnel — which means the corridors also have the potential to be of benefit to wildlife biologists studying vulnerable animal populations.
The real question in my opinion, is does the corridor need to be a high-design item to be effective? The image above shows a structure that is a lot more expensive that the simple tunnel shown in the article sited earlier, and if it simple — and cheaper — you can potentially build more of them and have a bigger impact on animal preservation.
Ultimately, are these structures just for the animals, or are they for us as well? And if so, Are they the responsibility of designers or wildlife biologists and engineers? What do you think?
