Deterring Wildlife Use of Road Right of Ways in Wyoming

The research objectives are to evaluate the effectiveness of several right of way (ROW) mitigation approaches to reduce wildlife-vehicle collisions and improve highway safety. These include vegetation management, fence-type, existing wildlife crossings, and features that could influence their efficacy such as road shoulder width, landscape conditions around sites, and other features. This study will provide Wyoming Department of Transportation (WYDOT) and its partners with an evaluation of potential wildlife-vehicle mitigations that can be applied to ROW management to improve highway safety and reduce wildlife mortalities. This study may also identify cost effective alternatives to mitigate wildlife-vehicle collision areas. Outputs of this study support WYDOT’s strategic goal of exercising good stewardship of land resources. In addition, output will support measures to improve motorist safety, wildlife safety and minimize associated costs over the long term. Output measures include valuable information about wildlife use of ROW management applications. In addition, mitigation strategies evaluated gained will be applicable to other areas in the state and across similar habitat/roadway/ROW types throughout the West. Performance measures will be derived directly from data assessment to determine practices that improve motorist and wildlife safety in relation to wildlife collision sites.

Language

• English

Project

• Status: Active
• Funding: $301514
• Contract Numbers:

  RS06219

• Sponsor Organizations:

  University of Wyoming, Laramie

  Department of Civil and Architectural Engineering
  1000 East University Avenue
  Laramie, WY  United States  82071
• Managing Organizations:

  Wyoming Department of Transportation

  5300 Bishop Boulevard
  Cheyenne, WY  United States  82009-3340
• Project Managers:

  Gamo, Scott

• Performing Organizations:

  University of Wyoming, Laramie

  Department of Civil and Architectural Engineering
  1000 East University Avenue
  Laramie, WY  United States  82071
• Principal Investigators:

  Millspaugh, Joshua

• Start Date: 20230512
• Expected Completion Date: 20260515
• Actual Completion Date: 0

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Fences; Highway safety; Right of way (Land); Vegetation; Wildlife; Wildlife crossings
• Geographic Terms: Wyoming
• Subject Areas: Environment; Highways; Safety and Human Factors;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01881974
• Record Type: Research project
• Source Agency: Wyoming Department of Transportation
• Contract Numbers: RS06219
• Files: RIP, STATEDOT
• Created Date: May 12 2023 1:24PM