About Us
The Need for Safe PassagesWhat is the Issue?
Wildlife need to move about freely in order to survive. Roads cause habitat fragmentation and make it harder for wildlife to access food and water, reproduce, and migrate. In many cases wildlife must cross roads and highways to access the resources they need to survive. When this occurs, both wildlife and motorists are at risk.
Safe passages aren’t just for wildlife—they benefit people, too.
The Cost of Wildlife-Highway Conflicts
Economic Impacts
Cost of injuries, fatalities and property damage associated with wildlife-vehicle collisions
Decrease in wildlife viewing, hunting and fishing opportunities in the area
Social Impacts
Human fatalities and injuries
Wildlife-vehicle collisions
Unsafe road conditions
Ecological Impacts
Loss of individual animals to a population or herd
Habitat fragmentation
Diminished access to habitat
Estimated number of unreported wildlife related collisions in Colorado per year
We spend $8 billion a year running over wildlife. If we took that cost and quartered it, we could build 200 animal crossings a year, and the problem of roadkill would disappear within a generation.
What Can Be Done?
The Solution: Safe Passages
The most effective way to create safer roads for wildlife and people is building wildlife crossing structures across roads. Structures such as overpasses and underpasses with fencing allow wildlife to get over and under roads safely so they can once again access the resources they need in order to live. In turn, this reduces wildlife related collisions, ensures healthy wildlife populations and saves taxpayer dollars.
The Cost: Safe Passages Pay for Themselves
Wildlife crossings pay for themselves over time. ARC Solutions and the Center for Large Landscape Conservation note that the costs of collisions to society often outweigh the costs of building wildlife crossing structures. Placing structures along road segments with just a few deer collisions per mile per year creates net public benefits.
