Using Volunteer Wildlife Observations to Plan Mitigation on Highways

Understanding wildlife occurrences and movements in relation to highways is essential to state Departments of Transportation contributing to stewardship of ecosystems. For terrestrial vertebrates in most places, roads and related human infrastructure degrade habitat quality, fragment populations and become major barriers to movement. Collecting observations of wildlife-vehicle collisions (WVC) is often either carried out by specialists, but narrow in time and space, or is carried out widely by highway maintenance staff, but is narrow in taxonomic breadth. To understand the significance of WVC locations for both conservation and driver-safety concerns, it has become necessary to develop WVC observation systems that are both extensive (i.e., state-scale) and intensive (i.e., detailed and accurate observation data). Since September, 2009, >26,000 independent observations of >400 vertebrate species have been recorded in online, state-scale (CA and ME), form-based informatics system by >1,200 observers. We asked the question whether or not WVC observations collected by these two existing large-scale volunteer-science networks could be used to inform transportation-mitigation planning. Cluster analysis of volunteer-observed WVC was performed using spatial autocorrelation tests for 16 state highways and interstates. These clusters were compared to similar findings from DOT-collected WVC data. We show that volunteer-collection of WVC at state-scales could be useful in prioritizing mitigation action by state DOTs to protect biodiversity and driver safety.

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• Supplemental Notes:
  • This paper was sponsored by TRB committee ADC30 Ecology and Transportation.
• Corporate Authors:

  Transportation Research Board

  500 Fifth Street, NW
  Washington, DC  United States  20001
• Authors:
  • Shilling, Fraser M
  • 0000-0001-8125-2186
  • Waetjen, David P
  • Charry, Barbara
• Conference:
  • Transportation Research Board 93rd Annual Meeting
  • Location: Washington DC
  • Date: 2014-1-12 to 2014-1-16
• Date: 2014

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Digital/other
• Features: Figures; Maps; References; Tables;
• Pagination: 20p
• Monograph Title: TRB 93rd Annual Meeting Compendium of Papers

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Cluster analysis; Crashes; Ecosystems; Habitat (Ecology); Road kill; State departments of transportation; Volunteers; Wildlife crossings
• Subject Areas: Environment; Highways; I15: Environment;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01515545
• Record Type: Publication
• Report/Paper Numbers: 14-4931
• Files: PRP, TRIS, TRB, ATRI
• Created Date: Feb 24 2014 8:43AM