FRAGMENTATION EFFECTS OF HIGH-SPEED HIGHWAYS ON GRIZZLY BEAR POPULATIONS SHARED BETWEEN THE UNITED STATES AND CANADA

Grizzly bear (Ursus arctos horribilis) populations in the conterminous United States are grouped into six recovery areas, five of which presently have bears. Four of these five areas are contiguous with Canada. High-speed highways bisect many of these ecosystems including the Northern Continental Divide, Cabinet-Yaak, Selkirk, and North Cascades. These highways are habitat fragmentation factors. Highway impacts include vehicle collisions and avoidance of vehicle noise by bears, inhibition of movement by loss of vegetation and changes along highways, fencing and other barriers along or between highway lanes, and the human developments that occur along highways. These highways have the potential to fracture grizzly bear populations across the United States - Canada border by inhibiting movements, increasing mortality, and inhibiting genetic and demographic exchange. Maintaining opportunities for demographic and genetic linkage between United States and Canadian grizzly bear populations enhances survival and recovery potential for grizzly bears. The authors propose a three phase approach to deal with this issue including: 1) development of information on how grizzly bears relate to and cross highways and development of a conceptual model to identify sites where highway crossings by grizzly bears would be most likely; 2) development of crossing structures and highway design modifications at such specific sites; and 3) monitoring effects of highways on populations of bears and use of mitigation measures by bears in a long-term effort to assure population connectivity.

• Corporate Authors:

  Federal Highway Administration

  1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE
  Washington, DC  United States  20590
• Authors:
  • Servheen, C
  • Waller, J
  • Kasworm, W
• Conference:
  • International Conference on Wildlife Ecology and Transportation (ICOWET 1998)
  • Location: Fort Myers Florida, United States
  • Date: 1998-2-9 to 1998-2-12
• Publication Date: 1998

Language

• English

Media Info

• Features: Figures; References;
• Pagination: p. 97-103
• Monograph Title: PROCEEDINGS OF THE INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON WILDLIFE ECOLOGY AND TRANSPORTATION (ICOWET)

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Barriers (Roads); Border regions; Crashes; Ecosystems; Fences; Genetics; Habitat (Ecology); Highway design; Highways; Impacts; Mammals; Survival; Traffic noise; Vegetation; Wildlife; Wildlife crossings
• Uncontrolled Terms: Animal populations; Grizzly bear
• Geographic Terms: Canada; United States
• Subject Areas: Design; Environment; Highways; Planning and Forecasting; Security and Emergencies; I21: Planning of Transport Infrastructure;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00784496
• Record Type: Publication
• Files: TRIS, USDOT
• Created Date: Feb 8 2000 12:00AM