Finding California s Worst Highways For Wildlife
30/10/2016
When a mountain lion in Los Angeles dies, its most likely at the hands (or paws) of another mountain lion. When the otherwise solitary cats must contend with a cramped habitat hemmed in by freeways, aggressive, often deathly, interactions are a certainty. But the second most frequent cause of death for mountain lions in Los Angeles is cars. And thats not just true for mountain lions. Just about every species, both native and introduced, that calls California home turns up as roadkill from time to time.
For the last seven years, more than 1,000 volunteers have submitted more than 50,000 observations of roadkill to something called the California Roadkill Observation System, also appropriately known as CROS. The largest data collection effort in the world devoted to roadkill, CROS is run by the Road Ecology Center at UC Davis, which is itself managed by a biologist named Fraser Shilling. It might seem like a fairly macabre pastime, but Shilling points out that while the volunteers who contribute to the database come from a wide range of backgrounds, all have something in common. They think that collecting information about harm that people cause the environment can help reduce the harm.
--
--
Wildlife collisions arent just bad for the animals of course. When an animal - especially a large one - enters a road or highway, it poses a hazard to drivers, who might crash into the animal or who might swerve and get in an accident anyway. In addition to the property damage from these accidents, theres also the threat of injury or death.
According to one of Shillings recent analyses, there were nearly 6,000 car accidents that involved wildlife in California between February of 2015 and February of 2016. According to his calculations, they came at a cost of some $225 million dollars. More than nine of every ten incidents involved deer, with coyotes, black bears, mountain lions, and others filling in the rest.
While just about every road, street, and highway winds up with the carcasses of dead bugs, birds, reptiles, amphibians, or mammals on them (though CROS only tracks vertebrates, not insects or other invertebrates), some spots are worse than others. Thanks to the massive amounts of data that Shilling and his colleagues have amassed, they can use powerful statistical modeling techniques to pinpoint roadkill hotspots. These are places that have a disproportionate number of dead animals compared to other stretches of highway.
Elk making it across a road in redwood country. | Photo: meganpru, some rights reserved
For 2016, those hotspots included the area where Routes 1 and 101 meet north of the Golden Gate Bridge, for example, two stretches of Interstate 280 near San Mateo and Palo Alto, the coastline near Santa Rosa, and so on.
More on Wildlife Crossings
Heres How to Design a Wildlife Crossing That Wildlife Will Actually Use
Meet Two New Mountain Lion Kittens P-46 and P-47
Another Mountain Lion Braves the 101, Underscores Importance of Wildlife Crossings
There are strategies for mitigating those hotspots. In some places, wildlife bridges like the one planned for Liberty Canyon in Agoura Hills are best. But these come with a hefty price tag, and arent necessarily viable options everywhere or for every species. All told, the Liberty Canyon crossing could cost as much as $100 million dollars.
The most common strategy in California involves building tunnels or culverts underneath roadways. Theres just one problem. We find that most wildlife do not want to go through tunnels, says Shilling. Only a select few species are willing to use them, he explains. So while there may indeed be deer or bears on both sides of a highway, they could remain genetically isolated from each other. Wildlife will approach roads and will die on the surface, which challenges the idea of building these wildlife tunnels, he adds.
And then, of course, the animals have to actually find those crossings. Larger mammals like coyotes or bobcats have large enough ranges that they could find the over- and under-passes weve built to provide them safe transit pathways. But smaller mammals, along with all the reptiles and amphibians, dont move around all that much. Finding a safe crossing is more a question of luck than intelligence.
There is another strategy though for minimizing the impact of roads on wildlife. When wild animals become roadkill, its usually because of speed. A car barrels down a highway so fast that by the time an animal has registered the threat its too late. Or a driver cruises along so rapidly that by the time he or she spots an animal, there isnt time to brake safely.
The bottom line is that one of the cheapest solutions for roadkill is having reasonable speed limits and enforcing them, says Shilling. In most places its tried, people are responsive and there are way fewer collisions.
Screenshot of the California Roadkill Map. Orange and blue pins denote mammals of different sizes, yellow birds, green reptiles and purple amphibians.
While Los Angeles sees plenty of roadkill, there are lots more data available in CROS for Northern California and the Central Valley, making identifying hotspots in the Southland more of a challenge. Indeed, CROS only covers some 5 to 10 percent of Californias roadways.
Still, the scant data that are available paint a bloody picture. Much of LAs share of the 405 is covered in roadkill data, as are State Routes 27 and 23 between the 101 and the ocean. That should serve as no surprise, since both roads cut straight through the Santa Monica Mountains NRA. Another local roadkill cluster occurs along the 2 and 210 just south of the Angeles National Forest. And in Orange County, the 74 and 241 are death traps for animals, likely because theyre so close to a wide expanse of green space in th
LINK: | https://www.kcet.org/redefine/finding-californias-worst-highways-for-w... |
See more stories from kcet |
Most recent headlines
04/08/2024
Dalet Appoints Santiago Solanas as CEO to Lead Next Era of Growth and Innovation
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, is excited to announce Santiago Solanas as its new Chief Executive Officer (CEO)....
03/06/2024
Dalet and Veritone Reach Agreement to Distribute, Transact and Monetize Media Archives
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, a...
06/05/2024
Gathering Is a Call to Action: A Letter From Ilyse McKimmie
By Ilyse McKimmie Now, more than ever That's a phrase so often used in the last few years that I've come to dread seeing it in notes like this one. A...
06/05/2024
From Petabytes To Exabytes: The Future Of Shared Storage
alt= class=wp-image-12099 data-lazy-src=/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Blog-Exabyte-Storage-Demand-960x540-1.jpg/> Demand for storage solutions has reached unprece...
06/05/2024
Spotify Uplifts Bold, Emerging Artists in Honor of Asian and Pacific Islander Heritage Month
Around the world, Asian and Pacific Islander (API) artists continue to impact mu...
06/05/2024
Never Miss a New Release With Countdown Pages for Audiobooks
Spotify is making it easier for booklovers to count down the days, hours, minutes, and seconds until a new audiobook releases. With Countdown Pages for audioboo...
06/05/2024
Get Ready to join Dan Hong as he hits the streets in his ultimate culinary journey
Get Ready to join Dan Hong as he hits the streets in his ultimate culinary journ...
06/05/2024
Lighting a Day-Interior Caf With LEE Filters
In this video, cinematographer Simon Rowling welcomes viewers behind the scenes as he lights a daytime-interior scene inside a coffee shop. Shooting on Panavisi...
06/05/2024
Technology for the Next Generation of Special Forces
L3Harris is well positioned to support the complex and multifaceted nature of special operations forces in all domains through our agile and responsive technolo...
06/05/2024
Canada Plans May 8 Public Alert System Test
OAKVILLE, Ontario As part of Emergency Preparedness Week, Alert Ready, Canadas national public alerting system, will be distributing a test alert to Canadians i...
06/05/2024
Survey: Pay TV Penetration Falls to 40% in U.S. Hispanic Homes
NEW ROCHELLE, N.Y. Horowitz Research has released a new study on the viewing and media habits of U.S. Hispanic/Latine audiences that shows a dramatic decline in...
06/05/2024
RE:Vision Effects Autograph 2024.4 released! 50% Off Through May 9th
RE:Vision Effects Autograph 2024.4 released! 50% Off Through May 9th Brie Clayton May 6, 2024 0 Comments New game-changing motion graphics & VFX featu...
06/05/2024
NBC Orders More Night Court'
NBC has renewed Night Court for a third season. The courtroom comedy was on the network from 1984 to 1992, and NBC rebooted it in early 2023....
06/05/2024
ABC Shares Summer Premiere Dates
ABC has revealed its summer schedule. The Bachelorette gets going Monday, July 8, with Jenn Tran the star in season 21. Celebrity Family Feud starts up Tuesday,...
06/05/2024
Holly Springs Salamanders Home Opener Less Than Three Weeks Away, Tickets on Sale Now
It's almost go-time for the Holly Springs Salamanders! The season opener is ...
06/05/2024
The Pros and Cons of Cloud, Hybrid, or On-Premises Radio Operations
For years, radio stations have used on-premises servers to broadcast content and manage automation, traffic, and billing systems. As technology continues to adv...
06/05/2024
AI and Big Data Take the Centre Stage in Central Asia at Beetech 2024 Hosted by Beeline Kazakhstan and QazCode
06 May 2024 AI and Big Data Take the Centre Stage in Central Asia at Beetech 20...
06/05/2024
FIRST LOOK AT JIM PARSONS & MAYIM BIALIK REPRISING THEIR ROLES FROM THE BIG BANG THEORY ON THE SERIES FINALE OF YOUNG SHELDON, MAY 16 ON CBS!
FIRST LOOK AT JIM PARSONS & MAYIM BIALIK REPRISING THEIR ROLES FROM THE BIG BAN...
06/05/2024
NBC Sports and Churchill Downs Extend Historic Partnership, Kentucky Derby to Be Presented on NBC and Peacock Through 2032
NBC Sports and Churchill Downs Extend Historic Partnership, Kentucky Derby to Be...
06/05/2024
Beverly Hills Aerials, LIV Golf Make Australian-Broadcast History by Flying Live Drones Over People in Adelaide
Beverly Hills Aerials, LIV Golf Make Australian-Broadcast History by Flying Live...
06/05/2024
Watch the Trailer for 'A Part of You' - Felicia Maxime, Edvin Ryding and Zara Larsson in Leading Roles
Back to All News Watch the Trailer for A Part of You - Felicia Maxime, Edvin Ry...
06/05/2024
FOR-A to focus on Ultra HD at Broadcast Asia
Leadership in 12G-SDI for low impact migration to 4k production...
06/05/2024
STATEMENT CONCERNING EUTELSAT GROUP'S GROUND NETWORK
Press release - 6 May 2024 07:31 STATEMENT CONCERNING EUTELSAT GROUP'S GROUND NETWORK Facebook LinkedIn Twitter Download as PDF Paris, 06 May 2024 ...
06/05/2024
Explore Broadcast Pix's Latest Innovations at InfoComm 2024
Tyngsboro, Mass. - May 6, 2024 - Join us at InfoComm 2024 to experience the latest advancements in live production technology. From June 12-14, 2024, at the Las...
06/05/2024
2024-05-06
To champion global movements to protect and advance equality for LGBTQ+ communities, Apple is introducing a new Apple Watch Pride Edition Braided Solo Loop, ava...
06/05/2024
Actress Matseliso Mohale has joined Muvhango'
Actress Matseliso Mohale has joined Muvhango'Talented actress Matseliso Mohale has joined SABC2's soapie Muvhango' as Vhangani's lover and a c...
06/05/2024
Tonight on Smoke and Mirrors: Leroy refuses to give up fighting to bury Mthetho
Tonight on Smoke and Mirrors: Leroy refuses to give up fighting to bury MthethoDon't miss Monday, 6 May's riveting episode of South African soapie Smoke...
06/05/2024
NVIDIA and Alphabet's Intrinsic Put Next-Gen Robotics Within Grasp
Intrinsic, a software and AI robotics company at Alphabet, has integrated NVIDIA AI and Isaac platform technologies to advance the complex field of autonomous r...
06/05/2024
A Mighty Meeting: Generative AI, Cybersecurity Connect at RSA
Cybersecurity experts at the RSA Conference this week will be on the hunt for ways to secure their operations in the era of generative AI. They'll find man...
06/05/2024
SES to acquire Intelsat: Investor Relations Frequently Asked Questions
1) What is the rationale of the transaction? What is the benefit for SES shareholders? This combination creates a stronger and more competitive multi-orbit ope...
05/05/2024
Singer Becky G To Close Out TelevisaUnivision's Upfront
A special evening performance by multiplatinum singer Becky G will provide a memorable conclusion to TeievisaUnivision's Casa Cultura upfront event on May 1...
05/05/2024
Publicis Won't Use Nielsen's Big Data as Currency in This Upfront
Giant media buyer Publicis is telling network sales executives that it does not think Nielsen's new panel-plus-big-data currency is ready for this upfront....
05/05/2024
Glenn Kirschner, NBC News Legal Analyst, Rips Media Coverage of Trump Trial
WASHINGTON Glenn Kirschner, legal analyst at NBC News, blasted the media for referring to the New York trial of former President Donald Trump as a hush-money ...
05/05/2024
Catchy Comedy Marathons The Beverly Hillbillies' May 4-5
Catchy Comedy's weekend marathon sees The Beverly Hillbillies on the weekend of May 4-5. The event kicks off Saturday, May 4 at 11 a.m. ET, and runs through...
05/05/2024
How NBC Sports Plans to Cover Kentucky Derby
NBC Sports has the 150th Kentucky Derby Saturday, May 4. The coverage begins at 2:30 p.m. ET on NBC and Peacock and the feature race at Churchill Downs in Louis...
05/05/2024
Netflix Announces New Comedy Series 'Roosters', Starring Jeroen Spitzenberger, Waldemar Torenstra, Andr Dongelmans and Benja Bruijning
Back to All News Netflix Announces New Comedy Series Roosters, Starring Jeroen ...
05/05/2024
Showdown Alert: Baki Hanma VS Kengan Ashura' Drops Electrifying Trailer for June 6 Debut
Back to All News Showdown Alert: Baki Hanma VS Kengan Ashura' Drops Electr...
04/05/2024
Nielsen: Asian American Audiences Spend as Much Time on Mobile as TV
NEW YORK As the Asian Pacific American Heritage Month kicks off in May, Nielsen has released an extensive new report diving into their media habits with data sh...
04/05/2024
Comcast Makes $1M Commitment to Military-Serving Nonprofits
PHILADELPHIA As National Military Appreciation Month gets underway, Comcast has announced several new initiatives to help veterans, service members, and their f...
04/05/2024
FCC Unveils Agenda for May Open Meeting
WASHINGTON, D.C. Federal Communications Commission chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel has announced a tentative agenda for the May Open Commission Meeting scheduled...
04/05/2024
Enhancements Made to Key 5G Convergence Standards
The Broadband Forum has announced major enhancements to key 5G convergence standards that the group said will help advance next-generation applications, improve...
04/05/2024
Spotify Wrapped Campaign Spot Graded With DaVinci Resolve Studio
Spotify Wrapped Campaign Spot Graded With DaVinci Resolve Studio Brie Clayton May 3, 2024 0 Comments Blackmagic Design today announced that Colorist M...
04/05/2024
Three Boston Conservatory at Berklee Alums Nominated for Tony Awards
Three Boston Conservatory at Berklee Alums Nominated for Tony Awards An additional eight alums and two current students performed in nominated productions. ...
04/05/2024
New faces and new storylines': What to expect on Izingane ZeS'thembu' S2
New faces and new storylines': What to expect on Izingane ZeS'thembu...
03/05/2024
Sudan: New WhatsApp Course Equips Journalists to Report on Conflict Related Sexual Violence
An innovative learning tool to help media and civil society better understand ho...
03/05/2024
Slow Explores an Unusual Relationship With Sincere Romance
PARK CITY, UTAH - JANUARY 21: (L-R) Actors K stutis Cic nas and Greta Grinevi i t , Director Marija Kavtaradze and Producer Marija Razgute attend the 2023 Sunda...
03/05/2024
Be Honest With Your Art': Danny Ocean Reflects on Sudden Stardom and His Deeply Personal New Album
If you aren't familiar with Danny Ocean's music, it's only a matter ...
03/05/2024
Spotify and ELLE Collaborate in Celebration of Emerging Women in Music
Spotify has an unwavering commitment to supporting emerging artists across all genres, to helping them launch and thrive in their careers, and to connecting the...
03/05/2024
La Msica Mexicana no es solamente un fenmeno en Mxico y Estados Unidos, tambin en toda Amrica Latina
Como uno de los sonidos de mayor expansi n en el mundo, la M sica Mexicana va m ...