Wildlife Migration and Movement
What if a busy freeway separated you and your family from the food and water you need to survive? You’re on foot, no car or truck to take you where you want to go. You’d be strongly motivated to risk your life and cross that freeway to get what you need.
Freedom of movement isn’t a given for the wildlife whose habitat we share. The roads we’ve built and are building make movement a perilous and sometimes fatal journey for them. ODOT carcass collection data shows that almost 6,000 deer, elk, bear, and other large animals are killed in collisions with cars and trucks every year. Collisions with wildlife or accident avoidance also claim the lives of 1-2 motorists annually.
There’s more to the story. The number of animals that die outside the public right-of-way is unknown, but research suggests a number that’s 2-3 times higher than we’re documenting which means we may be losing 12,000-18,000 large animals to wildlife-vehicle collisions annually.
Additionally, ODOT’s data only includes large-bodied animals - the number of smaller species like frogs, turtles, and birds of prey dying as a result of collisions with vehicles is unknown. That said, the shoulders of our streets, roads, and highways tell us what's happening to smaller animals in Oregon.
Of course, wildlife-vehicle collisions aren’t the only challenge faced by wildlife as they move about their habitat or migrate seasonally between elevations but it’s a problem with a proven solution; passage structures like underpasses and overpasses can help wildlife get safely across busy roadways.
Supporting Wildlife Migration and Movement
We want to help wildlife move safely between habitat patches. Projects that support wildlife migration and movement are a priority for us. We’re working with State agencies and community-based partners on wildlife passage projects, improving habitat, and conserving migration corridors for wildlife throughout Oregon.
Join us to help improve habitat connectivity for wildlife in Oregon.
Here are some things you can do:
Wildlife Ambassador
Suzanne Linford, Founder of Protect Animal Migration and Movement, is our Wildlife Ambassador. Suzanne is an excellent resource for information about wildlife and their need to move within their range and seasonally between higher and lower-elevation habitats. If you want to learn more about how to become an advocate for wildlife, contact Suzanne to schedule a talk for your association or group. Click HERE for more information on local advocacy.
Founder of Protect Animal Migration & Movement and Oregon Wildlife Foundation Wildlife Ambassador
1. Buy a Watch for Wildlife license plate
Your purchase and renewal of a Watch for Wildlife license plate makes funding available for projects that help wildlife move safely around busy roads and between habitat patches. It also helps conserve migration corridors and restore habitat in priority wildlife connectivity areas (PWCAs). To get yours, visit your local DMV or order online.
2. Donate to wildlife migration and habitat connectivity now
If you don’t want the Watch for Wildlife license plate for your car or truck but still want to support wildlife movement and migration projects, consider making a tax-deductible donation by texting WFW to 44-321 or using the donation button below.
3. Do you own property that’s within a Priority Wildlife Connectivity Area?
Priority Wildlife Connectivity Areas, or PWCAs, are areas of land important to wildlife movement. They include intact, relatively undisturbed, good-quality habitat as well as the best remaining marginal habitat to help wildlife move through developed or degraded areas.
Focused investments in habitat within PWCAs can increase the likelihood of long-term maintenance of wildlife connectivity in Oregon and can maximize effectiveness over larger landscapes, improve funding efficiency, and promote cooperative efforts across ownership boundaries to better enhance and protect habitat critical to wildlife movement.
Go here to see if your property is near or within a PWCA
If it is, let’s explore how we can work together to enhance, restore, and conserve these critical areas for wildlife movement.
4. Work with us or another wildlife conservation organization to restore and conserve wildlife habitat on your property
Increasing the biodiversity of your own property is one way to help offset the loss of wildlife habitat elsewhere. On larger properties, this might include creating a range of natural habitats that encourage use by a variety of species. There are many ways to improve your property for wildlife and, in some cases, financial assistance or tax incentives to help you in the process. Here are just a few of the resources and programs that are available to land owners and managers.
Under certain circumstances, the Foundation may also be able to help with a cost match when that’s required. See our grant program for more information.
OWF: Land Management and Stewardship page
ODFW: Wildlife Habitat Conservation and Management Program (WHCMP)
ODFW: Riparian Lands Tax Incentive
ODFW: A & H Grants
USDA: Working Lands for Wildlife
USFWS: Partners for Fish & Wildlife
5. Need to repair or replace your fence? Consider a wildlife-friendly design
While important for controlling livestock and preventing trespass, fences can also be a hazard for a multitude of wildlife species. Animals become entangled in or collide with fencing, sometimes with fatal results. The good news is that there are things you can do that preserve the reasons for fences while making them less dangerous to wildlife.
Contact us at info@myowf.org with your name and a mailing address if you need a hard copy of this manual.
Under certain circumstances, the Foundation may be able to help you with a cost match when working with one or another Federal program. See our grant program for more information.
6. Legislative and local advocacy
Do you want to advocate for wildlife conservation but don’t know where to begin? There are many things that you can do and our Wildlife Ambassador, Suzanne Linford can help orient you.
Get in touch with Suzanne to learn more about how to advocate for wildlife or to schedule a presentation for your association or group: suzanne@myowf.org
To find out who your elected officials are visit this link.
Here is some pending legislation that your elected official should be supporting:
Suzanne Linford
When my husband and I moved to Bend in 2007 from the SF Bay Area, I brought a liberal arts education and teaching credential earned from UC Berkeley, a lifelong curiosity in social and natural history; and skills from diverse employment, that would prove very useful. I was experienced in translating technical information into English everyone could understand, developing networks, managing conflict resolution and developing programs that were funded by federal grants. But mostly, I hated to be bored.
I started volunteering as an Interpreter at the High Desert Museum in Bend where learned to speak about the social history, natural history and wildlife of the high desert. The people I spoke to on these subjects taught me what the public knew, what they didn’t know and what interested them.
Most importantly, training in Interpretation taught me to be relational to whatever audience I was speaking to and to adapt accordingly. My education in all these subjects is ongoing.
I earned a Certification as a Master Naturalist from Oregon State University in Corvallis, and in 2016 co-founded a small nonprofit – Protect Animal Migration (PAM). Three wildlife biologists from ODOT, ODFW and the Deschutes National Forest and I started giving talks about wildlife and the need for wildlife crossings. This has expanded to the newest generation of wildlife outreach, Protect Animal Migration and Movement (PAMM) which is education on a landscape level of conservation. I am very fortunate to have the Oregon Wildlife Foundation as a supporter in many ways and the partners who have helped me and PAM/PAMM along the way.
The driving motivation for me is to give people information that they might use to become stewards of wildlife and wildlife habitat and supporters of land use that is essential for conservation of our natural world. It’s never ending and never boring.
See how we’re supporting regional wildlife crossing projects
The Foundation is the fiscal sponsor for Southern Oregon Wildlife Crossing Coalition (SOWCC), a group formed to re-establish east-west habitat connectivity for a multitude of wildlife species within the Cascade Siskiyou National Monument in southern Oregon.
More than 17,000 vehicles traverse this corridor of I-5, between Ashland and the California border, every day, creating an almost permanent barrier to wildlife movement and increased risk for wildlife-vehicle collisions and accidents.
SOWCC commissioned a wildlife crossing mitigation analysis of this corridor and the study identified eight locations where existing infrastructure like culverts and bridges could be retrofitted for wildlife use or new dedicated structures built. From the study, the Coalition and ODOT determined that the highest priority locations for wildlife crossing structures are Barron Creek at the Siskiyou Summit and Mariposa Preserve, just north of the California border.
The Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) is currently working on an engineering design for a wildlife overcrossing at the Mariposa Preserve location. When and as construction funding is awarded, the anticipated project start date is spring 2026 or 2027.
SW Oregon
Central Oregon
In central Oregon, mule deer and elk engage in a semi-annual migration between their winter range in the high desert and their summer range in the foothills of the Cascades. Deer and elk have been making this journey for thousands of years, long before the construction of highways 97 and 20 bisected their migration routes. This semi-annual event and local movement put animals on roads, which sometimes leads to vehicle collisions with consequences for both wildlife and people.
Several dedicated wildlife crossing structures have been built along 97 between Bend and Chemult but more are needed on Highways 97 and 20, and Century Drive to truly address the problem of wildlife-vehicle collisions in central Oregon.
Lava Butte Wildlife Crossing Project
Completed in 2012 on Highway 97, just south of Bend, the Lava Butte Project consists of two wildlife underpasses. Previously, this section of the highway was a hotspot for vehicle strikes. The underpasses have reduced wildlife-vehicle collisions by 90%.
Gilchrist Wildlife Crossing Project
Completed in 2022, further south on 97 near the town of Gilchrist, a wildlife undercrossing is reducing wildlife-vehicle collisions in an area that averages 50 vehicle strikes per year between milepost 177 and Gilchrist. Monitoring of the underpass using cameras is currently underway. ODOT anticipates results similar to those achieved by the Lava Butte project.
Bend to Suttle (B2S) Lake Wildlife Crossing Initiative
The Foundation is the fiscal sponsor of the B2S Wildlife Crossing Coalition, a group formed to address wildlife-vehicle collisions along Highway 20 between Suttle Lake and Bend.
This section of highway has the highest frequency of wildlife-vehicle collisions anywhere in Oregon with 350-600 deer and elk struck and killed by vehicles every year.
The Coalition, with partial funding support from our Watch for Wildlife Fund, is currently conducting a wildlife crossing mitigation analysis of this Highway 20 corridor with conceptual designs for a minimum of three crossing structures expected by Fall 2024.
NE Oregon
OR 82 and I-84
The Foundation is the fiscal sponsor for the NE Oregon (NEO) Wildlife Crossing Coalition, a group formed to address wildlife-vehicle collisions along Highway 82 and Interstate 84 in NE Oregon.
On Highway 82 we’re focusing on the section with the highest density of wildlife-vehicle collisions which is roughly located between the towns of Wallowa and Enterprise.
Interstate 84 is almost a complete barrier to wildlife movement. Our efforts in the area of Meacham pass are aimed at creating passage structures that will improve wildlife health and increase their resilience to climate change impacts, particularly degraded habitat due to drought, and more frequent wildfire events.
Portland Metro Area
Harborton Frog Crossing Project (Hwy 30 near Linnton)
The Foundation is the fiscal sponsor of the Harborton Frog Crossing Coalition and a proposed project located near Harborton Drive on Highway 30 in the Linnton community.
This is where volunteers with the Frog Shuttle are working to conserve a subpopulation of Northern red-legged frogs. See https://myowf.org/fiscal-sponsorship and scroll to “Linnton Frogs” to learn more.
The group maintains a volunteer base of approximately 100 total volunteers that operate different nights of the week in teams of 15.
The Frog Shuttle isn’t a sustainable solution to conservation of this sub-population of red-legged frogs so the Coalition has commissioned a wildlife crossing mitigation study to address the unique needs of this species.
With a final report from the contractor team anticipated this spring, the Foundation and partners will begin fundraising for design and engineering of an appropriate crossing structure.
Palensky Wildlife Crossing Project (Hwy 30, 2 miles north of Linnton)
The Columbia Estuary Study Taskforce (CREST) is the lead and manager for this project to construct a dedicated passage structure for red-legged frogs on Highway 30 near the Palensky Wildlife Area.
With funding support from Bonneville Power Administration, ODFW, Oregon Watershed Enhancement Board, and our Watch for Wildlife Fund, this project is slated for construction this spring 2024.
Oregon Coast
Humboldt Marten
Humboldt or coastal marten are a sub-species of American marten and make their home along the coast of Oregon and northern California. With an estimated total Oregon population of only 71 individuals, every loss is significant. Currently, one of the largest contributors to mortality among Humboldt marten are vehicle strikes.
Humboldt Marten Wildlife Crossing Project (Hwy 101 between the Siuslaw River and Coos Bay)
The goal of this project is to reduce vehicle-related mortality of Humboldt marten and other wildlife by retrofitting existing highway infrastructure like culverts and bridges or building new structures in areas where marten are known to be present.
This project is being managed by the US Fish and Wildlife Service with a coalition of federal and state agencies, and community-based organizations providing technical and other assistance to the effort.
With funding support from our Watch for Wildlife Fund and other sources, a consulting team has been commissioned to conduct a wildlife crossing mitigation analysis to determine the best locations and design alternatives for crossings within the target highway corridor.
