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Happy Easter/Ostara

Hi Road Ecology Center friends. What a wonderful Spring its turning out to be. This is a quick message to wish you a belated Ostara and an early Easter. 

Southern California Mountain Lions Face Major Risks from Highways, New Funding will help

In this recent news special from San Diego, the traffic impact facing mountain lions (Puma concolor) in both urbanized and rural areas is highlighted. With incredible footage from REC colleague Dr. Winston Vickers (UC Davis Vet-Med), the various threats and possible solutions are described, especially important with the advent of new funding from the Wildlife Conservation Board.

Army Corps of Engineers 2023 Calendar

Just in case you were not able to buy a 2023 wall calendar in 2022, USACE has your back. The careful crew at the Corps started with a feasibility study in 2014, worked through many closed door meetings and just as 2022 was closing out released this perfectly engineered opus to .... cats! Using the finest HEC-RATS models and advanced computer mice, they made the best dam calendar for 2023 that we have seen. Its cheep too (free), click below to access.

Wildlife Behavior Responds to Traffic Noise

Anthropogenic noise is a widespread and persistent disturbance of wildlife in areas adjacent to urban areas and near roads. If traffic noise inhibits wildlife from approaching wildlife crossings, they may be less useful to all wildlife, and unusable to certain more sensitive species. We investigated traffic noise impacts on wildlife behavior near crossing structures and found species and temporal variations. If widespread, these could reduce the effectiveness of wildlife crossing structures.

Sometimes wildlife read the sign

Here is a squirrel checking out the sign to make sure its going the right way. The bridge was built for <$100 across a busy residential road, between two trees. DIY wildlife crossings can work!

Newts in Peril

Newts in California are getting hammered by cars and climate change (basically us). Here are some folks who are doing something about it.

An endangered California wolf became roadkill, highlighting a major risk for wildlife

A wolf naturally dispersing through central and southern California was killed by a vehicle in Kern County. This is the furthest south a wolf has been seen in 300 years and marks both an incredible self-restoration story for the species and a cruel reminder that we still don't know how to protect wildlife from traffic in CA. Read more here: https://www.sacbee.com/news/california/article256121197.html#storylink=… 

CA Roadkill Hotspots Report 2021

Wildlife-vehicle collisions (WVC) can result in death of the animal and vehicle damage and injury to the driver and passengers. This report updates previous analyses of economic and ecological impacts of "roadkill", another term for WVC (https://roadecology.ucdavis.edu/resources/california-wildlife-vehicle-collision-hotspots-2021). According to our analyses, California has incurred 1 to 2 billion dollars in costs related to WVC over the last 5 years.

Ireland Develop Measures to Reduce Barn Owl Mortality on Roads

Bird scientists and transportation specialists in Ireland have developed a series of measures to reduce impacts to barn owls. As in California and elsewhere, barn owls in Ireland forage along roadsides, putting them at risk of collisions and drivers at risk from swerving to avoid a collision. These new measures were designed to reduce collisions with barn owls.