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. 

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.

Our high school interns continue to forge new terrain for Transportation Ecology and in the process are winning prestigious prizes, competitions and placements. Here are some wins from the last 3 months:

Vedant Srinivas (Seattle-area High School Junior)

These maps are courtesy Road Ecology Center (REC). Data are from REC, CDFW, and Winston Vickers (UCD). Click to see the full report: https://roadecology.ucdavis.edu/sites/g/files/dgvnsk8611/files/files/ML_Special_212023.pdf

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.

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.

Pacific Newts die by the thousands every year on one road in California, Alma Bridge Rd. More and more news is accumulating on this stunning rate or roadkill, this latest is from a UCSC news site.

https://ucscsciencenotes.com/feature/the-peril-of-alma-bridge-road/ 

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!

A graduate student in economics at Washington State University, Pullman measured the benefits of 13 wildlife crossings in Washington state. He found that they benefited the public in terms of reduced collisions with wildlife, saving money and lives. https://www.usnews.com/news/health-news/articles/2022-08-31/wildlife-crossings-over-highways-save-human-lives-too. 

Inside Edition (an online news magazine) dedicated a videocast to Vedant Srinivas, an intern at the Road Ecology Center and his invention of Eqwis. This AI-supported device is deployed near Reno, NV, in collaboration with NDOT and UNR. It has been a unique pleasure for us at the Center to work with someone as gifted and enthusiastic as Vedant.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1rNw0fH9liY

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

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=… 

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.

The planet is warming rapidly, resulting in historic drought, deadly floods and unusual melting events in the Arctic.

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.