Your Daily Dose of Climate Hope: January 29, 2025
Federal funding for wildlife crossings!
The Biden-Harris Administration granted $125 million to deploy wildlife crossings in sixteen states.
Tell Congress to sustain and expand federal funding for wildlife crossings!
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Reasons For Hope
The Biden-Harris Administration’s Department of Transportation has announced $125 million for sixteen Bipartisan Infrastructure Law-funded pilot projects to deploy wildlife crossings across America! The projects funded include design and planning for potential future wildlife crossings in eight states, plus current build-out of specific wildlife crossings in eight others: Idaho, Massachusetts, Nevada, North Carolina, Oregon, Maine, Missouri, and Florida. Human-wildlife coexistence ascendant!
“Too many Americans are injured or killed each year in crashes involving cars and wildlife…
With funding made possible by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, the projects moving forward in 16 states will reduce collisions between drivers and wildlife, create places for wildlife to safely move over and under highways, and help preserve American life and property.”
— U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg
In addition to benefiting driver safety and habitat connectivity (increasingly vital as animals are on the move in an age of climate disruption), wildlife crossings can actually save money. A study in Washington State calculated that 13 wildlife crossings in the area had a favorable cost-benefit analysis due to preventing medical, car repair, and cleanup costs, with each wildlife crossing saving an estimated $235,000 to $443,000 per year thanks to avoided collisions!
“These roadway safety investments will ensure that motorists and wildlife get to their destinations safely while advancing a safe, efficient transportation system that benefits all road users as well as the environment.”
— Acting Federal Highway Deputy Administrator Gloria M. Shepherd.
As with other BIL and IRA-funded clean infrastructure projects, sustaining these programs is up to the incoming Congress. Furthermore, there’s actually a bill before Congress right now, the bipartisan Wildlife Movement Through Partnerships Act, that would enable federal funds and technical assistance for habitat connectivity efforts including wildlife corridors! A true win-win.
Tell Congress to sustain and expand federal funding for wildlife crossings!
