Transportation Research Board Wildlife and Highways Workshop

Transportation Research Board - Wildlife and Highways Workshop

Sunday January 22, 2006

Title: Wildlife and Highways: Considerations and Solutions

Purpose:

The workshop was to provide transportation officials, highway engineers, transportation planners, safety engineers and environmental planners a better understanding of how wildlife and fisheries issues can be integrated into planning, engineering, design and maintenance of highways.

The workshop was divided into sessions addressing planning, engineering and design practices. Each session was designed to show how transportation officials are working to promote and improve the integration of highways, wildlife and fisheries.

Sponsoring Committees

ADA10 Statewide Multimodal Transportation Planning
ADA30 Transportation Planning for Small and Medium-Sized Communities
ADA40T Task Force on the Transportation Needs for National Parks and Public Lands
ADC10 Environmental Analysis in Transportation
ADC30T Task Force on Ecology and Transportation
AFB30 Low-Volume Roads
AFB40 Landscape and Environmental Design
AHB15 Intelligent Transportation Systems
AHD30 Structures Maintenance
AL050 Environmental Issues in Transportation Law
ANB10 Transportation and Safety Management

Workshop Organizers: Sean Furniss, National Coordinator, Refuge Roads Program, Fish and Wildlife Service
Task Force on the Transportation Needs for National Parks and Public Lands
Low-Volume Roads Committee; Sandra Jacobson, Wildlife Biologist, U.S. Forest Service
Task Force on Ecology and Transportation

Chair: Thomas Linkous, Chief, Division of Natural Areas and Preserves, Ohio Department of Natural Resources
Chair, Task Force on Ecology and Transportation

Moderators: Joseph Burns, Fish and Wildlife Biologist, National Transportation Liaison, Fish and Wildlife Service
Task Force on Ecology and Transportation; Sandra Jacobson, Wildlife Biologist, U.S. Forest Service
Task Force on Ecology and Transportation; Gordon Keller, Staff Geotechnical Engineer, U.S. Forest Service
Geosynthetics Committee
Low-Volume Roads Committee; Patricia White, Director, Habitat & Highways Campaign, Defenders of Wildlife Task Force on Ecology and Transportation

Speakers: Alison Berry, PhD., Professor, Plant Sciences Department and Director, Road Ecology Center, University of California; John Bissonette, PhD., Leader, USGS Utah Cooperative Fish & Wildlife Research Unit, College of Natural Resources, Utah State University; Terry Brennan, P.E., Forest Engineer, USDA Forest Service, Tonto National Forest; Tony Clevenger, PhD., Research Scientist, Western Transportation Institute, Montana State University; Patricia Cramer, PhD., Research Associate, USGS Utah Cooperative Fish & Wildlife Research Unit, College of Natural Resources, Utah State University; Amanda Hardy, Research Scientist-Ecologist, Western Transportation Institute, Montana State University; Julia Kintsch, Program Manager, Southern Rockies Ecosystem Project; Keith Knapp, PhD., Assistant Professor, College of Engineering, University of Wisconsin-Madison; John Narowski, Environmental Services Engineer, Vermont Agency of Transportation, Program Development; Tom Pettigrew, Director of Engineering, USDA Forest Service; Daniel Smith, PhD., Research Associate, Department of Biology, University of Central Florida; Paul Wagner, Biologist, Washington State Department of Transportation, Environmental Affairs Office; Patricia White, Director, Habitat & Highways Campaign, Defenders of Wildlife

Welcome and Introductions

Thomas Linkous, Workshop Chair

Planning – Integrating wildlife and fisheries issues with transportation planning

Patricia White. Moderator: Keith Knapp, Issues with Wildlife and Highways (PowerPoint file 4.9 MB); Julia Kintsch, Colorado’s Statewide Linkage Area Assessment Planning (PowerPoint file 32.2 MB); Daniel Smith, Florida’s Efficient Transportation Decision Making (PowerPoint file 2.9 MB)

Engineering and Design – successes, what we know is working

Gordon Keller, Moderator: Amanda Hardy, What works? An Overview of Successes (PowerPoint file 28.1 MB); Patricia Cramer, Wildlife Crossings in North America: The State of the Science and Practice (PowerPoint file 4 MB); John Narowski, Bridge Replacements and Other Opportunities (PowerPoint file 96.3 MB)

Engineering and Design – lessons learned

Sandra Jacobson, Moderator: Terry Brennan, Adaptive Management on Highway Construction (PowerPoint file 4 MB); Paul Wagner, Washington DOT’s Wildlife-Friendly Maintenance Program (PowerPoint file 4 MB); Tony Clevenger, Lessons from Long-term Monitoring (PowerPoint file 4 MB)

The Future – where we are going, what we need to know

Joseph Burns, Moderator: Tom Pettigrew, Eco-logical: An Ecosystems Approach to Infrastructure Planning (PowerPoint file 4 MB); Patricia White, Tools for the Future: SAFTEA-LU and Help for Practitioners (PowerPoint file 4 MB); Patricia Cramer and Alison Berry, Research Gaps and The Road Ecology Center ( Cramer - PowerPoint file 4 MB)

Review and Summation

Thomas Linkous, Workshop Chair: Patricia White, Moderator; Gordon Keller, Moderator; Sandra Jacobson, Moderator; Joseph Burns, Moderator