Search by State:

Search by Date:

Keeping It Simple:
Easy Ways to Help Wildlife Along Roads

Home

Categories

Add a Project!

Acknowledgements

About this Site

Featured Project

Turning a Construction Site into Wetland Habitat

An isolated wetland in Anchorage, Alaska might have dried up without the resourcefulness of the Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities (ADOTPF). When an old off-ramp on Seward Highway was demolished a few years ago to make room for a new ramp, highway crews could easily have filled the low-value, "developable" half-acre site. Instead, they preserved it, enlarging the area's existing forested and emergent wetlands. For very little additional construction or design cost, ADOTPF wetland specialists enhanced the site by transplanting cattails, rushes, and other wetland plants salvaged from another construction site. Highway runoff was directed to the newly-created wetland, and despite a severe drought in 2004, the wetland has remained in standing water, filtering highway runoff and offering nesting habitat for wild ducks and Canada geese.

Doing the right thing - simply

"Keeping it simple" is more than a concept. It's a commitment.

It means using simple solutions when simple solutions will work.

It involves going beyond "compliance" to identify easy ways of helping wildlife and fish.

It means doing the right thing just because it's the right thing to do and because one has an opportunity to do it.

"We can install ledges in culverts or wood-top rails on deer fences while at the same time pursuing programmatic, region-wide solutions to transportation and wildlife challenges," says FHWA Administrator Rick Capka.

This website highlights more than 100 simple, successful projects from all 50 states and beyond. Each is "easy." Most are low- or no-cost. All benefit wildlife, fish, or their habitats.

Many projects were completed only once - to protect specific species in specific environmental conditions. Others have been repeated numerous times and have become "routine."

Some projects are undertaken regularly because research has proven them effective. Others are new innovations, "best practices," or state-of-the-art strategies.

Some projects - for example, modifying mowing cycles and installing oversized culverts in streams - are common to a large number of states. Others represent a simple solution to a site-specific environmental challenge.

We invite you to explore them all. We encourage you to find out for yourselves, through this website, how transportation professionals are working with others to do the right thing for wildlife and--wherever possible--to do it "simply."