Overview of Transportation Ecology
Tools here are specifically selected to be useful for natural resource agency biologists and engineers working on public lands. Dive deep into these sections, because there are many examples.
- Large Scale Transportation Planning
- Highway Development Projects
- Integrated Large Scale and Project-Level Planning
- Tools and Examples for FLMAs
- Retrofitting Existing Structures for Wildlife Passage
- Monitoring Tools
- Funding Opportunities
Decision Support Tools for Large Scale/Long Term Transportation Planning
Transportation departments typically distinguish planning for highways at two levels. The long term, strategic level is called ‘transportation planning’. It can be as much as 20 years in the future.
Tools for public land managers in this section include ‘getting out ahead’ strategies so that all agencies have a place at the planning table early enough for every agency’s missions to be heard and considered. More »
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Decision Support Tools for Highway Development Projects
Highway development projects are fast-paced and complex. Many natural resource managers are overwhelmed by the time constraints and information requested by DOTs or FLHP. This section is designed to provide some of the tools to help biologists and other natural resource specialists respond in a timely and effective manner to highway development projects. More »
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Integrated Large Scale and Project-Level Planning
"Every Day Counts"
Tools and Examples for FLMAs
Here you will find examples of products that others have developed for highway development projects or larger scale planning. More »
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Retrofitting Existing Structures for Wildlife Passage: Assessment Tools
Retrofitting existing structures to enable animals to use them for passage across highways is possibly the most cost-efficient method of increasing the number and type of passage opportunities across the country. Literally millions of culverts and hundreds of thousands. More »
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Monitoring Tools
Monitoring wildlife crossing structures for effectiveness requires a rigorous study plan to obtain valid results. Monitoring that is done for too short a period or in such a way that statistical inferences are impossible is a waste of money.
The first step in developing a monitoring plan is to identify the objectives of the investigation. Often objectives will vary by agency. For example, DOTs tend to want to justify the cost of crossing structures by ensuring that they are used by wildlife, whereas resource agencies may be interested in restoring the movement opportunities for wildlife.
We strongly encourage DOTs and resource agencies to enlist the assistance of qualified scientists to help identify objectives and to develop a rigorous study plan prior to construction.
Pre-construction monitoring is typically needed to obtain statistically defensible results.
How to Evaluate the Effectiveness of Wildlife Crossing Structures
US93 Monitoring Program
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Funding Opportunities
Funding mitigation measures, whether they are large wildlife crossing structures or simple retrofits, is a concern to land managers as well as transportation planners. It is important to realize that mitigation measures on highways are very expensive in absolute terms, but are often proportional to the costs of other structures on highway projects.
Funding can come from many sources.
IAWHI Funding Presentation
This presentation is from the course Innovative Approaches to Wildlife and Highway Interactions. It lists many of the sources of funding. However, because this is a very complex topic, please give us a call to discuss specific situations.
Funding Opportunities For Highway Construction—Impacts To Ecological Resources (ppt, 3.29 MB)
Transportation Guide
This document is designed for FLMA and helps explain the different pots of money available to accomplish certain natural resource objectives.
Federal Surface Transportation Programs and Transportation Planning For Federal Land Management Agencies—A Guidebook (pdf, 1.79 MB)
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Page Last Modified: October 27, 2011
