Lawmakers introduced a bill into the Colorado Legislature this week to provide special funding to create more safe ways for wildlife to cross the state’s busy highways.
Under the bill, partly sponsored by Rep. Perry Will, R-New Castle, and Rep. Julie McCluskie, a Dillion Democrat whose district includes part of Delta County, $25 million would be allocated to start a “Colorado Wildlife Safe Passages Mitigation Fund,” money that would be used for projects to create safer crossings intended to reduce wildlife-vehicle collisions.
Sen. Jessie Danielson, D-Lakewood, another bill sponsor, said such collisions have caused about $100 million in damages to Colorado vehicles, including resulting in the death of motorists and wildlife.
The Colorado Department of Transportation already spends money on such projects, but more is needed, Danielson said.
“The overpasses and underpasses for wildlife pay for themselves over time, and it actually costs society less to address the problem of wildlife-vehicle collisions than it costs to do nothing,” she said. “This bill will make Colorado a leader in the West in being good stewards of our iconic wildlife and will also safeguard motorists.”
CDOT says that such accidents can happen yearround. In each year over the past decade, there are anywhere from 2,000 to 4,000 such accidents, some of which result in death not only for the wildlife, but motorists, too.
The Rocky Mountain Insurance Information Association estimates that insurers pay nearly $1.1 billion a year in claims, and the Colorado Wildlife & Transportation Alliance estimates wildlife-vehicle collisions cost about $66 million a year in medical expenses to motorists.
According to a recent study conducted by ECO-resolutions, a Golden-based consulting company that specializes in designing wildlife crossings, the state’s first two wildlife overpasses, five wildlife underpasses and about 10 miles of of wildlife exclusion fencing built along Colorado Highway 9 between Kremmling and Green Mountain Reservoir just south of that Grand County town between 2015-2016 resulted in a 92% reduction in accidents with wildlife, and a 90% reduction in animal deaths.
Colorado Parks and Wildlife also estimates that more mule deer are killed each year in wildlife-vehicle accidents than are harvested during hunting season, which cuts into the state’s $62.5 billion recreation economy and detracts from the outfitter and hunting industries.
The measure, Senate Bill 151, calls for the fund to help advance 25 specific projects that CDOT already hopes to complete in the next 10 years, several of which are on the Western Slope.
The bill is to be first heard in the Senate Transportation & Energy Committee on March 22.
