admin @ Tue, 2005-10-18 11:00
KENAI -- The Kenai Peninsula has a high occurrence of moose-vehicle collisions every year. A cooperative venture by several state and federal agencies aims to make at least one stretch of the Sterling Highway less dangerous in the coming years.
"We want to do anything we can to make the roads safer for both humans and wildlife," said Rick Ernst, a wildlife biologist at the Kenai National Wildlife Refuge.
Ernst is a member of the interagency work group made up of representatives from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Alaska Department of Fish and Game, Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities, and the Federal Highway Administration. The group will launch a wildlife mitigation and human safety project for the Sterling Highway today from Mile 58 to Mile 79 (a few miles west of the Russian River Ferry to just east of Kenai Keys Road).
"This section has one of the highest moose-vehicle collision rates in the state for a rural area," Ernst said. State records indicate that 214 such collisions were recorded in this area between 1980 and 2001.
These numbers are only for reported moose-vehicle collisions. Past studies of collared moose on the Peninsula have indicated that moose are killed by vehicles at twice the rate they are reported. Fish and Game estimates that approximately 15 percent of accidents go unreported.
"There have also been records of black bears, brown bears, wolves, caribou, coyotes and other wildlife hit in this same section of road," Ernst said.
Planned future construction projects on this section of highway -- particularly when the roadway is upgraded and more passing lanes are created -- may increase traffic and vehicle speeds, which has the potential to further increase the number of moose-vehicle collisions.
"This will be done by collecting two winters of moose movement data by capturing 35 adult female moose, tagging them and fitting them with (global positioning system) collars," Ernst said.
A collar records a moose's location every 30 minutes from October to April and every two hours after April, then drop off by remote release in early June. At that point the collars are retrieved and their stored data is downloaded.
The drugs used to tranquilize the moose are harmful to humans, so meat from these animals should not be consumed by hunters or recipients of the roadkill waiting list for 90 days.
The second objective of the project is to improve data collected from moose-vehicle collisions. Ernst said efforts need to be made to record specific information on wildlife species, location, age, sex, condition, number of animals and any associations -- such as a cow is hit but not the calf, or vice versa.
"To do this, we're trying to put out new, more visible milepost markers," he said. "We may have markers at half-mile sections as well to improve accuracy for recording collisions."
Ernst added that this will involve the driving public. Ernst said he is hoping these markers will make it easy for people to report near misses with wildlife and crossings that don't result in a collision.
"There's a lot of technology out now," Ernst said. "We'll review the literature for the latest wildlife crossing structures, techniques and other options for mitigating wildlife impacts."
Underpasses, overpasses and signs with infrared lasers that detect animals and trip a flashing light on an animal crossing sign to warn motorist are a few of the possibilities.
"We want to collect two years of follow-up telemetry after the highway construction is complete to compare to the pre-construction data to evaluate the effectiveness of any constructed wildlife crossing structures and mitigation techniques," Ernst said.
Information collected during the project may then be shared with other parts of the state where moose-vehicle collisions are prevalent or where construction projects are planned through rural areas to increase public safety and decrease animal mortalities.
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