In the face of changing climatic conditions, investments in wildlife crossings have an unrealized potential to enhance the resilience and adaptive capacity of our ecosystems and transportation infrastructure. Properly sited and designed wildlife crossings combined with fencing and other mitigation components have a proven effectiveness in reducing wildlife-vehicle collisions and improving connectivity for wildlife. But the potential benefits of wildlife crossing to aid in long-term wildlife and ecosystem adaptation and resilience are rarely incorporated into transportation planning and priorities. Climate-informed wildlife and transportation planning accounts for anticipated increases in climatic variability, extreme weather events, and climate-exacerbated disasters. Such planning is proactive rather than reactive and is essential for building durable, resilient transportation infrastructure, for enhancing wildlife’s adaptive capacity and ecological connectivity more broadly, and for realizing long-term cost savings.
We convened specialists in road ecology and climate change adaptation representing a breadth of scientific, applied, and policy-related expertise to generate a proactive, strategic, and evidence-based call to action and targeted guidance for federal, tribal, and state decision-makers and funders. The Wildlife Crossings and Climate Consensus Group convened in Fall 2022 to produce: 1) a joint statement establishing the tangible value that climate-informed wildlife crossings can afford and the need to operationalize them at scale given climate impacts on wildlife habitat and movements, and 2) targeted guidance to ensure that future wildlife crossing investments are strategically sited and prioritized to provide climate adaptation and resilience benefits over the long term.
The resulting vision and calls to action promote a strategic and collaborative approach to advance the widespread deployment of climate-informed wildlife crossings. The joint statement and recommendations offer targeted and impactful guidance in the areas of 1) planning for long-term resilience at the landscape scale, 2) supporting multi- and cross-jurisdictional coordination and promoting equitable, inclusive participation, 3) building capacity, 4) stimulating innovation, and 5) promoting monitoring and adaptive management. Success in these efforts will require substantial leadership, collaboration, and coordination across multiple sectors and levels of governance. This presentation will share the findings and recommendations of the Wildlife Crossings and Climate Consensus Group and the subsequent steps taken to distribute and promote this guidance to decision-makers and funders.