Group Works to Reduce Collisions With Wildlife

As fall slides toward winter and deer and elk wander down from the high country, a new organization is racing to complete studies that it hopes will eventually lead to action to reduce vehicle collisions with wildlife and preserve important habitat connections in the Roaring Fork and Crystal valleys.

Roaring Fork Safe Passages aims to complete a prioritization study this fall that will identify three segments on Highway 82 between Aspen and Glenwood Springs and on Highway 133 in the Crystal Valley that warrant the most attention.

Once that prioritization study is completed, the nonprofit organization will determine the best mitigation strategies, potentially ranging from construction of land bridges to improving existing underpasses to installing more wildlife fencing.

“There’s some low-hanging fruit,” said Cecily DeAngelo, founder and executive director of Roaring Fork Safe Passages. “Sometimes it’s fixing a fence.”

DeAngelo and consultant Julia Kintsch provided a progress report to Pitkin County commissioners on Tuesday. Kintsch, who founded Summit County Safe Passages and helps other mountain areas plan to reduce collisions and benefit wildlife, said a study of Western Slope vehicle collisions with mule deer showed that 2% of does are being killed on roadways. That’s as many as are killed by hunting, she said.

“We call vehicles the non-discriminatory predator,” Kintsch said. “It’s not just the weak and old getting killed.”

Residents of Summit County and Grand County rallied to provide local funding to help the Colorado Department of Transportation to undertake multiple wildlife safety improvements on Highway 9 in the mid-2010s.

The project included seven wildlife crossings — two overpasses and five underpasses of the highway — along with 10 miles of fencing and 61 escape ramps for wildlife that finds itself along the road corridor. Road mortality in the project area from just north of Green Mountain Reservoir to just south of Kremmling plummeted in winters between 2016 to 2020 compared to winters from 2011 to 2015, according to a slide presentation to commissioners. There were a total of 112,678 successful passages by mule deer alone.

The enhanced safety came at a steep price. The project, which included other safety measures for motorists, exceeded $50 million.

Commissioner Patti Clapper said she supports Roaring Fork Safe Passage’s goals, but isn’t sure a land bridge would fly.

“I think there are some things that can be done that are on the simpler side,” Clapper said. “I don’t see putting in overpasses because we can’t even put in pedestrian overpasses to protect human life across that corridor.”

That was an apparent reference to a decision made by upper valley elected officials in June to stop consideration of a pedestrian overpass of Highway 82 at Buttermilk.

Commissioner Greg Poschman urged DeAngelo to get the studies completed to show what projects should be pursued in the Roaring Fork region. “Thank you and keep at it,” he said.

DeAngelo said the mitigation study will cost between $150,000 and $200,000. Roaring Fork Safe Passages currently has $93,000. Donations are being sought from both local governments and individuals. Donations can be made at roaringforksafepassages.org/.

DeAngelo said after the commissioners’ meeting that she is confident the funds can be raised for the studies but also the features necessary to reduce collisions and preserve connectivity of habitat for wildlife in the Roaring Fork watershed.

“We’re going to have to coalesce local support,” she said. “I wouldn’t be doing this if I didn’t believe in it.”