Let’s Protect Wildlife With Safe Crossings

Editor:

(Re: “Wildlife crossings make economic and ethical sense,” Nov. 12, Aspen Daily News)

In his guest commentary in support of wildlife crossings, specifically the local nonprofit Roaring Fork Safe Passages, Tom Cardamone noted “nature still has half here, and we residents bear some ethical responsibility to keep it that way.”

I passionately agree, this time, from the heart. Wildlife crossings began in France in the 1950s. They then took off in the Netherlands, which built more than 600 crossings. The Dutch built the world’s longest animal crossing, more than half a mile long. In the United States, the idea has taken longer to catch on. Wildlife crossings began here less than 20 years ago. But we have a chance to catch up.

It is always sickening to me to see a deer or elk felled by a truck or car and left dead or dying by the side of the road. Animals don’t deserve this fate. As Jane Goodall said, “Animals feel pleasure and sadness, excitement and resentment, depression, fear, and pain, and are far more aware and intelligent than we ever imagined … they are individuals in their own right.”

The roads and highways that we build destroy the lives of animals. They cause habitat fragmentation and keep animals from accessing natural resources located on the other side of the road; they lower the amount and quality of natural habitat; they fragment wildlife populations, damaging social interactions and yes, they cause the death of thousands of animals each year in this valley.

I think it is well past time that we do what we can to help wildlife lead their lives without this particular threat from us. Let’s protect their populations, conserve their habitats and yes, reduce their deaths. Then perhaps we can all be spared the sadness of seeing so many of them by the side of the road.

Note: I’m a former assistant attorney general and have served on the boards of the African Wildlife Foundation and WildlifeDirect.

Jacqueline Russell

Snowmass

Originally posted in the Aspen Daily News.