Pitkin County expenditure to aid wildlife a no-brainer

Editor:

Anyone who’s lived in Western Colorado for a few years has likely had a close call hitting wildlife on the highway. Some of us have had the misfortune of striking animals with our vehicles, maiming or killing them. It’s never the animal’s fault and it’s rarely the driver’s. We’ve built our roads smack through prime wildlife habitat, and elk on their winter migration or deer looking for better forage aren’t going to magically start looking both ways before crossing Highway 82.

We’ll never eliminate the problem entirely, but with some money and community support, we can make things a lot better. The nonprofit organization called Roaring Fork Safe Passages has a charter to design and build safe crossings for wildlife in the Roaring Fork Valley. Considering the millions of dollars of costs related to wildlife collisions and given the success of engineered crossings in other counties, you don’t need to be an actuary to know that building wildlife passages along Highway 82 makes good sense.

Some Pitkin County commissioners support these efforts, but a few others seem to be dragging their feet and quibbling over a couple hundred thousand dollars to support an engineering feasibility study. In a county with a multibillion-dollar economy whose attractions largely depend on wildlife and open space, investing a relatively small sum to back this initiative seems like a no-brainer. To put this in perspective, the Pitkin County budget for 2026 is north of $300 million.

Given how much wildlife enriches our lives here — in every sense of the word — I would hope the commissioners would see the wisdom and ethics behind supporting this highly organized effort to build effective crossings. To be blunt, let’s not be penny-wise and pound-foolish. Let’s support the feasibility study. We might save a few lives, both the ones with antlers and the ones paying Pitkin County taxes.

Mark Harvey