A new interactive tool has been launched to help Montanans reduce wildlife-vehicle collisions.
The tool is an interactive digital map that aims to help local communities identify stretches of highways that could be sites for targeted wildlife accommodations. It incorporates a broad data set including vehicle collisions, migration patterns, and carcass locations.
Justin Gude was the lead for Fish Wildlife & Parks on the team building the tool.
“The purpose of the tool was to take a big picture look. And just to identify – at that big picture – what are the areas that are important overall,” Gude said.
The planning tool was created by the Montana Wildlife and Transportation Partnership, a collaboration between Montana Fish Wildlife & Parks, the Montana Department of Transportation, and the citizen group Montanans for Safe Wildlife Passage.
The Montana Department of Transportation says that more than 10% of crashes each year involve wildlife collisions. According to a 2022 report by State Farm, Montana ranked second in the nation for the likelihood of these incidents.
