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Road Ecology in North-Eastern Sierras: Research and Collaboration to Enhance Restoration of Wildlife Connectivity and Public Safety on Hwy 395

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  • Road Ecology in North-Eastern Sierras: Research and Collaboration to Enhance Restoration of Wildlife Connectivity and Public Safety on Hwy 395
Mari Galloway, Wildlands Network
Tanya Diamond, Pathways for Wildlife
Ken Russo, Caltrans
Wildlife movement: connectivity, safety, across eco-tones
Technical Session 17: Two Mountains and a Desert

California is faced with many conservation impediments including fragmented landscapes. Wildlands Network has begun an on the ground project to help improve wildlife connectivity in a small area of northeast California centered around Hwy 395. The Highway 395 section extending from Reno to Susanville has a high occurrence of wildlife-vehicle collisions and impedes East-to-West movement for important native species. Black bears, wolves, wolverines, mule deer, and other ungulate species could potentially benefit from mitigation measures in this region. Mitigation measures, such as underpasses, overpasses, culverts, and/or directional fencing, could both reduce the occurrence of wildlife-vehicle collisions and facilitate wildlife movement. For those reasons, California Department of Transportation (Caltrans), California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW), and Wildlands Network identified this area as a priority for implementing fencing, a crossing, and/or ecological restoration.

Wildlands Network, in coordination with CDFW and Caltrans, is creating a collaborative, comprised of supporting non-governmental organizations, tribes, and government agencies. This collaborative will build off previous connectivity work, assist in a camera study of the area to identify areas of highest connectivity concern, identify appropriate mitigation measures, and secure public and private grant funding to implement identified wildlife passage features that are most effective at enhancing connectivity in this area.

Join Wildlands Network in learning more about this important, on-the-ground project in the North-Eastern Sierra region.

connectivity
road ecology
Deer Migrations

Header image courtesy of Martin Gradjean -- Air Traffic Network

ICOET 2025 — International Conference On Ecology and Transportation