Federal Funds Go to Wildlife Road Crossings

A $110 million grants fund will go to states and American Indian tribes to create nearly 20 road crossings for wildlife, the U.S. Department of Transportation announced this week.

The projects are intended to prevent wildlife collisions with vehicles that result in 200 human traffic deaths and 26,000 injuries each year, the department said in a statement announcing the grants. It said such accidents also come with a more than $10 billion cost to the public.

Funding comes from the Biden administration’s bipartisan infrastructure law.

“Every year, too many Americans are injured or killed in crashes involving cars and wildlife, especially in rural areas,” said Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg in the statement.

The state with the highest number of such collisions is Michigan, according to Federal Highway Administration data, with more than 54,000 a year, while Texas had the most resulting in human fatalities at more than 30 a year.

Grants were awarded to projects including an Arizona plan to install wildlife fencing along Interstate 17 that's intended to have the secondary effect of increasing connection of local animal species, particularly elk.

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