NDOT-led study receives award for efforts to reduce animal-vehicle collisions

CARSON CITY – A pool-funded study led by the Nevada Department of Transportation recently received a Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) Environmental Excellence Award.

The Wildlife Vehicle Collision Reduction and Habitat Connectivity transportation study, formed with the goal of reducing the risk of wildlife-vehicle collisions and improving habitat connectivity, has received an FHWA 2024 Environmental Excellence Award. The award recognizes outstanding federally-funded transportation projects and programs that go above and beyond to achieve nation-leading environmental excellence.

Completed in 2022, the NDOT-led study presents an authoritative review of the most effective measures to reduce conflict between wildlife and roads, improve motorist safety, and offer safer crossings for wildlife. The study produced 20 reports, including manuals for how to:

• protect motorists from wildlife-vehicle collisions,
• restore wildlife connectivity across transportation corridors,
• prioritize locations and actions to minimize wildlife-vehicle conflict, and
• institutionalize and incorporate wildlife concerns into transportation processes.

“This effort has been monumental and unprecedented for this field of study,” said Nova Simpson, NDOT’s wildlife crossings program manager. “We are excited and happy for all of the partners, research teams and individuals that have been involved.”
Reducing animal-vehicle collisions is a focus for NDOT, with the department having installed 24 large animal over- and underpasses and modified an additional 13 structures to improve large animal movement. NDOT has also installed 42 tortoise crossings, and erected more than 500 miles of wildlife fencing in Nevada. Each year, more than 500 animal-vehicle crashes are reported in the state, but it’s estimated that only 10 percent of such crashes are reported. 

Nationally, as many as two million collisions occur with large mammals in the U.S. leading to approximately 200 human deaths every year and $10 billion in costs to taxpayers.  

It’s against this backdrop that study results have been presented to national and state audiences, used by states to apply for funding from the Wildlife Crossings Pilot Program, and utilized by nonprofits and legislators to support state wildlife mitigation legislation.

To view the study and its findings, visit https://www.dot.nv.gov/doing-business/about-ndot/ndot-divisions/planning/research/research-reports under the heading “Transportation Pooled Fund TPF-5(358).”