Letter to Peter A. De Fazio, House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure Chair; Eleanor Holmes Norton, House Subcommittee on Highways and Transit Chair; Sam Graves, House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure Ranking Member; and Rodney Davis, House Subcommittee on Highways and Transit Ranking Member - Huffman Advocates for Wildlife Protections in Next Transportation Bill

Letter

Dear Chair DeFazio, Chair Norton, Ranking Member Graves, and Ranking Member Davis,

As you work to address our nation's infrastructure and reauthorize the Fixing America's Surface Transportation Act, we urge you to include critical provisions on wildlife-vehicle collision reduction in legislation currently being drafted by the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure.

Roads that pass through wildlife habitat migration paths can be very dangerous for drivers. Wildlife-vehicle collisions unfortunately kill approximately 200 Americans every year, cause 26,000 injuries, and cost over $8 billion in damages annually. Roads also threaten the health of America's fish and wildlife populations. When a highway or other structure is built, wildlife habitat can be interrupted or fragmented. Habitat fragmentation makes it difficult for many species to complete seasonal migrations or daily movements in search of food, water and mates. This is a significant issue for wildlife -- killing an estimated 1-2 million large mammals ever year - as well as a major threat to American motorists.

However, there is a solution. States, tribes, and local communities are working around the country to secure improved data on collision hot-spots and explore ways to make our highways safer for people and wildlife. A variety of available methods, including improved or variable signage, wildlife-friendly underpasses integrated into bridge replacements, or overpasses to direct wildlife safely across highways, can help protect people and wildlife by preventing collisions on the road. When placed in areas of known wildlife movement, crossing structures can reduce wildlife-vehicle collisions by up to 97 percent. By investing in solutions to wildlife-vehicle collisions through the surface transportation bill, we can ensure land managers and transportation agencies across the country are able to proactively address this problem.

Wildlife crossing provisions were included in S. 2302, America's Transportation Infrastructure Act, which passed unanimously out of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works can be included in our bill and serve as a baseline for the House to build on.

Those important measures include, among others:

A competitive Wildlife Crossing Pilot Program to provide competitive grants to states, tribes, local governments for wildlife infrastructure projects that reduce the number of wildlife-vehicle collisions and improve habitat connectivity. We recommend increasing the level of funding for this important program.
Updated language in existing funding streams, including the Surface Transportation Block Grant Program and the Nationally Significant Freight and Highway Projects, to ensure wildlife crossing projects are recognized as eligible for funding.
From California to Wyoming to Florida, states across the country have been working to address wildlife-vehicle collisions on their roads and highways. While land managers and transportation agencies have made significant progress, there is more work to be done and Congress can provide the necessary tools.

We look forward to working with you on addressing wildlife-vehicle collisions in the House surface transportation reauthorization legislation.