Miscellaneous
This week we're joined by biologist Nova Simpson, who works for the Nevada Department of Transportation to mitigate human-wildlife conflict in our travel corridors. We talk about wildlife overpasses and underpasses (even for things like snakes and toads), how those projects are funded, and whether they're effective at reducing vehicular collisions with wildlife. Plus: horses, whitefish dip, and HEAT. 4:00 "Large mammal mitigation specialist" - how can we help animals live more comfortably in our shadow? Also... state road departments have biologists on payroll! 6:00 "Road ecology": The study of how wildlife moves/adjusts to road infrastructure 7:00 Animal-vehicle collisions 12:00 There are 15-20 varieties of threatened animals for whom vehicular collision is a pretty significant source of mortality. Example: Florida panther 13:00 Roads fragment habitat. How can we restore connectivity? 14:00 (RE)CONNECTING WILD: Restoring Safe Passage Mitigation project over Nevada's I-80 on the species’ migration route. Win for drivers, win for deer 18:00 Conservation priority so often comes down to available funding and time resource 19:00 Roadkill collision app in the works 20:00 Overpasses/underpasses on highways, fencing projects, bridge crossings, "animal sidewalks," etc 26:00 Only about 2% of crashes in Nevada involve wildlife 32:00 Agency vs. private funding for wildlife crossings 34:00 How do animals safely cross a highway? New York Times article on wildlife crossings (including the rattlesnake underpass) 37:00 Toad crossings 38:00 Current transportation bill in D.C. includes funding for wildlife mitigation for the first time in U.S. history 41:00 Check out the NWF Outdoors podcast wherever you get your programming 42:00 Wildlife cams... THE THINGS YOU SEE! 47:00 Anyone apply for draw tags? Not drawing in an area with 90%+ draw odds... #darnit 51:00 Training our horse pals :) 55:00 Whitefish dip