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Effectiveness of wildlife crossing structures on providing habitat connectivity for wild animals Wang, Jiling

Abstract

Roads running through the middle of forests provide connectivity for humans, but are considered to be barriers to wildlife searching for food, shelter and mates. Wildlife crossing structures are now being designed and incorporated into numerous road constructions in many places in the world. However, the effectiveness of these wildlife crossing structures on providing wildlife connectivity remains uncertain. Studies from Banff National Park, Clark Fork River Valley, and Utah State clearly indicate factors affecting effectiveness of the crossing structures, which includes types of structures, dimensions, placement, noise levels, light level, vegetative cover, moisture, temperature, time, human disturbances, etc. All the factors make the evaluation of crossing structure effectiveness complex. While it is impractical to design a perfect structure that accommodate all species affected by roads, it may be possible to generate a comprehensive mitigation strategy integrating with all affecting factors and make the highways more permeable for wildlife in the future.

Item Metadata

Title
Effectiveness of wildlife crossing structures on providing habitat connectivity for wild animals
Creator
Wang, Jiling
Date Issued
2014-04
Description
Roads running through the middle of forests provide connectivity for humans, but are considered to be barriers to wildlife searching for food, shelter and mates. Wildlife crossing structures are now being designed and incorporated into numerous road constructions in many places in the world. However, the effectiveness of these wildlife crossing structures on providing wildlife connectivity remains uncertain. Studies from Banff National Park, Clark Fork River Valley, and Utah State clearly indicate factors affecting effectiveness of the crossing structures, which includes types of structures, dimensions, placement, noise levels, light level, vegetative cover, moisture, temperature, time, human disturbances, etc. All the factors make the evaluation of crossing structure effectiveness complex. While it is impractical to design a perfect structure that accommodate all species affected by roads, it may be possible to generate a comprehensive mitigation strategy integrating with all affecting factors and make the highways more permeable for wildlife in the future.
Subject
Wildlife crossing structures; Effectiveness; Habitat connectivity; Roads
Genre
Graduating Project
Type
Text
Language
eng
Series
University of British Columbia. FRST 497
Date Available
2014-10-06
Provider
Vancouver : University of British Columbia Library
Rights
Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.5 Canada
DOI
10.14288/1.0075574
URI
http://hdl.handle.net/2429/50606
Affiliation
Forestry, Faculty of
Campus
UBCV
Peer Review Status
Unreviewed
Scholarly Level
Undergraduate
Rights URI
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.5/ca/
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Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.5 Canada