State was turned down for $18 million federal grant toward the overcrossing, but will reapply
By Shaun Hall, Rogue Valley Times
Tucked inside a big $97.5-billion transportation and housing appropriation bill approved by Congress and President Joe Biden earlier this month was a tiny outlay of $400,000 for the design and engineering of 4 miles of fencing for a proposed wildlife crossing over Interstate 5 near the Oregon-California border.
The outlay is a relatively small amount for an overcrossing project that could run as high as $23.5 million, but proponents are calling it a step in the right direction.
“Every award helps and chips away at the total needed,” said Amy Amrhein, co-coordinator for the Southern Oregon Wildlife Crossing Coalition.
The coalition includes several conservation organizations and agencies, including the Oregon Department of Transportation, which recently was turned down for an $18-million grant to build the overcrossing.
The fencing would extend 2 miles along each side of the freeway at the overcrossing site and would help direct animals to the structure, which could be 200 feet wide and topped by soil, rocks and vegetation. Each end of the crossing would be anchored on federally owned land within the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument at milepost 1.7.
The location, known as the Mariposa Preserve, is between the state border and the Siskiyou Summit on I-5. The site is within an east-west section of the Siskiyou Mountains that serves as a wildlife corridor between coastal mountains and the Cascade Range.
Efforts to secure major funding for the project continue. So far, Oregon has earmarked $2 million for the crossing, which is estimated to cost $20 million for construction and $3.5 million for engineering, design and planning costs. The coalition has raised $300,000 for the project, an amount that paid for a feasibility and concept design study and for animal monitoring in the area.
“As you can imagine, piecing this much funding together is challenging,” Amrhein said. “We don’t give up because we get a ‘no’ in the first round. Perseverance is the name of the game, and we are confident we will be successful this year in raising the necessary funds to see construction in 2025 or 2026.”
ODOT in December was notified by the Federal Highway Administration that other projects around the nation were more of a priority, although the state expects to apply again when a second round of grant funding opens to applicants in April, under FHA’s Wildlife Crossings Pilot Program.
“In our debrief with the Federal Highway Administration we received all positive feedback from our grant proposal,” Cidney Bowman, ODOT wildlife passage program leader, said. “They couldn’t even think of any changes that would help improve the application.
“Essentially, during the five-step review process they categorized our project as high and recommended for funding. There simply wasn’t enough money to fund all the highly ranked projects.”
Amrhein echoed those words.
“(FHA) staff literally said the project meets all criteria, was ‘highly recommended’ for funding, and they hope ODOT reapplies this year when more money may be available for nationwide distribution,” she said.
FHA representatives declined to say why projects in other states were chosen over Oregon’s proposal.
“The Federal Highway Administration doesn’t comment on specific projects that were not selected for funding,” agency spokeswoman Annie Tin said.
Projects selected for funding by the FHA included $24 million for an overpass spanning Interstate 17 near Munds Park, Arizona; $22 million for an overpass on six-lane I-25 between Denver and Colorado Springs to reduce collisions with big game, including elk and mule deer; and $24 million for underpasses and an overpass on U.S. 189 in southwest Wyoming, where pronghorn and mule deer are at issue.
The purpose of the federal program is to reduce wildlife-vehicle collisions and enhance wildlife passage. More than a million wildlife-vehicle collisions occur annually in the nation, according to the FHA. In the 2-mile stretch where the fencing would be installed, 34 vehicle-deer collisions occurred over a five-year period ending in 2020, according to the coalition.
Funding for the fencing design and engineering was announced last week by U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., who said he and U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., championed the project and 43 other community-initiated projects as part of the overall funding measure, known formally as the Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies Fiscal Year 2024 Appropriations Bill.
The Oregon Wildlife Foundation, which sought the funding in support of the overcrossing project, was the actual recipient of the award.
“The Oregon Wildlife Foundation appreciates and thanks Sen. Merkley and Sen. Wyden for their support of this important wildlife crossing project,” said Tim Greseth, the foundation’s executive director.
More information about the project is available on the foundation’s website, myowf.org/sowcc.
Reach Rogue Valley Times outdoors and environmental reporter Shaun Hall at 458-225-7179 or shall@rv-times.com. This story first appeared in the Rogue Valley Times.
Related stories:
Wildlife crossing planned for Siskiyou Summit (Sept. 29, 2023)
KS Wild Side: Wildlife may benefit from new crossing corridors (July 15, 2023)
Writers on the Range: No one wants to collide with a deer (March 27, 2023)
