Blue Ridge Country March/April 2021 - 42

A black bear walks
near a mediumsized box culvert
under 1-26 north
of Asheville, North
Carolina.

NATIONAL PARKS CONSERVATION ASSOCIATION

NEW BOOK FOR YOUTH
EXPLORES ROAD ECOLOGY

Great Smoky Mountains Association, a partner in Safe
Passage: The Pigeon River Gorge Wildlife Crossing Project,
has just released its newest title for youth: " A Search
for Safe Passage. " An accessible introduction to the
problems and solutions associated with highways, traffic,
and wildlife aimed at ages 9 to 13, this vividly illustrated
122-page book follows the journey of a variety of likeable
forest animals trying to find a safe way to cross a large
mountain highway. Including an educational section about
real animals and road ecology issues, " A Search for Safe
Passage " is available along with downloadable Discussion
Questions for Teachers at smokiesinformation.org.

Hunter is the facilitator for Safe Passage: The Pigeon River Gorge Wildlife
Crossing Project, an effort spawned in
2017 by nearly 20 federal, state, tribal and
non-governmental organizations. More
than 100 individuals are now collaborating to make this 28-mile stretch of I-40 in
western North Carolina and east Tennessee more permeable for wildlife and safer
for people.
Why animals cross the road
More than 12.5 million people come to
Great Smoky Mountains National Park annually-and many more visit the region-
largely drawn by the desire to see black
bear, elk and other wildlife. But the Smokies' iconic species don't recognize the park
boundary. Just like us, they travel around
in search of shelter, food and mates.

BLUERIDGECOUNTRY.COM

" A recent study determined that more
than 90% of male black bears and 50%
of female black bears regularly travel out
of Great Smoky Mountains National Park
to access other habitats, " says Bill Stiver,
supervisory biologist for the park. " This
inevitably means they have to cross regional highways as well as secondary
roads. "
I-40 was created in the 1960s. Like
hundreds of roads that now crisscross the
Southeast, it sliced through a mountain
landscape where for millennia animals
had freely followed ancient trails called
wildlife corridors. Now 27,000 vehicles
travel through the Pigeon River Gorge
every day and wildlife mortality from collisions here is rapidly rising. Some years
have seen as many as 70 road-killed bears
in this 28-mile section of highway alone-

and bear populations here have quadrupled in the last four decades.
What's more, reintroduced elk are also
moving out of the park and attempting
to cross these roads, joining their fellow
ungulates, the prolific white-tailed deer, in
sad deaths often involving hours of suffering. There is no way to count the many
individual animals who sustain severe injuries and make it off the roadway only to
die later in the forest. With both animal
and human populations increasing alongside growing travel in the region, this situation is only expected to get worse over
the next decade.
" Human infrastructure is making it increasingly difficult for wildlife to follow
their natural patterns of movement across
the landscape, " says Hugh Irwin, a landscape conservation planner with The Wilderness Society. " New infrastructure needs
to take wildlife movement requirements
into account, and existing infrastructure
needs to be retrofitted over time to enable
wildlife movement. "
To complicate matters even further, scientists expect climate-driven species will
soon be migrating through southeastern
North America and into the Appalachians.
Many believe it's time for changes to roads
here, especially so that the region's iconic
species can use existing wildlife corridors
to migrate north.
Ron Sutherland works to re-establish
wildlife corridors throughout the eastern United States as chief scientist with

http://www.smokiesinformation.org http://www.BLUERIDGECOUNTRY.COM

Blue Ridge Country March/April 2021

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Blue Ridge Country March/April 2021