Elk NetworkIdaho Project Makes Road Safer for Motorists, Wildlife

General | May 8, 2018

How did the elk and deer cross the road? Simple, they went under it.

Thanks to a project that took more than seven years to complete, a stretch of Highway 21 will make it much easier for wildlife to cross.

“We have an 11-mile section that we keep an eye on where motor vehicles (collide) with wildlife all winter long,” Krista Biorn, Idaho Department of Fish and Game habitat biologist, told KBOI-TV. “We’ve had numbers up in the 200- plus losing deer in one winter season so the chances of hitting a deer or elk are pretty high in that stretch of the highway.”

Crews installed a new deer and elk crossing guard about 30 minutes east of Boise that, combined with high fencing, will funnel the animals to an underpass build in 2010.

Go here to watch a news report about the project.

(Photo source: Idaho Department of Fish and Game)