Tom Clyde’s account of hitting a deer on S.R. 248 last week stopped many of us in our tracks at Save People Save Wildlife. We’re glad he walked away. A car can be replaced. What can’t be replaced is a driver who doesn’t come home or the animal that didn’t make it to see another sunrise, and Tom’s column captures both sides of that math with more honesty than most writing on this topic manages to accomplish.
He’s right that it comes down to a kind of lottery. Every deer crossing near the river, every elk pushed out by new subdivisions, every driver on a roadway in a wildlife zone. The odds catch up eventually, and last week they did for him.
That’s why our work exists.We look at corridors of concern and ask where and when the animals are actually moving, where and when the conflicts are actually happening, and what kind of intervention actually fits that specific stretch of road. We consult with experts for these assessments and to determine the best way to restore connectivity and safe passage.
Sometimes the solution is wildlife fencing with a wildlife detection system or better signage. Sometimes the wildlife fencing guides the animals to an underpass. Sometimes, as at Parley’s Summit, it’s a dedicated overpass with wildlife fencing to guide the animals to the crossing.
Since 2018, when that structure went in, researchers at Utah State University have documented over 700 successful animal crossings per year with collisions along that stretch down by 77%. And the return on investment? The $5 million wildlife overpass has already saved taxpayers over $15 million. That’s what happens when the solution matches the place.
Tom is skeptical of the softer cost estimates, and he’s earned the right to be. But the number that doesn’t need any modeling to back it up is the one sitting in his driveway right now: a totaled Subaru and a farm truck getting 14 miles to the gallon. That’s a cost every driver on these roads faces, animal by animal, corridor by corridor. And it is preventable. We just need to invest in the most effective solutions for roads showing a high occurrence of wildlife-vehicle conflicts.
We’re glad Tom’s OK, and we appreciate him writing about it with the humor and honesty this column always brings. If it happened to him on S.R. 248, it can happen to any of us. That’s exactly the problem we’re trying to solve, one stretch of road at a time
Erin Ferguson
Board of Directors, Save People Save Wildlife