RICHMOND — Virginia is the ninth-likeliest state for a driver to hit wildlife but environmental advocates are working to change it.
One in 76 people in Virginia are likely to collide with an animal on the road in the Commonwealth. Advocates tried to pass legislation during this General Assembly session, which would have established a grant fund to provide money for wildlife corridor projects but the bill stalled.
Meg Gammage-Tucker, president of the Wildlife Center of Virginia, said wildlife corridors involve fencing to guide larger mammals to safe natural crossings, instead of busy roads.
“It provides exclusionary fencing. Black bears, deer, bobcats are not going to cross a major roadway,” Gammage-Tucker explained. “That protects the animals and it protects the people that are driving in those spaces. Because there’s not only an animal cost but there’s a human health cost.”
Instead of the grant fund, a budget proposal has advanced to provide $450,000 to support the implementation of the Virginia Wildlife Corridor Action Plan.
Pat Calvert, director for policy and land conservation for the Virginia Conservation Network, knows the effects of wildlife collisions personally. A deer ran in front of his car last fall. There were no wildlife corridors or even warning signs along the road. He said his experience highlights the need to pass legislation to fund wildlife corridors, including more funds for the wildlife corridor action plan the Commonwealth has already developed.
“Where they cross the road, you could say, ‘well, the deer shouldn’t be crossing there or the animal shouldn’t necessarily be crossing there,'” Calvert observed. “But they were crossing there probably before there was ever a road to begin with. So if we know those conflicts exist, there’s this plan called the Wildlife Corridor Action Plan and now we just need that seed money to make it happen.”
Virginians are victims of more than 60,000 wildlife collisions each year, according to Northern Neck Virginia Insurance.
Gammage-Tucker stressed they will keep pushing for lawmakers to establish the grant fund, because the effort comes out of more than their love of animals.
“This is not just, ‘we are passionate people who want to save animals,'” Gammage-Tucker emphasized. “This is important because it helps us be proactive, effective managers of Virginia. It protects waterways, animals, ecological systems and biodiversity, but most importantly it protects people.”
For aquatic animals, like turtles, Gammage-Tucker added water underpasses are possible.
