by Jay Watson, Co-Executive Director, New Jersey Conservation Foundation
It’s no surprise that in many places – especially in a state as developed as New Jersey – animals need to cross highways to find food and mates, escape predators, make seasonal migrations between habitats, and find safe resting or hibernation sites.
In recent years, a global movement to reconnect fragmented natural habitats and construct wildlife crossings on dangerous roadways has been growing. Wildlife crossings – both underpasses and overpasses — reconnect habitat regions separated by roadways, and give mammals, reptiles, amphibians, and rare species of marsh birds the chance to cross roads safely. The reduction in wildlife-vehicle collisions and wildlife mortality also increases human safety.
Some roadways are so busy that they act as nearly-permanent barriers and animals seldom make crossings. For example, due to habitat fragmentation caused by large, congested roadways running east to west, endangered bobcats are limited mainly to the northern third of New Jersey, with few records of occurrence in the central or southern parts of the state. Roadkill and roadway barriers can contribute to decreases in population, or – in worst case scenarios – genetic isolation and inbreeding problems. In southern New Jersey, for example, certain timber rattlesnake populations are genetically different on opposite sides of a large roadway. Because of the species’ isolation, there is a lack of introduction of new genes and no opportunity for escape, leading to increased mortality from susceptibility to diseases or a rapid environmental change.
To begin to address these problems, more than 100 people from 40 different agencies and programs came together to kick off the Connecting Habitat Across New Jersey (“CHANJ”) in 2012. CHANJ is an initiative that identifies key areas and actions needed to preserve and restore habitat connectivity across New Jersey. This initiative is designed to help prioritize land protection, inform habitat restoration and management, and guide mitigation of barrier effects on wildlife and habitats.
CHANJ offers tools and resources to move these goals forward in a strategic way and help target local, regional, and state planning efforts. The tools also help land-use, conservation, and transportation planners to be more proactive and collaborative, which reduces conflict and saves time and money. The success of CHANJ depends on partnerships like these to implement its guidance. Since that first initial meeting and over the past 12 years, the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP) and dozens of partner organizations, including New Jersey Conservation Foundation, have participated in bringing CHANJ to life.
The project identifies 127 native wildlife species that would benefit from wildlife corridors, as well as species that present safety hazards. White-tailed deer, for example, are involved in over 15,000 automobile accidents in New Jersey each year. There is also evidence that the Appalachians, which extend from northern Alabama into Canada, are an extremely important region for wildlife movement and adaptation to a changing climate. Allowing safe passage for animals migrating north in order to survive the effects of climate change should be considered in all future statewide land-use planning.
The leading model for wildlife crossings comes from Alberta, Canada in Banff National Park. There are currently 38 wildlife underpasses and six overpasses in Banff National Park – the most in the world. Eleven species of large mammals have been recorded using the wildlife crossings, including grizzly and black bears, wolves, coyotes, cougars, moose, elk, deer, bighorn sheep, and more recently wolverine and lynx. In California, the largest wildlife corridor in the world – the Wallis Annenberg Wildlife Crossing over the Highway 101 freeway near Los Angeles – is currently being constructed and is expected to be completed in 2025.
It is a difficult and necessary task: New Jersey is the most densely populated state in the country with the densest network of roads. It is situated between Philadelphia and New York City, resulting in dense urbanization across the centerline of our state. This supports the movement of people and goods but severely fragments the habitats of central New Jersey and all but blocks wildlife connectivity between the north and south.
The State Department of Transportation, municipalities, county engineers, and land preservation groups must prioritize the need to protect wildlife as well as provide infrastructure for humans. “This requires a new paradigm of thinking,” says Gretchen Fowles, GIS Specialist/Biologist at the New Jersey Endangered & Nongame Species Program at NJDEP and contributor to CHANJ. “We often think of land preservation as big protected areas. But at some point, we need to focus on the smaller patches of habitat that are isolated by roadways but where there is still habitat within. All it takes is one development and then that whole isolated habitat is shot.”
Residents of New Jersey can help the NJDEP in its implementation of CHANJ by reporting dead-on-road bobcat, river otter, fisher, or black bear by calling the DEP Action Line (1-877-WARN-DEP or 1-877- 927-6337). Use the online NJ Wildlife Tracker application to report: 1) rare wildlife species sightings as well as 2) observations of wildlife (of any kind) on roadways. Please practice “Safety First” in every situation, especially along roadways. NJDEP biologists will record the location and pick up the carcass to collect samples from these species. Location data on where target animals are trying to cross roadways will be essential in placing new crossings where they will do the most good.
To read more about CHANJ and use the interactive mapping tool, please visit https://dep.nj.gov/njfw/conservation/connecting-habitat-across-new-jersey-chanj/.
For information about preserving New Jersey’s land and natural resources, visit the New Jersey Conservation Foundation website at www.njconservation.org or contact me at info@njconservation.org.
