Roads and Wildlife

The Road Ahead

This spring Maine Audubon received an $80,000 grant over two years from the Henry P. Kendall Foundation to launch a model program in Maine to reduce the impacts of roads on the state’s wildlife.

The new program will address where and how roads are placed and designed, and how to help wildlife safely move across new and existing roads. When completed, it will provide a model that other states can follow.

Over the next five years, Maine Audubon, along with its Beginning with Habitat and MaineDOT partners, plans to:

Integrate wildlife habitat planning and transportation planning.

Maine Audubon will work to make sure that wildlife concerns are part of all of Maine DOT’s roads planning, as well as road plans for the 10.4 million acres of unorganized territories that Maine’s Land Use Regulation Commission oversees.

Identify and focus on habitats most at risk from roads.

Maine Audubon will study habitats statewide to determine where connections between high-value habitats should be protected and where wildlife crossings and mitigation make the most sense.

Incorporate wildlife and transportation into regional planning.

Maine Audubon will encourage towns to work together and take a regional approach to making Maine’s roads safer for wildlife.

Build awareness.

Maine Audubon will continue to educate the public and state agencies about how roads affect wildlife and what groups and individuals can do to help.

Develop a “tool box” for towns.

Maine Audubon will create a guidebook of road ecology principles, why and how to apply them, and where to find the resources to carry them out.

The end result?

Fewer road kills, less habitat loss, more public support, and needed changes to road location and design that make them safer for wildlife—and people.

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