Colorado & Denver News

by Andrea Lopez
FRISCO, Colo. (CBS4) ― More traffic and higher speeds on Interstate 70 will mean more wildlife collisions. If the future holds a wider I-70, and faster speed limits through areas currently riddled with tight curves and slower speed limits, more animals will likely get hit as they try to cross the road.

The Division of Wildlife has been involved with the Colorado Department of Transportation from the start in its process of exploring the problems along the mountain corridor and its presentation of possible solutions. It, along with the Bureau of Land Management, the US Forest Service, and the US Fish and Wildlife Service were all part of a committee called the ALIVE committee (A Landscape Level Inventory of Valued Ecosystems). The study group met once a month for two years. The goal, in a nutshell, was to basically ensure that native vegetation and wildlife are protected as changes are made to I-70.

"The study looked from Glenwood Canyon all the way to Denver," said member Bill Andree, a DOW officer based out of the Vail area. "The process covered everything from light rail to the different forms of transit to having four to six lanes…and it outlined a certain set of parameters that are problematic wildlife crossing areas. The Front Range, Floyd Hill, through the Clear Creek area, and Idaho Springs had problems with deer, elk and bighorn sheep. As we got up toward the west side it was mainly deer and elk, although we've had two lynx killed up here [Vail Pass] and we're getting a fair number of bear and lions killed up here every year."

Andree said the committee identified 14 key wildlife migration paths along the I-70 corridor-paths that intersect the road. And although the committee can't make specific suggestions about what to do until CDOT decides on an alternative for the future, it does know what will be needed.

"While we haven't again made a final decision in the PEIS we're certainly going toward an idea where wildlife crossings would be put in in the most needed areas," said CDOT Program Engineer Brian Pinkerton. "Sometimes a little two or three foot culvert is sufficient to get small animals across the highway."

For wildlife, the key is making sure that they can safely get from one side of the interstate to the other. There are several ways to do this. The first is to install small culverts that can be used by smaller animals like foxes, coyotes, porcupines, and skunks. CDOT is even amending new concrete, median barriers to accommodate these smaller animals.

"If you go through the Dowd Junction area where all the construction is going, in two places on their concrete median barrier there's a spot where it dips down and then there's an opening," said Andree. "Those will actually get a guardrail put across them. That's a spot where a raccoon, a porcupine, a fox, and even a coyote could slip underneath and cross through there. The problem we're having is they build bigger and bigger cement median barriers…porcupines certainly can't jump it. A fox could, a coyote could, deer and elk can, but they're jumping blind. They can't see what's on the other side and the motorists can't see them, so they're coming over the top and no one knows they're there until they hit the ground in front of them. So by creating some passages, at least for the smaller animals, we're giving them a spot to get through instead of trapping them inside the lanes."

Another method of getting animals from one side of the interstate to the other is through concrete underpasses that look like large, square tunnels.

"We have one small underpass just down here at west Vail that's a ten foot by ten foot by 100 foot concrete box," said Andree.

But the problem with those is if they're too long and too dark, some deer and elk won't use them. That can prevent them from getting to winter ranges, for example, and eventually result in their deaths. A study showed that only 40% of the deer used the underpass in west Vail. The ones who didn't use it died.

"So if you're going to make a wide highway you want to try to limit the distance they have to go underground, or you want to try to make it wide so it's open to them," said Andree.

A spanning bridge is an ideal wildlife crossing zone. This is a section of the interstate that is a bridge, usually over a naturally drainage area, with massive amounts of room for wildlife to pass underneath.

"Spanning bridges, where they can put them in, span a natural stream or drainage," said Andree. "They're one of the best because animals will follow that generally."

There are quite a few of them on Vail Pass. In some cases, they're just on one side of the interstate. In ideal cases, both sides have a spanning bridge so wildlife can easily pass from one side to the other. It may be that more of them are needed in the future, especially if climbing lanes are build on Vail Pass. Some people are concerned that climbing lanes will help to isolate the slower traffic to one side of the interstate so people can drive even faster.

"Even just climbing lanes, if it's going to increase speeds on Vail Pass or at the Eisenhower tunnel, then how do you offset the increased speeds and the level of traffic," said Andree. "If the traffic's going slower it's easy to miss a deer or elk of they jump out in front of you. If everybody is going 75 then you increase your mortality on wildlife."

But Andree said spanning bridges are costly, and the decisions to build them will largely depend on how much funding is available. There's also a study going on, looking at the possibility of putting a wildlife bridge over a portion of Vail Pass-likely somewhere near the top. But with a price tag that could reach $10 million, it may not be feasible to build it. Regardless, the pass will need some mitigation work. Andree said nearly every kind of animal gets hit up there. Two Canada lynx have been hit on Vail Pass. Lynx are an endangered species in Colorado, and a fragile species as they're still trying to establish themselves after reintroduction efforts in the past few years by the DOW.

Andree said when it comes to counting dead animals on I-70, it's likely they only count or find about 30% of the animals that get hit and killed. So the statistics that he had didn't represent the total number of animals killed on the interstate in his area.

"Just in this last year, in 2007, and it really starts in May," said Andree in reference to road kills, "we've done nine bears in the Eagle Valley on I-70--that goes all the way from Eagle up to the top of Vail Pass. For 2006, we had 42 deer that we counted, 21 elk, a moose and a mountain lion. Any numbers you get are always a bare minimum. Any way that we can increase the permeability of I-70 will be helpful, be it underpasses or overpasses or different types of crossing structures."

Eagle County is home to the second largest migration corridor in the state when it comes to Mule Deer. CDOT has put up miles and miles of fencing to try and keep deer and elk off of I-70. That fencing also channels the animals to safe places or openings where they can cross.

"We call it deer fencing--it's to keep the deer out," said Andree. "But it's not really for the deer, it's to keep the motoring public safe. It's not that the DOW is putting it up to save deer, it's that the DOT [Department of Transportation] is putting it up to keep the motorists safe."

Along Highway 82 from Glenwood Springs to Aspen, the DOW has put in several wildlife ramps, which are another idea for the future. These are mounds of dirt constructed like a ramp, strategically placed in the wildlife fencing. They allow deer or elk to jump down into the areas they want to get to, but then they can't jump back out. Andree said while fencing and ramps help to keep wildlife off of the interstate, they also ultimately restrict their movements and where they want to go.

Future impacts to wildlife don't just entail more traffic, wider lanes, or train tracks. There are concerns that transit will make it easier for people to live in the mountains and commute to work in Denver, resulting in growth, development, and habitat loss or encroachment into areas where wild animals live.

"From an impact standpoint, as to what impact whatever alternative they pick is going to have on wildlife and wildlife habitat… I think the public should be involved, the public should be concerned," said DOW Regional Manager Ron Velarde. "And then the other thing we need to look at is the cumulative impact on wildlife, and by having less wildlife, what the public will say? If something bad happens to wildlife or wildlife habitat, then that means less wildlife for the viewing public. Along this corridor…it's watch-able wildlife--I mean there's a lot of wildlife between Denver and Vail."
Velarde said that once CDOT picks an alternative, the DOW will make recommendations about what should be done and where.

"I think where the Division of Wildlife would come from at that point is we'll assess all of the impacts to wildlife and wildlife habitat for that particular alternative," he said. "And then what we do is internally, we get our biologists together with our field people and decide what our recommendations will be. And those recommendations are sent through the system to our director of staff, and to the Department of Natural Resources. If a memorandum of understanding is signed with CDOT (they're the signature) they have to approve our recommendations."

Velarde said the working relationship with CDOT has been excellent over the past two years as they've been working through this process of studying the problems on and the solutions for I-70. He's confident that it will take their recommendations seriously and that it welcomes the DOW's input.

"With Russell George as the executive director of CDOT and as the former director of the DOW and director of natural resources, we have someone in there that understands the DOW, understands wildlife, so we really don't have to nurture him," said Velarde. "He's well aware of what's going on. We have credibility with them he knows the science we'll put forth."

There are many concerns about how widening the interstate would impact the environment. For example, this past winter, CDOT used 28,705 tons of salt/sand, 4,626 tons of Ice-Slicer, and 667,064 gallons of liquid de-icer on I-70 between Golden and Vail. Adding an additional lane will increase the amount of materials CDOT will have to use in the winter. Two streams along I-70 have already been categorized as "water-quality impaired" because of sediment running off I-70.

"Today, on average, in all of Clear Creek County--the 30 miles or so that passes through Clear Creek County--670 tons of traction sand is used per mile per winter and a good majority of that winds up in the creek," said County Commissioner Harry Dale. "In terms of magnesium chloride, liquid deicers--13,800 gallons per mile used annually. Now, when you go to a six lane highway, the traction sand goes up to 11-hundred tons per mile and the chemical deicer goes up to 20-thousand gallons per mile. A vast majority of that winds up in the creek. As the vegetation dies around the stream, there's less shade on the stream, the temperature goes up and that is really bad for the trout population."

Dale is also concerned that if I-70 is widened, and if there is more traffic, that will equate to more dust and particulates kicked up into the air, degrading its quality in the county.

"Any kind of highway widening that we would do, would be done in an excellent way similar to the approach that CDOT took with Glenwood Canyon where there would be a lot of concern for aesthetics a lot of concerns for environmental impacts," said Pinkerton. "It would be a beautiful highway that would fit into the setting that it's in. It may be a little early to pin down a lot of the detail. The highway widening alternative that we have currently under study would allow for the capture of some of the traction sand that's put down to try and mitigate that. And we don't know where technology is going in terms of the automobile, you know cleaner cars are coming down the pipeline. It may be that 20 or 40 years from now we may not have as many greenhouse gases coming from cars that we do today. So again, CDOT is in the position of trying to balance all of these issues before we embark on construction.

"In terms aesthetic treatments, any highway improvements would be attractive. In terms of water quality, we would try to capture the traction sand that we put down and not allow that to migrate into the streams and the forests."

There are additional concerns surrounding Clear Creek County because the area is riddled with old mines that were not properly cleaned up when they were abandoned. Dangerous mining materials still loom in the tailings. Some residents feel that CDOT's PEIS hasn't adequately addressed how it plans to handle this delicate situation.

"We think it's fatally flawed because it really wasn't an environmental impact study, it was really sort of a pre-engineering study of what they wanted to do, which is put down more asphalt and widen the highway," said Idaho Springs Mayor Dennis Lundberry. "Concerns about the environmental impacts--what are you doing to account for the environmental impacts, what are they cumulative environmental impacts that we're going to have--they didn't address those in the draft PEIS."

"Underneath the surface of the highway, at this point, there are 23 mills sites that have been identified in Clear Creek County that were along the creek," said former County Commissioner Joann Sorensen, "now they are under the highway. I don't know if people are familiar with what goes on in mills. Today they are very well regulated. Chemicals are used to process ore to get the valuable metals out. But back in the 1800's and early 1900's there weren't regulations that provided oversight, so chemicals like arsenic and cyanide were used in these mills. When they were abandoned nobody was around to supervise cleanup."

"All of those issues would be given a great deal of attention with the highway improvement program here and a transit program just the same," said Pinkerton. "CDOT has a very strong environmental ethic that has grown throughout the years."

Pinkerton said once an alternative is chosen, there will be additional environmental impact statements that will pinpoint the details of how they will address construction impacts on vegetation and wildlife. Now that the public comment period has been re-opened, people have a chance to step in and express their concerns once more before a final decision is made and before any consequences are set in motion.

• To take a virtual tour of the wildlife bridge over Vail Pass, visit www.Restoretherockies.org.

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