Friday, January 08, 2010

Give Deer a Brake

New signs are being installed on Highway 21, between Boise and Idaho City, urging motorists to "Give Deer & Elk a Brake."

The signs will also include tallies of the number of deer and elk killed on that stretch of road each year.

While this may seem grim, hopefully it gets drivers' attention, and gets them to drive slowly and carefully.

Such signs have been used in many different areas as way to draw attention to big game deaths on roads. (I photographed the sign below in Woburn, England). This is a project of the Idaho Transportation Department, Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, Idaho Department of Fish and Game and Ada and Boise counties.

The Idaho Department of Fish and Game is also installing a wildlife underpass along this road.

To protect migratory wildlife and wintering big game from the dangers of roads, conservationists must use a variety of methods--habitat protection, overpasses and underpasses, education and signage. Otherwise, we will lose many populations of large mammals. Efforts like these signs are important steps.--Matt Miller

1 comment:

Alan Gregory, Lt. Col., USAF, Ret. said...

I agree wholeheartedly. I recall seeing similar signs warning of caribou on Newfoundland's Avalon Peninsula, and there are deer-crossing signs across Pennsylvania and most of the Northeast. Another white-tailed got hit and killed just a mile from where I sit last night on a busy two-lane state highway. I've driven this stretch of Idaho highway many times, especially while living in Boise.