Highway Mortality Symposium

Pocatello

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Story Published: Mar 25, 2007 at 4:45 PM MDT

Story Updated: Mar 25, 2007 at 4:45 PM MDT

By Sarah Schwabe

In the last six years over 2,000 deer have been killed on Southeast Idaho roads and highways. This weekend the Department of Fish and Game held a symposium to discuss the issue. KIDK Newswatch 3's Sarah Schwabe reports.

Speakers from the Department of Fish and Game and Utah State University addressed a modest crowd Saturday night at the Big Game Highway Mortality Symposium.

"What we'd like to do is raise the awareness in Southeast Idaho of the problem we have with highway big game conflict," says Rick Cheatum, a board member of the Southeast Idaho Mule Deer Foundation.

And that growing conflict is impacting Idaho's economy.

"Each animal that's hunted in Southeast Idaho represents tens of thousands dollars in expenditures, in vehicles to hunt, in ammunition, in restaurant food, in motel rooms, in guiding services. The value that that animal contributes from people coming to hunt those animals is lost when it's killed on the road," says Cheatum.

Not to mention the immediate cost of a car accident involving big game.

"You can actually put a price tag on a person's life, it's equivalent to approximately $3 million, and the average cost for an average collision is $2300, around there," says Dr. Patricia Cramer, a research associate at Utah State University.

To avoid those losses these speakers say we need to consider wildlife migration when designing our roads and include some sort of crossing for big game.

"What we'd like to see people do is start putting under passes and maybe even over passes so the animals can get under the road safely and get over to that winter range or water that they're trying to get to, whatever it is they're trying to move to," says Cramer.

In addition to highways, rail road tracks also pose a threat to wildlife. These advocates want to install warning devices on the tracks to deter big game away from them.

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