Reducing Wildlife Collisions: What Is Working in Northeastern Ontario

Wildlife/vehicle collisions pose a serious safety risk for motorists across Canada, and they are increasing annually. In Ontario alone, there are approximately 14 000 wildlife/vehicle collisions reported each year, with many more unreported. In Northeastern Ontario, wildlife collisions are even more frequent, and can account for as high as 50% of the total number of collisions along some highways. This paper describes the mitigation efforts on two major highways (Highways 11 and 69) over the past few decades. Prior to the last decade, wildlife collision reduction efforts in Ontario were primarily limited to installing wildlife warning signs and no discernable reduction in wildlife collisions was observed. In 2005, the Ontario Ministry of Transportation (MTO), Northeastern Region, commenced a more proactive approach to reducing wildlife/vehicle collisions by installing emerging mitigation methods such as crossing structures and fencing on both Highway 11 and 69. To date, the most extensive mitigation in Ontario is on Highway 69 between Parry Sound and Sudbury, where highway expansion and upgrades are currently being completed and one wildlife overpass, one underpass, twenty-seven one-way gates, two texas gates, and 10 km of fencing have been installed. In September 2011, mitigation effectiveness monitoring was initiated on this section of highway. Key results have shown that more species are using the wildlife overpass over time and that most animals, such as Moose and Deer prefer the wildlife overpass to the wildlife underpass. Preliminary data has shown a reduction in wildlife/vehicle collisions in the fenced section, and no Moose and Elk have breached the fencing system. Long-term monitoring is required to assess overall effectiveness of the crossing structure and fencing systems for all wildlife populations in the study area. Monitoring efforts are ongoing and are expected to produce additional results prior to the 2014 TAC Conference, such as an assessment of black bear population-level use of wildlife crossings through DNA analysis conducted on hair and scat samples.

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