Welcome everybody to Midday magazine for this, nope, nope, I didn't like that, didn't like it, just trying to rush it.
Welcome everybody to Midday magazine for this Thursday, November 14th, 2024.
Have your host James here and we're joined right now by our good friend Anna Mitchell, natural resource educated with UW-Madison Extension.
And always good to see you, thanks for being here.
You're welcome, good to be here James.
Oh, I've been well recovering from a cold, but it is a season.
It really is, it really is. Glad to hear you're recovering. And glad to see your topic today.
We're going to dive into wildlife habitat and movement. A topic that this time of year feels like a really good link at a time to the topic.
I try my hardest to make sure they're timely. Yeah, so today we're going to get into wildlife corridors and crossings, which is a topic I don't know a lot of people know about.
I don't think so. And I'm pretty certain we have not covered this ourselves with you or with others on this topic.
Yeah, so before we get into wildlife crossings and corridors, it's really important to actually just talk about habitat and movement of wildlife.
As we all know, wildlife move in order to complete their life cycles.
It does not matter if they run, swim or fly, wild animals at the end of the day have to move to find food, water, shelter, and breeding sites.
So we all know animals move. I'm sure we've experienced it.
Oh, yeah, those wild turkeys, man. Man, you don't want to hit a turkey or a deer.
No, no, no. So unfortunately, you know, as our human populations grow and we're expanding, we see a lot of fragmentation in wildlife habitat.
And when I say fragmentation, you can just think of like breaking apart of.
So our cities expand. You know, we have agricultural fields and so we take out wildlife habitat.
So we're fragmenting natural wildlife habitat.
We actually experienced this almost every day right here in our building or across the street I should say.
We have a eagles nest across the street over at the artillery over there.
When we first moved in here, this eagle would be flying around all the time.
It was beautiful things. It would distract me swirl. I just, I'd be distracted by it all the time on the air.
Right. But I did a little homework on this because it seemed so active.
Yeah. And I didn't know if that was eagles were or not. They tend to be very active when they're in an area, a rural area where they have a hard time finding food.
Yeah. And it sent me down this rabbit hole, this eagle hole, if you want.
Just more and more learning about eagles and how much of their habitat has been taken up.
Yeah. And how that is our bird. That's the symbol of our country.
Right. And that's an animal that is not living its best life really because of some of this fragmentation we're talking about.
Yeah. And, you know, just to get off a little side tangent.
That's what we're all about.
Right. Right. Eagles have actually made a really huge comeback in their populations which is really cool because of habitat restoration projects.
We'll get into that earlier in a little bit.
We've touched down to the little bit with the recent Jefferson Award winner and some other things.
That have been some great movement being done by people with the eagles.
Yeah. Yeah. It's really cool.
But yeah, like I had said, there's many factors that cause habitat fragmentation.
It is just the nature and reality of our growing populations, right?
Have urbanization, have road development, fences get put in, etc.
Right. Many man-made barriers that impede with wildlife movement, habitat, etc.
So you might be saying, wow, that's horrible.
And we do see it, right? Yeah.
So what's being done to fix it? Well, there's two really cool things.
I guess that are being done to fix it.
And that's improving wildlife corridors and creating wildlife crossings.
So before we...
I think we can dive into like, what is a wildlife corner?
What is a wildlife crossing?
And we're going to do a little visual exercise here.
With wildlife corridors.
So a wildlife corridor.
The technical definition of it is that it's an ecological corridor.
That's part of a landscape that allows animals to move between larger areas of habitat.
Okay. So now play along with me.
Visualize in your head two separate pieces of forest.
There's nothing connecting these pieces of forest.
Now in one of the forests, you have deer.
The deer in this forest are running out of food, but they need a way
to get to that other piece of forest.
But there's nothing connecting those pieces of forest to give them
a good movement area, right, to give them safety to move.
Now visualize a little piece of woods that's connecting
those two larger chunks of forest.
And this little piece of wood is allowing movement for deer.
It basically turns into a deer highway.
That deer highway, air quotes, right?
That is what we call a wildlife corridor.
Wow. Yes.
I love that. That is really cool.
And nicely done. That was very good.
I'm not too visual. I got it. I saw it.
Good. Good.
Yes. So corridors are basically the habitual routes that animals use
based on either learned behavior, seasonal influences,
like migration, seasonal influences,
and just inherited traits, something that they learn from their parents, right?
They can often be identified by landscape features that have good paths of movement,
including like topography, elevation, vegetation type,
and physical barriers, whether that be roads or rivers.
So corridors basically just a path for an animal to get from one spot to another
that provides them safety.
From one spot to another to find food, water, breeding ground, etc.
Really? It's the story of our country doing this.
Our country was built on roads.
It was built on paths.
It was built on building these things connecting.
Our community right here in Rapids is connected by a lot of paths and a lot of things.
There's even the ATV route that connects communities and stuff.
This is just an extension of that it feels like.
Yeah. Kind of an extension of that.
Just a wildlife extension.
Yeah, just exactly.
It's natural.
It's just a natural, beautiful thing.
It is a natural part of the ecosystem,
and corridors have been around forever.
Well, because of urbanization and our growing population,
a lot of that really, really important corridor area has been fragmented,
which means that animals can't move, right?
They can't take their little highway, right?
The corridor from one spot to another.
And those spots aren't just, you know, spots that they're like,
oh, you know, this is good habitat.
It's vital to their survival in order to be able to take that corridor to new habitat.
So we've got some really, I'll talk in a little bit about some really great restoration projects
for those corridors that are going on throughout our country, too.
Cool. Cool.
And one of the things that I noted, this was a long time ago.
I saw something out of a random article, like a good news network kind of thing,
where there was this place in Texas that they were struggling with a lot of the population,
the animal population there, and they were losing a lot of it,
and they didn't know what to do.
And they decided to basically build this crossing.
And I'd never seen anything like it before.
It is one of the cooler things I think that human beings have come up with four animals.
I'm really looking forward to hearing more about this.
And I'm going to go to my way, James, into just wildlife crossing.
So crossings are different from corridors.
We might get in the weeds a little bit here, but I'm going to try to keep us straight here.
So a wildlife crossing is a human built infrastructure, like a bridge or a tunnel,
that is specifically designed to help wildlife safely cross a man-made barrier.
So we're going to do a same visualization.
You see, you know, visualize those two separate chunks of forest,
but in between them now is a road.
Well, there's no corridor there because there's the road.
So how are the deer going to move from the piece that they're in to the other piece of forest
where they need to get to the food?
Well, one strategy is let's build a bridge over the road.
Don't think about a bridge that's paved, right?
This bridge has grass, has trees, has other vegetation that matches the forest.
Basically is just a way for those animals to cross over the road.
So we're not impeding human traffic, right?
And those animals can now get to that other piece of forest.
So that bridge that's been created to allow for safety, safe movement for these deer,
that is what we call a wildlife crossing.
I've done a little bit of research in these just because of that,
what I found that day and how I've just always kind of kept an eye on this
and thought it was really interesting.
It's something that I feel like is only a matter of time before it's very common
in this state and other Midwest states.
And one of the things that I noted from it too was,
well, I come from a construction family.
So I see something like that.
I'm like, well, how much of that cost?
What did they take and everything?
They kind of look at this and say, well, how much were they spending on
cleaning up dead wildlife or what they were losing in wildlife?
And how much this cost?
And it was an easy decision for that board to make.
Oh, this is much cheaper way of, you know, not solving this problem,
but helping mitigate.
Thank you, yes, exactly.
And I thought that was really cool.
Another part of it that I saw too, and this is more of a recent thing.
Some of these are actually underground birds.
Yes.
Sometimes they do that.
It depends on the land and the kind of structure you're working on.
And the animals, what the animals habits are too.
Yep.
So our little visual was a bridge.
But yeah, like you said, James, there are tunnels.
Sometimes even culverts act as this.
It just depends on what your wildlife population is,
kind of what their mode of transportation is.
There's a lot of really unique examples of this that I'll get into in just a second.
Just one other really quick thing.
They're beautiful.
Oh, yes.
They're really cool looking.
They're a nice little attraction.
They're almost like they're kind of a cool thing to see.
They're not now ice or anything like that.
No, no.
Like a beautiful little addition to these roads.
Yeah.
And it's something that strikes your curiosity when you see it.
You're like, what is that?
That's a good point.
And then you, you know, it's something that I think we're helping the animals maintain their natural behavior.
We're not impeding with human movement in our day-to-day lives.
You know, where this is like the coexist, right?
We are literally creating something that can help wildlife and humans exist
and go about their normal days without negative interaction, right?
I grew up seeing cubs and white sock fans live next to each other
and put up with each other.
If they can do that, we can do this.
Oh, yes.
We can coexist with our animal kingdom.
Yes, we can, James.
Yep.
So, crossings, like we had said, wildlife crossings.
They can be underpasses that enable wildlife to cross underneath roads.
They can be overpasses that help wildlife cross over roads.
There's wildlife-friendly bridges.
There's a lot of different, really, really cool examples.
So, what about the differences between these two things?
Yes.
Okay.
So, here's where maybe we'll get into the weeds a little bit.
So, crossings are the roots or areas or corridors.
I'm sorry, corridors are the roots or areas of habitat
where animals use to move between larger areas of intact habitat, right?
So, crossings are those man-made linkages between that habitat.
So, if a corridor is where animals naturally move,
where would you want to put a crossing?
Probably right where that natural and that long lasting
or the corridor where the corridor has been for a very long time.
So, where we fragment corridors, if it's viable,
that's where we can put a crossing.
Yeah.
So, you can have a crossing in a corridor.
That's pretty interesting.
Yeah.
That's kind of cool.
And I imagine for some places vital, you know, needed.
You got a lot of different animals that travel a lot of different ways.
Yes.
Yeah.
That's quite interesting.
And so, this is more of one of those things.
This is certainly a case-by-case zip code,
a zip code kind of thing with what areas,
even would need these, would be benefited by these,
and what type of ones that they're used.
Yes.
Are there examples of corridors and crossings we can touch on?
Yeah.
So, some corridor examples in Wyoming.
There's actually a 125-mile corridor.
So, this is the natural travel path, right?
Yeah.
125-mile corridor that pronghorns or anelope,
some people know them as anelope,
undertake each spring and fall.
Basically, these anelope migrate 125 miles each way
between the Grand Teton National Park and Pinedale, Wyoming.
So, there's been some restoration projects to help improve that corridor area.
So, the path that they're taking from, you know,
whether that be where they stay in the spring,
to where they go in the winter.
So, it's really interesting to see that those pronghorn,
anelope, we don't really think of those as migrating species,
but they are.
So, this is another part of this that I enjoy,
and I'll admit to the audience.
I enjoy every time we get together.
It's the info inside the info, you know,
with the things that we learned that it's cool to be learning about
our habitats and these different crossings and corridors,
but to learn something like that about our animal kingdom,
this is also really cool.
That's very interesting.
My old stopping grounds has done something similar to this,
the Burnham Wildlife Quarter, a beautiful thing.
I've seen pictures of this.
I'm not going to see them person yet, but I've seen pictures of this.
You know, and I'll be honest with you,
I did not know that the Burnham Wildlife Quarter was a thing
until I did a little bit of deep diving myself.
So, the Burnham Wildlife Quarter is a 100 acre landscape
within Chicago's Lake Shore Park,
and it features native prairie and woodland ecosystems,
and what's really unique about this corridor
is that it provides safe passage
to about 3 million migratory birds during migration season.
So, this is in the heart of Chicago,
and it's providing safe passage for migrating birds,
but also habitat for so many different animals
that we see who can thrive in urban settings,
like raccoons and coyotes.
And turkeys, you know, so it's providing more than just a corridor.
It's providing habitat for other animals and species as well.
And I brought up the Sox Cubs things earlier in part as a joke,
but also to bring this part of it,
and bring it back to this part of it too,
because this is one of those things,
almost 100% of the boat is behind this, a Chicago one,
and enjoying this.
It has been a welcome part to the city.
And I think of cities like Chicago, Milwaukee, Madison,
Minneapolis, Midwest cities that could really benefit
from these corridors and crossings.
Yeah.
It's great examples,
and to have one, you know, not only that close,
but some others that will bring up in a bit,
really note and needed as far as we're trying to promote these
and talk more about it.
Yeah, I mean, we're in a central fly,
like we're in a highway, I guess, for migrating birds, right?
We don't really have a lot of large mammals in our area
that migrate, but we have a lot of birds in our area.
So thinking about that, you know, that's a corridor.
Yeah, yeah.
Wyoming's got another great one too.
Yes, Wyoming, in the red desert to the Hoback area,
they have a mule deer corridor that supports
the longest mule deer migration in the United States,
and that's 150 miles one way.
That's pretty cool.
So mule deer, that blew my mind.
I learned this a couple of years ago, mule deer,
when I think of them, I'm like, oh, yeah,
they're in the mountains, etc.
Prairies and grasslands.
No, they migrate these mule deer.
And Wyoming migrate 150 miles each way
between the red desert to the Hoback.
So another deer hole, I'm going to go down.
Just another rabbit hole.
I'm going to run down at it.
It's a very interesting.
It is.
Yeah.
What about some examples of wildlife crossings?
Yeah.
So wildlife crossings are so cool.
I just, if I get very excited about them,
they're really unique.
So since 1996, there's over 40 wildlife crossing structures
that have been implemented in Banff National Park
along the Trans Canada Highway.
So these wildlife crossings include six overpasses
and 38 underpasses.
And there's almost 50 miles of wildlife fencing
that's been built to kind of direct wildlife movement
towards these crossings.
So if you're ever up in Canada,
and you're on the Trans Canada Highway
in your Banff National Park,
look for these wildlife crossings.
They're going to be bridges.
Some of them will be those overpasses
and some of them will be underpasses.
If you don't think you'll have the opportunity
to get over there, look online.
They've got some really beautiful pictures
of these crossings in Banff.
It's really cool.
It's really interesting.
And it gives you a good idea of two of what,
when we bring these,
because I think it's just a matter of time.
When we bring these to our communities,
something to welcome to the community.
Again, I think that they,
the far as infrastructure-wise,
just make things even more interesting and beautiful
and everything.
And it brings awareness to so much of this.
There's a lot of people like myself out there
that are learning right in real time so much of these things
and how important they are to our communities.
Right, yeah.
Another really interesting example of a corridor
is down on Christmas Island,
which is located in the Indian Ocean.
They have an annual migration of millions of red crabs.
Well, when you have millions of red crabs on the road,
there's nothing you can do to really stop the damage.
That's going to happen.
Right, right.
So one of the things that they've done on Christmas Island
to help maintain the migration route of these red crabs,
they've created 31 crab underpasses.
Wow.
Underpasses, so under the road,
and then a 16-foot high crab bridge
where the crabs literally crawl up on the sides
across the road.
It's like, this is one you need to go look at pictures.
It's wild.
You have to, you have to.
Pretty crazy.
There's a couple of things to look up there.
And I also wanted to touch on this as well.
Locally, this has a touch as well.
Yeah, it does.
So I didn't realize this,
but actually in Portage County,
there is a wildlife crossing.
It's underpass and it was specifically created.
So turtles could safely pass under the road
and not get hit by vehicles, obviously.
And it's been successful.
It's reduced the amount of impacts
that vehicles have had on turtles.
So I think a lot of us,
one of our rights of passage of getting a driver's license
is stopping pulling over and putting a turtle
on the other side of the road, especially in that area.
Just be careful if it's a snapping turtle.
I've ran into that.
Be careful of that.
And that's a part of the reason why we should care.
And there's other reasons why we should care as well, Anna.
Yeah.
There's no denying, right,
that as we humans are expanding our habitat,
that we are going to have an impact
on the habitat of wildlife around us.
We're going to have an impact on the natural ecosystem.
And that's going to lead to fragmentation,
like we've talked about before.
And sure, we could turn a blind eye to our impact, right?
But what a wonderful gift we've been given
to be stewards of these resources.
Wildlife is a resource.
It's something that we get to appreciate
when we're out on our drive.
It's like, oh, look at that deer.
Or maybe sometimes you don't appreciate looking at a deer
when you're driving, right?
But it's something that we, I think we can value.
I think we can take appreciation for.
And it's a gift that we've been given to advocate
for something that can't advocate for themselves.
So instead of turning a blind eye,
let's do our research.
Learn about things.
Advocate for things.
If you have an area on your property
and you know that it's a major movement area for wildlife,
improve that habitat a little bit.
Plant some native plants.
Make it a safe spot, especially if your hunter,
corridors are very, very important.
You should look into it a little bit.
Very good spot to set a deer stand.
But if you see a spot, hey, there's turtles here.
Advocate for a underpass, a turtle underpass.
Something like that.
One thing we didn't necessarily get the touch on
that I came across a little bit in my research.
So many of these things, that's how they started grass roots.
Just a community member seeing something
and going to their city and their board
and their government trying to get this going.
This has been such an informative and fun
and interesting conversation.
Anna, we appreciate it so much and very well worded
to wrap it up there.
I appreciate you.
A society is judged in how they treat their elderly,
their animals, their children.
This is a gift that we've been given
to show people what we're made of
and show the animal kingdom what we're made of.
And work with them on this.
And people have followed questions one and a more.
But what we talked about today, how can they reach you?
You can either swing by the extension office
or you can email me at anna.m.james
at whiskwicc.edu.
Looking forward to the next conversation.
And thanks so much for joining us.
Thanks so much, Dan.
Say hi to the team back extension force.
Oh, I will.
We'll have more Midday Magazine for you coming up right here
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