Nonprofit Roaring Fork Safe Passages is entering the next phase of its efforts to prevent car crashes with wildlife, especially elk. It’s secured funding from the city of Aspen and Pitkin County, and is also hoping the town of Snowmass Village will contribute to projects in the upper valley.
A report from the nonprofit released last winter says the stretch of Highway 82 between Woody Creek and the Aspen Pitkin County Airport averages just over five animal-vehicle collisions per mile per year, and that there have been 95 reported collisions with elk over the past decade.
The first part of this year has been spent developing the recommendations for some of these high priority areas.
Julia Kintsch is an ecologist that specializes in wildlife crossings, and has been working with Roaring Fork Safe Passages.
She said there’s a wildlife culvert in the Woody Creek-Airport area that goes under the highway, and it’s used by deer and carnivores, like bobcats and mountain lions, but not elk. Elk are a high-priority species for not just the nonprofit, but biodiversity in the region.
“Elk have more strict passage requirements about what they will use, and what they won’t use, for a crossing structure,” she said. “And that structure is too small to accommodate elk.”
The existing culvert is about 100 feet long, 12 feet tall, and 16 feet wide.
Kintsch said they still need to study cost, location, and environmental impact before making final plans, but they’re considering a few other strategies, in addition to improving or replacing the existing culvert.
“Improving the existing wildlife fence that's on the eastern end of this particular project area, a nighttime speed limit reduction, potentially adding additional crossing structures with fencing in this segment, and also opportunities for just improving driver visibility,” she listed.
Roaring Fork Safe Passages anticipates that the next phase will cost about $36,000. Pitkin County has agreed to allocate $18,000, though that number may go down if Snowmass Village agrees to commit money. Aspen will match the county’s contribution.
Roaring Fork Safe Passages plans to evaluate some of these proposed strategies in more depth, using drones and other technology to create site-specific terrain models. The third phase of the project, which will likely start early next year, will focus on outreach and communication with CDOT and local governments to get these projects started.
Kintsch said there may be federal funds available over the next several years for those future projects, like wildlife culverts, which go under highways, or land bridges that go over them.
Another high priority section for the group is the Emma area between Willits and Basalt, which sees about six wildlife-vehicle collisions per mile per year on Highway 82.
