Standing in a grassy field across from the Brush Creek Park and Ride, Cecily DeAngelo motioned toward the nearby shale bluffs rising above Highway 82.
Over the sound of speeding cars and the occasional plane overhead, she explained where a wildlife bridge could be built to guide animals up and over the busy road.
DeAngelo trailed off as she noticed a coyote in the distance.
“I just saw him prance and get a little creature or something over there,” she said.
DeAngelo is the executive director of Roaring Fork Safe Passages, a nonprofit that has been studying solutions to wildlife-vehicle collisions since 2022. They recently released a mitigation plan, the first phase of which involves building an overpass near the Brush Creek Park and Ride and excavating a tunnel closer to the Aspen/Pitkin County Airport.
The prancing coyote is one of many species that the prospective crossings could benefit, but this location was chosen for a much larger mammal.
“You can see a really strongly delineated place where the elk have traveled,” DeAngelo said, pointing to a trail cutting through the brush behind the bluff.
Looking down, she realized the animals had left their mark in the field, too.
“We're standing in elk poop,” DeAngelo noticed.
Highway 82 is the main route in and out of Aspen, weaving through the base of the scenic Roaring Fork Valley.
Mule deer are the most common victims of collisions, but this part of the highway also has a high rate of vehicle collisions with elk, an animal that can weigh up to 900 pounds and cause significant damage to cars and drivers.
Safe Passages’ plan to build an overpass and underpass could eliminate nearly all of those accidents. The structures would be surrounded by fencing to funnel animals over the bridge or through the tunnel, keeping them off the highway.
However, the nonprofit estimates the combined construction projects would cost between $22 million and $32 million.
Julia Kintsch runs a consulting firm called ECO-resolutions, and she led the research for Safe Passages’ report.
“The infrastructure itself does have a large upfront cost,” Kintsch said. “But we also see that there's a cost of doing nothing.”
Kintsch has been studying wildlife connectivity issues across the American West for 20 years.
She says the six miles of highway north of the Aspen/Pitkin County Airport stand out in Colorado.
“That stretch of highway has some of the highest levels of elk-vehicle conflict that I've observed,” Kintsch said.
From 2014 to 2023, the Colorado Department of Transportation found that 55% of all collisions between the airport and Aspen Village involved wildlife.
Elk, deer and other mammals are active in these areas because they need to travel to lower elevations to find food in the winter.
“Seasonal resources are just that,” Kintsch said. “They can't access them year round.”
As climate change creates increasing habitat challenges, Kintsch said the ability for wildlife to move around becomes even more imperative to their survival.
“What if there's a fire? Where do animals go?” Kintsch asked. “Where do animals go when there's a drought, and maybe the resources over here are not as accessible? Connectivity helps animals to be able to move across the landscape in response to these extreme weather events or other environmental changes.”
The idea of wild animals using manufactured structures may seem far-fetched, but it’s a proven concept.
Kintsch co-led research for a series of crossings north of Silverthorne built in 2016. They yielded a 92% reduction in wildlife vehicle collisions, on par with projects around the country, which have an 80%-90% success rate.
Kintsch explained that animals aren’t that different from people, and when faced with oncoming traffic, they will choose the path of least resistance.
“If there's a culvert where I can ride my bike under the road, instead of trying to zip between cars like Frogger, I'm going to take that culvert,” Kintsch said. “Wildlife are the exact same way. They don't want to be in traffic any more than you want them in traffic.”
DeAngelo says public-private partnerships have successfully funded other crossings. The mitigation plan recommends an overpass on Pitkin County land, and county commissioners have been discussing the concept for several years.
During a county meeting in 2022, Commissioner Greg Poschman said he understood the structures would be expensive, but that the county needs to move in that direction.
“I'm thinking back to this winter's collision … Ten elk were killed in one wreck,” Poschman said. “And then right by my house on Brush Creek Road and Highway 82 a couple years ago, we had one driver who must have been looking down at his phone or something — took out five elk.”
An underpass constructed north of the airport runway would expand a current sub-highway culvert that some animals use, but it’s too small for elk. The Aspen/Pitkin County Airport also has a vested interest in preventing collisions.
DeAngelo says dead animals attract large birds, which create an aviation hazard, and airport officials regularly clear the carcasses themselves.
There are other high-impact areas along the highway, but these two locations were also chosen due to the significant amount of protected land surrounding them. The wildlife crossings, covered with native plants, would connect high-quality habitats on either side of the road.
The areas have relatively little development, but DeAngelo said that can change fast.
“If you wait too long, those opportunities are lost,” she said.
Safe Passages is scheduled to present its recommendations to the Pitkin County commissioners on Sept. 9, with a funding request to initiate the design phase.
The organization currently has an online survey open until Sept. 5 to gather public input on its mitigation plan.
