Metro unveils new and improved Wildlife Crossings guidebook
Metro news release: Aug. 31, 2009
Contact: Karen Kane 503-797-1942 or karen.kane@oregonmetro.gov
In addition to helping people get around the region, Metro is making it easier for wildlife to travel as well. Helping the region's wildlife through transportation design, Metro has released a completely revamped edition of its guidebook Wildlife Crossings: Providing Safe Passage for Wildlife.
Most native fish and other animals must navigate an intricate network of urban roads, a vital part of transportation systems. These roads, however, can negatively affect the natural environment, from wildlife-vehicle collisions to fragmenting wildlife habitats.
The book's ultimate goal is to ensure that local roadways allow for the greatest possible movement of fish and wildlife, which will lead to the conservation of native animals throughout the region. Written for transportation and city planners, the book provides recommendations on how to build or enhance wildlife crossings, such as underpasses, walkways through culverts, and vegetated overpasses. The book also describes how to fence, provide lighting and use plantings for specific wildlife species.
"The Portland metropolitan area is home to a great diversity of wildlife and landscape features," said Metro Council President David Bragdon. "This guidebook will help improve native habitat, which is a benefit for people as well as for the animals of our region."
Wildlife Crossings has undergone a major overhaul since its last edition. Complete with comprehensive full color maps and pictures, it includes completely new research, studies and content. Other information includes data on fish and wildlife populations in the Portland metropolitan area, a guide to ensuring wildlife mitigation and even direction on where to find potential sources of funding to complete these types of projects.
The last edition of Wildlife Crossings was published in 2003 through collaboration between Metro and Portland State University students. Along with new information and research, this edition will also include examples of how designers have incorporated some of these practices around the region.
Wildlife Crossings is a part of Metro's Green Streets Guidebooks, a series aimed at providing planners with practical information for designing safe and healthy streets benefiting both people and wildlife. Wildlife Crossings complements Metro's Green Streets, Trees for Green Streets, Creating Livable Streets and Green Trails guidebooks as well as the work of others in the Portland metropolitan area focused on inventorying, characterizing, and connecting important habitats for native fish and wildlife.
The 2009 Wildlife Crossings guidebook is an interim edition and will be available, free of charge to the public, at Metro Regional Center. Metro will publish a final edition in 2010 and will include only slight modifications from this year's edition.
To obtain a copy of this guidebook or for more information, contact Lori Hennings by e-mail at lori.hennings@oregonmetro.gov.
Metro, the regional government that serves 1.4 million people who live in the 25 cities and three counties of the Portland metropolitan area, provides planning and other services that protect the nature and livability of our region.