EW-7: Ecological Connectivity

Goal

Provide or improve wildlife access and mobility across roadway facility boundaries and reduce vehicle-wildlife collisions and related accidents.

Requirements

The first requirement AND EITHER of the other requirements must be met to achieve points.

Requirement 1: Conduct a site-specific wildlife assessment for the roadway project. Report the resulting impacts that the roadway has on surrounding major ecosystems, identifying all non-human life that is impacted by the roadway facility according to the best scientific knowledge available for the ecosystem. Both point scenarios below require approval of the project ecologist.

Requirement 2:

1 point– Existing Alignments Only
Replace in-kind, retrofit, or upgrade any and all existing culverts and wildlife fencing structures deemed structurally deficient, damaged, obsolete, insufficiently sized, or otherwise inadequate.

OR

Requirement 3:

3 points – New or Existing Alignments
Install new dedicated wildlife crossing structures and protective fencing (if needed) as recommended by the wildlife assessment. Existing alignments must also replace inkind, retrofit, or upgrade all existing culverts and fencing structures deemed structurally deficient, damaged, obsolete, insufficiently sized, or otherwise inadequate.

Documentation

1. Copy of the executive summary of the ecological study performed for the project. At minimum, this summary should contain:    
   1. Site location map and site plan. Highlight locations, types and sizes of ecological connections in the facility.
   2. A list of non-human species identified. Include common name, Latin name, size, photos of the species, and highlight the largest species.
   3. The size of the connection required in order to accommodate the largest species identified above
   4. A list of planned new dedicated connections, new culverts and fencing to be installed, and any upgraded culverts and fencing installations.
   5. Signature of the project ecologist.
 
2. Photos of all culverts and fencing (new and upgraded, if any) and dedicated crossings after construction. Use a familiar object in the photo for scaling purposes (hammer, measuring tape, shovel, etc.) or provide scale on the image.

Public commentary on credit EW-7