Deer/elk crossing guard makes Highway 21 safer
For the past seven years, a gap between a section of wildlife fencing on Spring Shores Road has been the weak link allowing deer and elk to get onto Highway 21.
Now that gap is being plugged by the installation of a cattle guard on the road which is designed specifically for deer and elk.
"Deer and elk have specialized hooves so if the animal walks on it and its unstable or rounded at the top, they don't feel stable and they don't walk across it," said Krista Biorn, habitat biologist with the Idaho Department of Fish and Game.
The combination of the new deer and elk crossing guard and already existing fencing, known as exclusion fencing, will guide animals to a wildlife underpass beneath Highway 21 built by the Idaho Transportation Department in 2010.
It's a safety project to reduce the collision of humans in their cars with deer and elk on their ancient migratory paths.
"We have an 11-mile section that we keep an eye on where motor vehicles (collide) with wildlife all winter long," said Biorn. "We've had numbers up in the 200- plus losing deer in one winter season so the chances of hitting a deer or elk are pretty high in that stretch of the highway."
But those chances will be dramatically reduced with the completion of the crossing guard project in just a week or so.
It's taken some seven years for Idaho Fish and Game to get the funding to construct this last piece of the underpass project which altogether cost more than $1 million.
The whole concept is to funnel the deer and elk to the underpass under Highway 21, allowing them to have access to their habitat, but keeping them away from motorists in Highway 21
