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District hosts ‘Environmental Streamside
Chat 2007’ in June

Bruce King, District 6
ITD’s environmental professionals gathered at the District 6 office in Rigby on June 12 and 13 for “Environmental Streamside Chat 2007,” sponsored by ITD’s Environmental Section.

It was District 6’s turn to plan and host this annual conference. Because collisions with wildlife and the resulting cost in injury and property damage are increasing in Idaho and throughout the United States as motorists, speeds, highway widths and highway density increase, this year’s conference theme was “Integrating Wildlife Crossings into Transportation: Highways and D-6 Environmental Planner Tim Cramer Wildlife Connectivity, Crossings, Habitat Fragmentation and Linkages.”

The conference featured presentations by wildlife crossing researchers and a Wyoming Dept. of Transportation (DOT) district engineer, who has years of experience implementing
wildlife crossings; group discussions; and a field trip to Yellowstone Park and the greater Yellowstone area. The field trip was to view a wildlife crossing research project created by the Western Transportation Institute of Montana State University and the Idaho 87 fish passage projects sponsored by District 6.

Presenters at the conference were Jon Beckman, associate conservation ecologist of the Wildlife Conservation Society; Patty Cramer, United States Geological Survey (USGS) Utah Cooperative Fish & Wildlife Research Unit of Utah State University; John Eddins, district engineer, Wyoming DOT, Rock Springs; and Greg Burak, Idaho Department of Fish and Game (IDFG).

District 6 implemented ITD’s first wildlife linkage data collection and analysis effort in 2005 as a pilot project. In the future, all ITD districts will participate in linkage analysis data collection. Greg is heading up the database and “geographic information system (GIS)”-based statewide linkage analysis work for IDFG, which is funded by ITD and administered by IDFG.

Greg presented information on the process IDFG is using and how the results can be used.
District 6 Environmental Planner Tim Cramer said that thanks to our maintenance personnel, District 6 has almost three years of road kill location data, which are evaluated and analyzed using its GIS.

Also participating were Marc Munch, ITD transportation archaeologist; Nicholle Braspennickx, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers liaison for ITD; Kim Just, headquarters environmental planner; and Brent Ingrahm, environmental program manager, FHWA Idaho. ITD Director Pam Lowe was invited but unable to attend.

Dennis Clark, headquarters section manager, Environmental Section, delivered closing remarks at the conference. He said that the event provides ITD’s environmental planners with insights and know-how from environmental professionals outside ITD and outside Idaho, as well as an opportunity for information exchange and discussion of internal processes and procedures.

Published 7-13-07