Report highlights how wildlife corridors protect wildlife and more are needed in Pennsylvania
An environmental group is calling on state leaders to protect Pennsylvania's native species by supporting the creation of more wildlife corridors and crossings.
Pennsylvania is among the top five states for vehicle collisions with animals every year, and it's not just a deer issue. PA is home to elk, bobcats, black bears, and a variety of turtles, too, and many birds like the Songbird migrate through the state.
"We have incredible wildlife. But each year, more and more, our state's wildlife habitat is crisscrossed by roads, by energy infrastructure, by sprawl. That's called fragmentation. Habitat fragmentation has a real impact. That combined with habitat loss is the number one threat to wildlife in the Commonwealth," said Stephanie Wein, Clean Water & Conservation Advocate of the PennEnvironment Research & Policy Center.
A new PennEnvironment report highlighted ten wildlife corridors in the state that are successfully connecting habitats, helping wildlife move and migrate, and decreasing vehicle-wildlife collisions and the amount of roadkill.
"If they're not crossing roads, they face a different problem, which is the population being split apart and then you have inbreeding and less healthy populations," Wein said.
Corridors can look like many different things, including engineered crossings, culverts, stepping stones, barriers, and dam removals. Wein said it just depends on what species you're trying to keep moving.
The report's successful examples include the woodland dam removal on the Little Sewickley Creek in Allegheny County that helps fish swim upstream, and some of the 35 wildlife crossings that PennDOT has constructed, like underpasses under I-99 in Centre County that families of bears and deer love to use, and culverts and fencing on State Route 381 in Fayette County that accommodates threatened species of turtles and amphibians.
"We want to keep them off the roadways for us, but we also want to make sure that they have safe ways to cross the roadways so they can continue to function as a healthy and intact population," Wein said.
Wein said there's a lot of work being done by state agencies and conservation groups to reconnect habitats, but to take these efforts a step further, PennEnvironment is calling on Governor Josh Shapiro and the executive branch to form an interagency working group to protect more critters.
"What we can learn from other states is that by having an interagency working group partnered with conservation experts, we can come up with a plan with priority areas we need to conserve, and we need to reconnect in Pennsylvania. So we need a statewide wildlife corridor plan for the Commonwealth," Wein said.
She said they're also suggesting some steps the legislature can take.
"Like making sure that we track where animal vehicle collisions are happening. So, we can best cite those crossings, making sure we're getting that data....And then also raising the spending limit that the Pennsylvania Game Commission, which is a self-funding commission, has the money, but they're only allowed to spend $400 per acre to acquire land for conservation. The legislature could raise that cap to make sure that we are getting the most critical parcels for conservation, both for the wildlife but also for our sportsmen," Wein said.
