Utah Wildlife Road Mortality Hotspots:

1. Utah Wildlife Road Mortality Hotspots: An analysis of contributing environmental and demographic factors, economic impacts and implications for mitigation and management Christine A. Kassar & John Bissonette INTRODUCTION Road corridors cover approximately 1% of the United States; however, the ecological impacts of these roads are not restricted to this area alone (forma & Alexander 1998). This is because roads have both a physical and virtual footprint, causing direct and indirect effects respectively. This study will focus on the direct effects of roads on deer in Utah by identifying wildlife mortality hotspots and the environmental characteristics of these areas to determine if there is a correlation between factors and number of crashes. • DEER-VEHICLE CRASH STATISTICS • Deer-Vehicle Crashes-1.5 million per year • Deer killed-726,000 per year • Total vehicle damage due to deer-$1 billion per year • Estimated human injury-29,000 per year • Estimated human fatality-211 per year • OBJECTIVES • To determine high wildlife road kill areas by road segment throughout Utah. • To identify environmental characteristics of areas with high wildlife-vehicle accident rates and to evaluate how location of these hotspots correlates with such factors • To investigate the impact of temporal factors, including seasonality and time of day on road-kill patterns at these hotspots. • To asses monetary costs associated with accidents, including vehicle damage, human injury and death and wildlife mortality. • To synthesize this information and evaluate implications for mitigation and management. • METHODS • Utah Department of Transportation database analysis & GIS mapping • Utah spatial database analysis, field observations and correlation • Cost estimate development • Inferences and analysis of implications for management & mitigation . • EXPECTED RESULTS • We expect to find correlations between number of accidents and environmental factors including traffic characteristics, road alignment and vegetative and topographic features. • We expect that there will be correlations between time of year and time of day with number of accidents. • We expect that our economic evaluation will show that DVS have a significant economic impact on people.