Animal crossing near Highway 85 helps save North Dakota wildlife

BISMARCK, N.D. (KFYR) -In this week’s segment of North Dakota Outdoors, Mike Anderson tells us how a wildlife crossing completed last year is making a safer highway for people and wildlife.

A wildlife crossing constructed to safely shuttle animals across what is now a heavily-used highway in western North Dakota is working.

“20 years ago Highway 85 through this area near the Long X bridge was just a lonely highway with very low vehicle volumes. Subsequent to the oil boom traffic, speeds and volumes increased. And then a few years ago, DOT expanded from a two-lane highway to a four-lane highway,” said NDGF big game biologist Brett Wiedmann.

Since the completion a year ago, a Noah’s Ark of animals like mule deer, coyotes, turkeys and now bighorn sheep have used the crossing.

“Every animal that goes through here is one less potential accident on the highway. We want to save the animals. The DOT wants to create a safer roadway. And so, this crossing functions for both agencies,” said NDGF conservation biologist Bruce Kreft.

In addition to the wildlife crossing a 10-foot tall fence is being installed to funnel animals through the crossing and off the highway.

“It’s obviously more distance for the animal to cross the roadway. So now that we have this in place, we’re pretty confident that it’s going to be a safer stretch of roadway,” said NDDOT biologist Greg Schonert.

Prior to construction, bighorn sheep rams in rut looking for ewes would migrate cross the busy road at all hours and get hit by vehicles.

“We just had four or five young rams show up and pretty encouraging to see that even before the completion of the fence, they did start using the wildlife crossing, which is pretty neat,” said Wiedmann.

Animals using the wildlife crossing is a true success story.

“Agency coordination with this project is a huge undertaking, but it’s worked very well. We want to credit DOT as much as possible to actually construct this and be open to the opportunity to provide connectivity to these animals. Provide a safer roadway,” said Kreft.

The Wildlife Crossing is located on U.S Highway 85 near the North Unit of Theodore Roosevelt National Park just south of the Long X bridge.

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