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Recent highway construction on U.S. Highway 285 north of Santa Fe has created an impenetrable barrier against the east-west movement of wildlife between the Sangre de Cristo and Jemez Mountain ranges. Even domestic animals caught on the highway are in jeopardy because of an unbroken concrete wall running parallel to the highway for many miles. Such a configuration fragments the habitat on either side of the highway and poses a deadly threat to animals who try to move across in search of food, mates and territory.
In recent years, conservation biologists have learned that the survival of wildlife depends on "wildlife linkages," or corridors that connect pockets of habitat and allow the movement of animals. Linkages give animals increased access to the basics of survival: food, water, mating partners and living space. All of U.S. 285 is part of the large wildlife linkage (termed "megalinkage") along the spine of the entire continent-in 2003 this was identified as being essential to protect for ecological stability by a group of scientists and conservationists at a national workshop hosted by the conservation group, The Wildlands Project. Habitat connectivity is essential for wide-ranging large carnivores such as bears and cougars who play important roles as regulators of prey species. The loss of carnivores-due to either fatalities as roadkill and/or due to lack of ability to roam from one area to another-has repercussions throughout the entire food chain of an ecosystem.
In addition to the danger posed to wildlife and domestic animals trying to cross U.S.285, the existing highway design will likely create a danger to the public when wild or domestic animals cause automobile collisions, and as animals attempt to negotiate the barriers and the highway itself.
APNM aims to expand to the U.S. Highway 285 corridor the collaborative approach used to address reduction of highway impacts on wildlife and driver safety in Tijeras canyon outside Albuquerque. A coalition of important stakeholders will explore sound and acceptable solutions specific to problems created by the U.S. Highway 285 construction and unique to the surrounding landscape.
For information on how to get involved in this project, please email Debbie Risberg at APNM.
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