Reducing Roadkill in NC

Hello. My name is Mario.

Consumer grand.

Welcome to my presentation.

I'm reducing road kill an animal vehicle crashes in North

Carolina. Um, so let's just get right into it.

Why is roadkill so important?

Um, well, roadkill really is the effect of a more

serious issue here, Um, that the crashes are animal vehicle

related crashes, air actually rising in North Carolina.

Um, now do what air?

What's the empirical evidence to support this claim?

Well, the North Carolina Department of Transportation on their website

actually released Ah, an article saying just this that in

they released the article in October saying that the crashes

were soaring on dhe within the article.

They used this report as the foundation for for their

claims, basically on dhe the most, uh, one of the

most curious things that I saw with just this front

page was the was the small writing at the bottom.

Approximately 90% of all the reported animal related crashes involved,

dear um, which I thought was interesting because, Well, when

you're looking out on the side of the road on

the different types of roadkill Ah, lot of them are

are small rodents.

Andi, I guess most of the time.

Those those, um, those crashes, they're just not They're not

reported, but what dear?

They are.

And so when I saw that, I, um I wanted

to look into Why Why, dear, what, um what is

there? Is there anything about their behavior that that led

to this statistical significance with how much how much dear

is in, uh, involved in these crashes?

Um, and so I in this report that I saw

in this wildlife report that I saw, um, all the

deer concentrate around the most populous areas in North Carolina,

especially Mecklenburg County, which is home to Charlotte, and Wake

County, which is home Thio to Raleigh.

Um, and also along with that, these crashes air Not

going to be, um they're they're not going to be

insignificant. These animals are way quite a bit, and they're

about half the size of an adult human male.

So if you hit that with your car, the crash

is going to be significant.

Um, and North Carolina actually has a severity scale for,

uh, for just this, Um, this idea that crashes have

thes crashes have serious consequences.

Basically, um, so moving on back to the report.

Um, you can see here that Wake County was reached

2625 crashes just in.

Um, just in this two year span, alone with over

$7 million in property damage.

Um, this is another table that was in the the

report. Um, and Mecklenburg County is actually number ranks number

six with 1393 collisions.

Um, moving on Orange County for those that are interested

is ranked 29 out of 100.

Which is where the University of North Carolina is.

Um, another interesting figure that I thought was important, um

was that most of these crashes occurred between six.

PM and midnight, and a lot of them Ah, lot

of crashes also surged around 6 a.m. Now, with with

all of this taken into account, the most important points

from the report I found were that in just last

year alone, there were over 20,000 crashes, uh, related to

animals, um, with over $156 million in property damage with

2800 injuries and five deaths.

Um, if you're driving during those times, that could be

you you know you can You can directly be affected

by these crashes or by these animals.

Um, along with the previous points made with property damage

on dhe medical bills and loss of life business and

freighter transportations air also indirectly affected by by these crashes.

Um, if if you guys have ever been on the

highway, uh, if a traffic if a crash is significant

enough, it severely affect the traffic flow of the highway

of our main motive transportation.

And so many times sensitive operations are a severely affected

by this, um, such a ZX meetings for businesses or

E r visits or what have you?

There are plenty of plenty of things that that could

be affected by this.

Our entire economy is based off of, or a large

portion of our economy of the state's economy is based

off of these roads working correctly, um, and moving on

this other.

This other report made by the Office of State Budget

and Management just shows that the crashes air not going

to be slowing down any time soon.

Um, the population dynamic in North Carolina is, uh is

pretty is pretty interesting.

North Carolina experienced the fourth largest numeric gain.

Um, among states between in the last decade, with North

Carolina now being in the top 10, most populous, uh,

states in the United States.

Um, So with all these added people, um, where there's

no way that we can expect mawr crashes Thio to

occur. If there If most of these people are going

to be using our main mode of transportation the highway

systems, Um and so what are what are our goals?

Basically what?

What What can we do about this?

What? What are what are the main things that we

should focus on And in light of this issue, well,

we should We want to reduce the animal vehicle related

crashes, obviously.

But we also want to increase the connectivity of the

ecosystem for the animals themselves.

Um, North Carolina is a very, very diverse state.

Um, in regards thio different ecosystems and biomass and biodiversity

and our roads air just fragmenting their their ecosystems with

them having no way of migrating between the, um between

the roads safely and so so moving forward.

What is the solution?

How can we How can we fix this issue?

Basically well, u m moving forward then the solution that

I propose is wildlife highway crossings.

Um, this, uh, this bridge in particular in Parleys canyon,

Utah. My dad was actually involved in in building and

has, um, has had some interesting effects on the on

the environment.

Um, we'll get back to that later, though.

Um, first of all, do they even work?

I didn't I didn't say anything about that, but do

they even work?

Um, so this this specific article that I saw on

bye bye, Canadians, um, by a bunch of Canadian researchers,

um basically looked into this and they they analyzed 140

different studies published between 1981 and to April 2015.

And from those studies on Lee, 50 of them met

their study criteria.

So, uh, from that they were able thio, thio, analyze

some data and and come up with some interesting figures

here. Um, first of all, with this figure to, um,

on graph A, you can see that crossing with fencing

is the most, um, the most effective mitigation strategy with

a B s coming in close.

Three only reason why other is so high up is

because all the other mitigation strategies Air being pulled in

together. Um, on graph B, you can see that underpasses

air actually surprisingly mawr effective than underpasses and both the

over and under passes combined.

Um, graph C is also important because it shows that

the target demographic for these structures are being met with

large mammals, amphibians and reptiles using them at at a

frequent frequent weight rate.

Um, and lastly, with this last with this last graph,

um, it was it's also important because you you can

clearly see how none of these mitigation strategies are significant

compared thio the crossing crossing structures with fencing.

Um, this, uh, this figure is also pretty important because

it shows the mean effect size compared thio percent Roadkill

decrease. Um, now, what does mean effect size?

Uh, it pretty much looks at the strength of a

relationship between two variables in the statistical population.

So, um, what these researchers, they basically compared, um, the

amount of crashes before and after, um, mitigation strategies were

involved, basically, and by comparing the two, they were able

to find that, uh, they were able to find that

over half of them were not effective at all.

Um, pretty much.

And with me, in effect, size.

If groups differ by more than 0.8, uh, by 0.8

than they are worthy of of being mentioned and Onley

Onley a certain amount of mitigation strategies even make it

to that point.

Um, with most of them, as you can see on

the far right, being again, crossing structures and fencing being

built together.

Um, so moving on, um, the four most important points

that the paper presents basically is that crossing without fencing

seems to be ineffective in lowering animal vehicle crashes.

Um, crossing with fencing.

Uh, sorry.

Crossing without fencing seem to be ineffective and lowering animal

vehicle crashes.

Um, crossing with fencing reduce crashes by an estimated 83%.

Um, alternative animal detection systems.

Um, for large wildlife decrease crashes by an estimated 57%

on dhe.

There's little to no evidence showing the other mitigation strategies

reduce the animal vehicle crashes.

Uh, such as wildlife reflectors.

Um, so this is all all, um, pretty good news

in in support of of these bridges actually working so

long as they have fencing to them.

Um, moving on there.

I have another research article that looks into the the

ecological effects of these bridges and how they air very

beneficial thio to the environment.

Um, specifically to predators and thio, two other large animal

mammals within, um within an ecosystem.

Um, in Mexico, they these researchers were able thio, analyze,

um, analyze underpasses that are next to this, uh, t

to this beach.

Basically, all along this highlighted road there are there underpasses

that the researchers were were observing to see if they

were being used by animals specifically jaguars.

Um and they basically found that the underpasses did facilitate

functional connectivity between the populations that were separated between the

between the road.

Um and they have, um they've increased positive impacts on

other mammalian fauna as well within, um, within the area,

um, predators.

If you do not know, apex predators are incredibly important

for the balance of ecosystems are and are especially important

when considering their role in keeping pray populations under control.

So making sure that predators, along with these pray, um,

making sure that predators air protected along with these prey

can also help mitigate the amount of crashes that we

can observe in in North Carolina, even though that there's

a lack of jaguars.

Um, there's still plenty of other predators that hunt that

hunt thes thes animals.

Um, at least in in more rural places of the

state. And so moving on.

Yes, you can see here with with this research article,

um, they basically gave a deeper look into the effectiveness

out of underpasses specifically because I believe all of them

were All of the mitigation strategies were underpasses.

Um, and they could They could potentially be useful for

you for building them here in North Carolina.

Um, and here here's some photos to show the Jaguars

actually crossing and and some other animals crossing.

I think that was an ocelot using the culverts and

the and the, uh, the underpasses.

Basically eso moving on.

What are what are some alternatives then?

Do we have any practical and inexpensive alternatives thio to

help mitigate thes these, um, this issue without spending countless

amounts of money on on these structures.

Well, uh, I found ah, research article and in the

Czech Republic that released last year, actually, um, that studied

over the course of five months.

Six different dear.

Um, there the the figures on this paper weren't as

important as the other figures.

Um, but basically, they found that the research this order

that supposedly, um, deters deers from crossing the road, uh,

did not work at all.

It was statistically insignificant.

Um, when analyzing the migration frequency thio the sample population.

Um, And although the study was limited in scope to

the amount of deer that were sampled, the application of

this knowledge could be, uh could be useful in trying

to see if it could work in North Carolina.

Um, maybe because the sample population was so small that

that this could actually work in rural areas in North

Carolina. Um, but just from the data alone, just from

what they these researchers observed thes order repellents are ineffective.

Um, and by just by themselves, um, and so 111

point that I thought when I am one point that

I thought of when I read this article was further

investigation should should be done by testing the effectiveness of

the odors leading um animals to the wildlife crossings with

fencing, with the orders being placed in between the points

of entry basically on the fences to funnel the animals

into their, uh into the bridge is, um so yes,

basically, in summary of this article, um, the orders were

statistically insignificant.

Um, but further research should be done in North Carolina

to see if there, uh, if they're useful for the

white tailed deer that air here in North Carolina.

Um, and they should be used in combination if they

are effective at all.

Eso what are some potential shortcomings for for this project

or for these for these structures?

Um, well, arc Arc, um, who is arc Arc is

a animal.

They stand for Animal road crossing, Um, and interdisciplinary partnership,

working to facilitate new thinking, new methods, new materials and

new solutions for wildlife crossing structures.

So these guys were very much into the idea of

building, um, building these crossing structures.

Um, however, this article pretty much, uh, highlights the importance

of making sure that we, uh, that we keep in

mind the animals and that we keep in mind the

potential damage that we could be causing thio the migration

of the animals with building these structures that are supposed

to help them in the first place.

Um, if we build these structures with just, um, humans

in mind we can Ironically, just we can, ironically further

damage the ecosystem compared to just having the highways.

Um uh, just having the highways as they are alone.

Um, along with that, this article also looks into the

endless spending that you can that we can go down

basically, like in a rabbit hole with, uh, extending the

fence. Um, in the first article, I I forgot to

mention that, uh, they also they one of the points

of interest that they that they pointed out basically for

further research is that these high the where the fence

abruptly ends needs to be, um, needs to be analyzed

more. Basically.

Because if if these animals do not use the bridges

themselves and just go to the end of the fence,

then, um, thes projects air completely useless and will be

stuck putting more and more money into them, trying to

make them trying to make them better And see, Here

we go.

Another potential shortcoming is the edge of the fencing.

Uh, which was brought up by the first scientific entry.

See, I'm ahead of myself, so all I know, What

can you do then?

What? What can you do?

Thio really mitigate this, uh, these crashes or to be

involved in one of these crashes?

Um, well, NC dot has released in the same article

that I showed to you guys earlier.

They they show some helpful tips for motorists.

Um, Thio basically not make the crash more severe than

it has to be.

Avoid swerving thio.

Make sure that your car doesn't flip over.

Um uh, make sure to drive your high beams on

when possible during the night.

Especially, um, and just slow down, just slow down.

Basically, try to try to keep the deer in mind

when you're traveling at night.

Um, you can also support organizations like Arc talking toe.

Local officials also helps make them aware of the problem

and just spreading the word spreading.

The word helps.

Um, that was more people, uh, be interested in the

subject and their potential.

And there b'more potential discovery for other other solutions to

this problem and just staying safe.

In general, you don't want thio end up being a

statistic on the report.

So, basically, in summary, um, these crashes are on the

rise. Um, they have significant consequences to not only the

victims, but the state's economy as well.

And I supported that with evidence from the three research

articles that Oh, sorry.

So it's shown with evidence that thes crashes air prevalent.

And, um, I showed with evidence that the wildlife bridges

are, ah, good mitigation strategy.

Thio, help alleviate this problem.

And now moving on ahead of the curve.

Um, Utah is considered one of the one of the

leading, um, states and building these wildlife structures.

Um, this is this.

I believe this is the same bridge, or this might

be a different one.

Um, again, I'm pretty much sure my dad helped build.

All of these, um, animals are using the overpasses a

lot earlier than they were projected to be, um, to

be used by the animals to be adapted by them.

Um, with reductions for crashes going up to 85 to

95% almost completely eliminating the problem.

Um, which is obviously great news for for this mitigation

strategy. But obviously, more research needs to be done to

really show that, uh, show that these, uh, that this

mitigation strategy is, um is really worth putting our state's

resource is into, um and to finish off.

I wanted Thio wanted you guys to watch this video.

It tze basically Utah filming the different animals that are

crossing the the bridges and it leaves it leaves the

discussion on a hopeful note and on on a bright

future basically on moving forward.

Eso Thank you guys.

Thank you guys for sitting for 23 minutes.

Um, here's my bibliography.

And I hope you guys learned something new today.

Thank you.

Reducing Roadkill in NC

Audio TranscriptAuto-generated