STORY AND PHOTO BY KAREN BOSSICK

The Wood River Land Trust is commissioning a road ecology team to assess the site-specific benefits and costs of various measures capable of reducing wildlife-vehicle collisions on Highway 75.

The study, funded with a donation from a long-time supporter of the Land Trust, is being conducted in tandem with the second phase of highway widening.

The majority of wildlife-vehicle collisions in Blaine County occur north of Hailey in a stretch of highway between the Cloverly and Peregrine ranches in the south to just north of East Fork Road in the north. Whole herds often stroll across the highway just north of Hailey bringing the morning and evening commutes to a standstill.

Those collision involve a resident elk herd that has stopped migrating, as opposed to pronghorn, mule deer and elk that follow critical migration routes near U.S. 20 south of Bellevue and Highway 75 north of Ketchum.

The resident elk herd tends to meander between the river and fodder in pastures in the open spaces north of Hailey and, so, pose a safety hazard for themselves and the increasing number of commuters on Highway 75. More than 20 percent of the crashes on the local stretch of the state highway involve wildlife-vehicle collisions.

“The County is committed to improving roadway safety and living in harmony with our local wildlife,” said Blaine County Commissioner Angenie McCleary. “A closer look at treatments that are known to reduce wildlife-vehicle collisions, including how well they’ll perform on Highway 75, will be useful to pursuing a solution.”

The County launched a citizen science campaign to collect roadkill data, engaging local students to estimate safe driving speeds in 2009 following the first phase of highway widening. The students deemed that 40 miles per hour was the maximum people could drive at night to avoid wildlife-vehicle collisions.

That led to the Idaho Transportation Department reducing the nighttime speed limit between McKercher Boulevard and the north end of Buttercup Road to 45 miles per hour. ITD also improved the design of Hospital Bridge south of Ketchum to allow for wildlife passage beneath it along the riparian corridor.

It installed additional wildlife warning signage elsewhere.

The effectiveness and cost of measures to reduce wildlife vehicle collisions will be assessed as will consideration of factors like the geography of the Wood River Valley floor and the location of residential driveway curb cuts along the highway.

Idaho Fish & Game and the Idaho Conservation League will help with the assessment, which is scheduled to be completed in Spring 2025. Public information sessions will be held in 2025.