ASHEVILLE — Safe Passage recently met with the N.C. Department of Transportation and N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission at the U.S. Forest Service office to collaborate on wildlife crossing opportunities in the I-40 reconstruction zone in the Pigeon River Gorge.
In the wake of Helene, we have raised concerns about the reconstruction and how best to accommodate wildlife connectivity in an area of the Pigeon River Gorge that our research has shown provides critical linkages across the landscape. Our concerns were addressed by NCDOT and other agencies, further strengthening our combined collaboration.
We were excited to see that NCDOT, NCWRC and the USFS are working together to integrate wildlife crossing structures into the new construction from the start, and that solutions are actively being considered for the full length of the affected corridor.
We are grateful for NCDOT’s leadership and consistent efforts to support wildlife crossings. NCDOT staff regularly coordinate with Safe Passage, NCWRC, and USFS on both project-specific and programmatic efforts to enhance wildlife passage and vehicular safety. For the I-40 repairs in the Gorge, which are on U.S. Forest Service lands, NCDOT and the Forest Service have partnered to sign a Memorandum of Understanding outlining their responsibilities to one another and that includes wildlife passage enhancements.
Marissa Cox of NCDOT’s Environmental Policy Unit helped lead the recent meeting and has been balancing wildlife requests with design constraints and established policy.
“NCDOT is diligently working to repair and replace hurricane-damaged infrastructure for people and wildlife in the Pigeon River Gorge,” Cox said. “Collaboration with Safe Passage and other agencies with local wildlife knowledge is important to capitalizing on the environmental resilience of this reconstruction.”
Ben Prater, Safe Passage Coalition facilitator, agreed, stating that, “this is exactly the kind of collaboration we have been working toward where we can all come together in even the most challenging set of circumstances to achieve durable solutions alongside our agency partners to steward our natural resources.”