Hi, James Navé (www.jamesnave.com) here, your host for Twice 5 Miles Radio. I'm pleased to welcome conservationist Nikki Robinson (https://tedxasheville.com/speaker/nikki-robinson & https://wildlandsnetwork.org/) to the microphone. The title of this Twice 5 Miles show is Animal Bridges Over Busy Highways.
In this conversation with Nikki, I started thinking about the rabbits, squirrels, deer, armadillos, and coyotes I've seen lying on the shoulders of Interstates. How about you, how many animals have you seen on the shoulders of roads? Plenty, I suspect.
Well, you'll be happy to learn that Nikki has been working to fix this problem by helping to build animal bridges over busy highways like I-40 through the Pigeon River Gorge between Asheville, NC, and Knoxville, TN.
Before I talked with Nikki, I'd never realized animals crossing today's busy highways are traveling on ancient animal paths covered by asphalt. When you listen to this show, you'll learn that not only does the asphalt disrupt animal trails, it also disrupts streams and, by extension, fish, salamanders, and other aquatic creatures.
You'll also learn another reason to build animal bridges over busy highways: when a car hits a deer on a busy interstate, the damage to the vehicle exceeds $7000. Other effects include:
Traffic backed up.
Other crashed cars.
Injury to the deer and the people involved.
By the way, if you hit an elk or a moose, the damage to your car will exceed $16,000.
Nikki will tell you the good news: the bridges are going up over the highways, and the animals are slowly able to cross those damn busy highways without as much risk. So, indeed, my conversation with Nikki closes on a positive note. Yay animals.
With the remaining twenty minutes before the top of the hour, you will hear me tell a story about how once hitchhiked through the Pigeon River Gorge on I-40 to Denver. I was another kind of animal crossing another kind of bridge that eventually took me from immaturity to maturity. Enjoy the show.
