WILDLIFE MONITORING

 

Project looks at ways to reduce Highway 50 mortality

If you notice a camera under a county underpass or bridge in the next few months, don't worry; it's not Highway Patrol checking your speed. Oak Ridge High School students, with technical assistance from the Center for Sierra Nevada Conservation (CSNC) and a grant from the California Wildlands Grassroots Fund of the Tides Foundation, hope to determine if there are any remaining safe passages for wildlife under, over, or across Highway 50.

When Highway 50 was built in the late 1960's, it severed the low elevation oak woodlands between Shingle Springs and Placerville. Smaller mammals as well as reptiles and amphibians have been blocked from moving in a North-South direction. Larger mammals attempt to cross the freeway, often with disastrous results. As many as six deer per day are killed crossing the four lanes of traffic.

There are believed to be only two or three safe wildlife routes remaining across Highway 50. A few low-density parcels may still provide a potential corridor connecting the oak woodlands to the north and south across the freeway. The students' hope their infrared motion-detecting cameras can determine whether this corridor is actually being used.

"Development to accommodate California's exploding population results in increasingly shrinking islands of habitat to support wildlife," explained Ray Griffiths, CSNC ecologist and horticulture instructor at Cosumnes River College. "Animals requiring large patches of woodland to survive must be able to move among remnant habitat patches to find adequate food sources and avoid population inbreeding."

The portion of Highway 50 between El Dorado Road and Ponderosa road traverses the last remaining extensive area of relatively wild oak woodland that connects larger wild areas north and south of the highway The predominantly low-density residential land use has allowed wildlife to co-exist with human uses. The County is in the process of developing a General Plan that will determine the future of these lands and the wildlife that depend on them for survival. Greg Allen, one of the students participating in the monitoring, explained his interest; "We are trying to get involved with our County's General Plan and its environmental impact."

Karen Schambach, CSNC President, expressed both CSNC's and the students' appreciation for the cooperation of CalTrans and the California Highway Patrol in making the project possible. "This is a wonderful hands-on experience for the kids, and they are making a valuable contribution to wildlife conservation in Eldorado County."