"From Highway 101 to Monterey Road, traffic in Silicon Valley has become deadly for wildlife trying to move between the Santa Cruz Mountains and the Diablo Range. Now, a major project is underway to connect preserved open spaces in the South Bay and reduce dangerous crashes for drivers. "Monterey Road is a death trap," said Fraser Shilling, a researcher at UC Davis who studies how wildlife interacts with roads."
""This is really the culmination of many, many years of land protection and advocacy work ... that enable habitat restoration," said Taylor Jang, senior Coyote Valley project manager at Peninsula Open Space Trust (POST), which spearheaded the effort. "We're really excited to start this." But it isn't just wildlife that are affected. According to the California Highway Patrol, drivers are involved in thousands of crashes with animals every year, resulting in hundreds of injuries and sometimes even death."
Traffic along Highway 101 and Monterey Road fragments habitat between the Santa Cruz Mountains and the Diablo Range, causing deadly vehicle-wildlife collisions. The Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority and partners will design wildlife crossings south of San Jose to connect preserved open spaces in the South Bay and reduce dangerous crashes. The effort builds on years of land protection and habitat restoration led by Peninsula Open Space Trust. Collisions cost Californians more than $1.6 billion from 2016 to 2023 and occur frequently in Coyote Valley when culverts are inaccessible, prompting animals to cross highways. The project will take years and depends on securing construction funding.
Read at The Mercury News
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