By Frank Zoretich
Tribune Reporter

The Wildlands Project, a national conservation group, has a wild cross-traffic proposal for I-40 in Tijeras Canyon.

The group wants to establish a corridor along the spine of the continent - from the Yukon into Mexico - for safe wildlife migration and shorter trips by bears, deer, mountain lions and other animals.

In a news conference in Santa Fe today, Wildlands Project representatives will announce it has identified five "endangered linkages" in that corridor - including Tijeras Canyon.

The canyon separates the Sandia Mountains from the Manzano Mountains.

Any animal trying to make the crossing risks becoming roadkill in traffic on the six lanes of I-40 and the two lanes of N.M. 333 that run through the canyon.

Tijeras Canyon is "our No. 1 priority," said Jen Clanahan, the group's Rocky Mountain region director in Colorado. "We're calling for a wildlife crossing there, a `green bridge' in the area."

"We have several wildlife crossings in the state," said S.U. Mahesh, spokesman for the New Mexico Transportation Department. "In this location (Tijeras Canyon), there is no current plan for a wildlife crossing, but we're looking at the possibility."

The Federal Highway Administration, the U.S. Forest Service, the state Game and Fish Department, local governments, private landowners and other conservation groups would likely have to be involved in planning for a wildlife crossing in the canyon, Clanahan said.

The Legislature passed a joint memorial this year requesting state and congressional officials "to take action to reduce vehicle-wildlife collisions on New Mexico roads," including construction of wildlife "underpasses and overpasses."

But the memorial, initiated by Wild Friends, a New Mexico children's conservation group, did not specify where wildlife crossings should be located.

A memorial does not have the force of law, but "is an indication of the will of the Legislature," said Mark Watson, a habitat specialist for the state Game and Fish Department.

Watson organized a two-day workshop in June, attended by representatives of other state and federal agencies and conservation groups, to discuss how to improve safety for motorists, as well as animals, where wildlife tends to cross highways.

About 100 people participated in the workshop, including speakers from elsewhere in the country who had helped highway departments and other agencies work together to create wildlife crossings.

The participants agreed that four areas of the state most need them: Tijeras Canyon, Raton Pass, San Agustin Pass near Las Cruces, and N.M. 90 between Lordsburg and Silver City.

Tijeras Canyon is the top priority, Watson said, "if you're looking at the issue of not just how many animals are getting killed, but just the fact that the Sandia Mountains are being surrounded by development, and once you lose the size of that core area - it's an island biogeography situation, - you risk losing not only individual animals, but also mammal species."

That's one reason the workshop was titled "Critical Mass: Solutions for Reconnecting Wildlife and Habitats Across Highways."

Beverly deGruyter, wildlife biologist for the Sandia and Mountainair ranger districts of the Cibola National Forest, said a wildlife crossing in the canyon might best be located near Dead Man's Curve on N.M. 33, the point where the two-lane road passes beneath I-40.

"Maybe it should be called Dead Bear Curve," she said. "I've picked up bears and mountain lions and a lot of other critters squashed trying to cross I-40 out there."

Building a wildlife crossing in Tijeras Canyon "would take a lot of involvement from the public, a lot of money, and then a disruption to commuter traffic while under construction," she said.

Jan Hayes, president of Sandia Mountain Bear Watch, a conservation group that has also urged construction of a wildlife crossing in the canyon, said she's seen dead bears on I-40 on several occasions, including a sow and cub last year and a 400-pound black bear that was killed "three or four years ago" by a vehicle near the Tijeras exit.

"There's just no way animals can get across that highway without getting killed," Hayes said.

"Because of increasing human population, these mountains are becoming fragmented," she added, referring not just to the Sandias and the Manzanos, but to all the mountain ranges in the north-south corridor with endangered linkages the Wildlife Project hopes to protect.

"The Sandias are becoming an isolated mountain range," Hayes said. "That's going to affect every species up there that has to travel any distance to mate or forage. It looks like a little problem, but it's not. If we don't solve it soon, there may be no going back."

ENDANGERED LINKAGES

In addition to Tijeras Canyon, the Wildlands Project has listed these four areas as the top-priority "endangered linkages" in its proposal to establish an animal-migration corridor from the Yukon to Mexico:

Crowsnest Pass and Highway 3, which bisect the Canadian Rockies between the provinces of Alberta and British Columbia. Animal most in need of continued migration linkage: Grizzly bears.

The Powder Rim in south-central Wyoming, threatened by oil and gas development. Animals: Mule deer, pronghorn antelope.

Vail Pass and I-70 in north-central Colorado. Animal: Canada lynx.

U.S.-Mexico border. Animals: jaguars, ocelots, mountain lions, pronghorn antelope, Mexican wolves.

Frank Zoretich

Print this