This website will both improve the quality of the biological assessments and communication during consultation. Within this site will be a standard format and consistent guidance for completing a biological assessment. More importantly, this site will facilitate communication across the country. There will be the ability to share information within a project team and nationally, if necessary or desirable. For the first time, FHWA will have the ability to track progress on project consultations. This website will provide an effective way to distribute new information, answer questions, and share ideas.

Quality wetland mitigation is very difficult to create. Good sites are few and far between. Rarely are all the ingredients available to ensure success. Also, the price tag to create or even enhance is quite high. These issues can result in both significant increases in project development time and costs. In searching for ways to have both high value wetland mitigations and get rid of the delays associated with finding and obtaining the necessary land, a unique partnership was formed. A partnership has been formed between the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), The Nature Conservancy (TNC), the Corps of Engineers (USACE) and the Idaho Department of Transportation (ITD). A fund is set up by ITD to pay the Nature Conservancy to restore, create, enhance and preserve aquatic resources for them. This fund is utilized when ITD is required to compensate for impacts to waters of the U.S. and aquatic resources protected by Executive Order 11990. This partnership is a win-win for all parties involved. ITD can effectively avoid project delays. FHWA and the USACE are confident that the very best mitigation will be provided. Finally, the partnership funds the Nature Conservancy to do a job that it is so eminently qualified to do. Many other states have similar partnerships. Hopefully, this partnership will become a model for many other states.

This presentation summarizes the findings from the International Scan Tour, Wildlife Habitat Connectivity Across European Highways, and the NCHRP report recently completed analyzing habitat fragmentation resulting from highways. Transportation agencies around the globe must address impacts to wildlife and habitat resources when planning and implementing transportation improvements. How well these impacts are addressed and mitigated will be determined, in part, by how good the available data and information are. The results of these two efforts provide a wide variety of excellent methods for addressing effects to fish and wildlife as well as the legal and scientific bases for addressing these impacts. This summary includes ideas for fencing, overpasses, underpasses and culverts. However, it is widely recognized that these engineered solutions will not work without the habitat. Therefore, strategies to acquire and preserve habitat to ensure connectivity are also be addressed. Funding strategies will also be described.

The new transportation bill was passed in August 2005. It is a 5-year bill with new environmental provisions that are directly related to the areas of interest addressed at ICOET. Below are quick summaries of the key provisions. Some require regulations and guidance to be prepared by the Federal Highway Administration. Since the bill is still so new, work is still underway to get this guidance out.

U. S. Highway 12 is a major highway located in North Central Idaho. It bisects a primitive, remote area of the Clearwater National Forest and is adjacent to the Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness. Habitat in this area supports a wide variety of species including fisher, bobcat, cougar, wolverine, elk, moose, deer, as well as gray wolf and lynx, which are endangered. At least five major highway improvement or enhancement projects are planned over the next two years. These projects include the construction of a year-round rest area with a National Forest Visitor Center and two miles of passing lane construction near Lolo Pass. These projects will have an impact on wildlife and habitat especially the species listed under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) the lynx and the gray wolf. During the process of ESA Section 7 consultation, it was determined that there was insufficient site-specific information available to meet the objectives, standards, and guidelines described in the Lynx Conservation Strategy and Assessment or to make specific recommendations for project mitigation and conservation measures. Therefore, only a jeopardy call could be made which would have resulted in the visitor center and the passing lane projects not being built. An interagency decision and agreement was made to proceed with project implementation using a unique adaptive management approach where site-specific on-the-ground wildlife data would be collected over a fiveyear period accessing project impacts and affects. As a result the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service was able to reach a may effect not likely to adversely effect determination. This is the only example that we know of where a project was allowed to go ahead in this manner. Science based mitigation measures will be recommended and implemented when appropriate. The project is a unique partnership between a variety of State and Federal Agencies. This presentation wills describes the process that developed the interagency agreement, the specific wildlife data that will be collected, and how these data will be used to develop site-specific mitigation and conservation measures.

Background

Methods

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Conclusions