Project description (English)

The Monkton Wildlife Crossing Project began with a group of concerned citizens who realized increasing traffic along a local road threatened the survival of an amphibian population including the rare, Blue-spotted salamander. The Monkton Conservation Commission and Lewis Creek Association led the development of two wildlife road crossings that would provide safe passage for salamanders migrating from their forested wintering habitat to wetland breeding grounds. Several partners including The Reptile and Amphibian Atlas’s Jim Andrews, Vermont Transportation Agency, Vermont Fish & Wildlife Department all helped with preconstruction monitoring and designing the crossings. This was the first wildlife related project in the northeastern United States to receive a Transportation Enhancement Grant from the Federal highway Administration. This federal grant was combined with a Vermont Fish & Wildlife State Wildlife Action Grant, and other sources like crowdfunding to pay for the installation of two concrete underpasses. This project has received international attention for its innovative and collaborative approach to building effective wildlife road crossings. Today, monitoring is ongoing and recent studies have shown road mortality rates at the crossing locations have dropped by 93%!

Project description (French)

Main contact organization for the project

Lewis Creek Association

Partner organization(s)

Vermont Agency of Transportation

Vermont Fish & Wildlife Department

Middlebury Area Land Trust

U.S. Department of Transportation: Federal Highway Administration

Vermont Reptile and Amphibian Atlas Project

Monkton Conservation Commission

Defenders of Wildlife

TransWild Alliance

Part of larger network(s)

Project status

Underway

Start year of project

2005

Date of completion

2018-06-01

Primary ecosystem focus

Forested

Connectivity action

Outreach

Mitigation of infrastructure impacts

Research (Field evaluation of connectivity)

Standard keywords

Transportation (roads, rails, bridges, culverts)

Wildlife species with a special status

Wildlife cameras

Taxonomic Coverage

Mammals

Amphibians

Reptiles

Geographical coverage

Jurisdiction(s)

Vermont

Addison

Location name

Monkton Road

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