"The ramp [hike/bike] is to be constructed on the south side of Transmountain where the culverts are about 6 feet above grade. It is being called a drainage erosion ramp. On the north side, the culverts are on grade."The culverts will connect hike-mountain bike trails like other trails in the park that have been blessed by Texas Parks and Wildlife and will be constructed by BMBA [Borderland Mountain Bike Association] and volunteers."Both sides of the culverts are in TXDoT ROW (right-of-way) and the trails are Texas Parks and Wildlife ROW."
When he was a grad student in Wyoming, Mike Mecke had experience with wildlife crossings. He says:
"WYDoT had pushed through I-80 west from Laramie across major big game migration routes instead of taking another, better route advocated by ranchers and game department. So, they were having many collisions with deer, antelope and elk - not good for them or people.
"So, they high fenced I-80 for many miles - solved problem for motorists, not wildlife. They thought the game would be forced to use small existing 6-8 ft high culverts - nope. Scared them, like a dark tunnel and they stacked up. I worked for Rocky Mountain Research Station on weekends trying to count animals using newer versions - enlarged culverts with fenced wings guiding them. We installed night cameras and I watched, counted tracks, etc. Little use. I graduated and moved, but I think they finally enlarged them more and got the wildlife to using it- but not easy to do.
"I may be wrong - but, I do not foresee wildlife using the same crossings as bikers and hikers - think you will have to keep those groups far away or they will scare the wildlife and leave behind their scent, trash, etc. too.
"Leave the current ones for them and build larger, more open ones for wildlife at a good distance and in sites that would seem to be natural deer, javelina trails - draws, etc. Might have to use wildlife protein and mineral blocks to draw them in. Even construct small rainwater catchments w/troughs for wildlife at entrance."
Currently, TXD0T does plan to pave the bottom of the culverts. However, ". . . those pipes will never work except maybe for rattlers or rabbits," according to Mecke. "A deer or javelina will never go through those." What is needed is a local, natural soil floor on any underpass for wildlife. They must have the right scents and feel.
In a perfect world and time when Federal, State, and City coffers are overflowing with an abundance of funds, it would be wonderful to be able to accommodate every special interest group, be it environmentalist to land developer, however now is not that time!! It is sad in times like these when most DOT agencies are scraping to find even maintenance funds to keep the existing roads from total deterioration, and reorganizing so they don't have to lay too many employees off, that special interest groups are asking for a "wild life crossing". Don't get me wrong I am all for protecting wildlife as well as human lives, but if the Citizens of El Paso can't even use a designated "human crossing" ie: crosswalks, don't think for one minute that wildlife will be using designated crossings. After all we put a road up there for our convenience, and roads up to the state park, again for our convenience, and roads across the entire United States. Do we fence all those roads and force "wildlife" to cross at "our" designated crossings. Personally, I would prefer to let the Engineers do their job and come up with the roadway design that best suits the terrain for the least amount of money and let the contractors build it, in order to keep more people employed. Maybe we need to go back to horse and buggy and wagon trails, I don't think they had as many collisions as we do today.
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