Snowmass Village considers funding for wildlife crossing studies along Highway 82

The Town of Snowmass Village is poised to join other local governments in funding a wildlife crossing study on the Colorado Highway 82 corridor in an attempt to minimize the leading cause of vehicle crashes in the Roaring Fork Valley.

Roaring Fork Safe Passages, a local nonprofit aimed at reducing wildlife/vehicle collisions, seeks funding from local partners to identify appropriate spaces to build wildlife crossings along regional highways. Pitkin County and the city of Aspen each contributed $26,000 that will help fund a three-stage project to study stretches of Highway 82 between Woody Creek and the Aspen/Pitkin County Airport.

Roaring Fork Safe Passages Executive Director Cecily DeAngelo and ECO-Resolutions owner Julia Kintsch asked the Snowmass Town Council for $10,000 to partially fund the second stage of the project during a Monday Town Council meeting. Council members didn’t approve the funding during the meeting, but asked DeAngelo and Kintsch to present once more to Town Council in September after they said they planned to return to other funding partners.

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“This segment of roadway is the gateway to Snowmass Village, everybody is going to be driving through this area from commuters, to residents, to visitors,” Kintsch said. “That area specifically around Brush Creek Road and that interchange is a really key piece of the puzzle here, and the Village has long recognized the value of these elk populations and has contributed to some of the (Colorado Parks and Wildlife) research that has been conducted.”

DeAngelo founded Roaring Fork Safe Passage to address the growing number of wildlife collisions. In the Woody Creek area, Kintsch said an average of 5.2 wildlife collisions happen per year, including nearly three elk collisions. The number is likely higher as some collisions go unreported, she said.

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The first stage of the project, covered by funding from the county and Aspen, began in April. Project teams will develop a specific mitigation strategy and recommendations for a wildlife crossing between mile markers 32.5 and 37.3. That area between Woody Creek and the airport was identified as a priority area and one that is most feasible for a wildlife crossing system, such as a bridge over the highway or an underpass.

Site-specific concept developments will begin in the second stage of the project. It will begin in September and cost $35,659. All council members appeared in favor of approving $10,000 for the project, but wanted to wait until closer to the second stage just in case DeAngelo and Kintsch realized they needed more or less town funds.

The first three stages of the project are conceptual and funded fully by local contributions. Roaring Fork Safe Passage will use the funding to prove the feasibility and effectiveness of a wildlife crossing at that stretch of Highway 82 and will then use the fleshed-out designs to look for grants and funding from the Colorado Department of Transportation.

“We know that this segment is eligible for a wildlife crossing, but we need to go out and figure out if that’s actually going to work,” DeAngelo said. “Between now and December, that’s the work that we have ahead of us to show, not only will the topography support a wildlife crossing structure, but will the animals that are crossing there … actually use it?”

“We’re not going to go out and just propose (to CDOT) what we want, we have to prove that it is going to be the most effective thing for this area,” she added. 

It would be mostly elk using a crossing in that area, she said. Kintsch pointed to several wildlife crossings in multiple states that have proved effective in minimizing wildlife collisions. A study of seven wildlife crossings built over and below Colorado Highway 9 in Grand County reduced wildlife collisions by 90%, Kintsch said.

The first three stages of the plan will cost about $110,000. The third phase, which will include creating and distributing outreach materials to engage with stakeholders, the public, and potential funders, will take place from December to February 2025. It is fully funded by private donors.

Roaring Fork Safe Passage will pursue primarily state and federal funding sources for the engineering, design, and construction phases that follow, but a timeline for that is still unclear. 

The studies would determine if an underpass or an overpass is best for the animals in that area, DeAngelo said.

“I’d love to have a beautiful wildlife crossing that looks like something in Banff (National Park), it would be the entrance to Aspen, it could be magical,” she said. “But if that doesn’t really work for the elk, maybe underpasses are better and we’re never going to see them or they’ll be somewhat hidden. But at least we won’t be seeing dead carcasses on the road.”