Talking Michigan Transportation

Some good news for understanding wildlife-vehicle collisions

• Michigan Department of Transportation • Season 7 • Episode 219

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Earth Week 2025 came with a positive development for the Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) and Michigan Department of Natural Resources (MDNR) on efforts to implement a pilot program for analyzing wildlife-vehicle collisions (WVCs) and learn ways to design safer crossings.

Amanda Novak, a resource specialist in MDOT’s North Region, returns to the podcast to talk about a recently awarded $476,000 federal grant and how it will be put toward the pilot program. She previously spoke about the grant on the podcast in September 2024.

While we think of white-tailed deer most commonly when it comes to WVCs, other species to be considered include elk, moose, black bear, wild turkey, pine marten, eastern massasauga rattlesnake and Blanding’s turtle. 

As laid out in the project abstract for the grant, the number of WVCs in Michigan continues to increase annually, worsening risks and costs to drivers. For example, white-tailed deer alone account for more than 55,000 WVCs and cost motorists an average of $130 million per year in Michigan. Additionally, WVCs are a major threat to many wildlife populations in the state, including documented impacts on several threatened and endangered species. Projected increases in tourism, housing development and climate change effects are likely to exacerbate WVC effects on motorists and wildlife in Michigan.

Jeff Cranson:

Hello, welcome to the Talking Michigan Transportation Podcast. I'm Jeff Cranson. I'm excited to talk about good news that MDOT received this week from the federal government a grant that was hanging in limbo to help with a pilot program for wildlife crossings, something to help kind of identify hot spots where wildlife crashes happen and create a danger both to the animals and to the human drivers. We received word just this week that that grant is moving forward for $467,000. So I spoke again with Amanda Novak, who is a resource specialist in MDOT's Bay Region and she worked on this grant in partnership with the Department of Natural Resources and she talks about the various species that would be studied and would ultimately be protected if this pilot is successful and we can go forward with a project and some safer crossings. So I hope you enjoy the conversation. So, Amanda Novak, making a repeat appearance on the podcast, Thank you for making time today and congratulations. Can you talk again about this grant and what it will do?

Amanda Novak:

Sure, thanks for having me back. We were excited to hear today that our Wildlife Crossing grant will be moving forward. So we're working through the grant agreement process right now. So it's a little ways out from something that we're going to be putting out to bid, but this is a planning grant and so, um, we're going to focus on some of our highlighted species which we've talked about in the previous podcast, and look at where the top hotspot locations are across the state where we're having a lot of wildlife vehicle collisions with these species, and I think you included in the previous podcast that list of species which we could include again.

Jeff Cranson:

Yeah, why don't you talk about that? Because I think we all think, obviously, about deer, but there's a much deeper pool than that.

Amanda Novak:

Yes, we are going to be looking at white-tailed deer across the state. There's one location we'll be looking at elk elk crossings In the UP, a location we'll be studying where the moose are crossing, also focusing on black bear and wild turkeys and the pine marten, which I know we got into a little bit in the last podcast about that one too. I have to admit I forgot about the pine marten in the last podcast, about that one too.

Jeff Cranson:

And then I forgot about the pine marten. I'm glad you mentioned that.

Amanda Novak:

Yes, so that that's exciting for the. For the larger species, I guess the pine marten falls in kind of that smaller species that doesn't have as the impact on with wildlife, vehicle collisions, on motorist safety, but motorist crashes with these or collisions with these animals affects their population sizes. So that's the pine marten, the mass saga, rattlesnake and the Blanding's turtle specifically.

Jeff Cranson:

Yeah, I think that the rattlesnake is probably the least known of those species that you mentioned, that a lot of people in Michigan don't know that there is a native venomous snake.

Amanda Novak:

Yes, a very small population size at this point, a threatened species, and they are very hard to find. They are not an aggressive, poisonous snake, very hidden and they don't strike unless they're incredibly scared or cornered. So they have a variety of benefits and MDOT does do a lot of things with our projects to mitigate for them and protect them.

Jeff Cranson:

Yeah, I know that was a big part of the prep for an I-75 rebuild in Monroe County down near Lake Erie and near the border that the snakes were part of that mitigation effort there and I'm sure other parts of the state talk a little bit about. You mentioned them being a threatened species. Could you talk about the various classifications for that?

Amanda Novak:

Sure. Yeah, the threatened species are more, I guess, if you will, highly protected. But we basically treat all those classifications the same. So, some of the other ones fall under the special concern category, but in a lot of cases we mitigate for those anyway the same way.

Jeff Cranson:

I was thinking. I don't know if you saw it or not, but we're talking about the various species and about the black bear making their way further downstate. Did you see just this week in the news there were maps of a few years ago and you know where black bear were most common in the state and it shows that the now how they've made their way into more counties toward the south. So I think that this probably comes at a good time for that.

Amanda Novak:

Yes, it definitely does. We did include the distribution map changes from 2011 to 2021, and it's pretty dramatic how they've dispersed over time.

Jeff Cranson:

Yeah, and is that I mean, if they were going south to north? I would think that's because their habitat's being encroached on by development, but that's not necessarily the case if they're moving north to south, right.

Amanda Novak:

I think it still is a little bit related to development and the way humans are, you know, moving across the landscape, how we spread out over time as well, I think we do encroach on their habitats.

Jeff Cranson:

Yeah, I mean obviously there's development up north too. I guess I just think there's more sprawl and development in, you know, cities, the population centers in the southern part of the state. Talk about the timeline, I mean obviously you're just finding out that this is moving forward after kind of, as I mentioned, being in limbo for a while. But what do you feel like the timeline is for movement on your project?

Amanda Novak:

Once we get the grant agreement in place, then I'll move through our typical contracting mechanisms, which you know can be somewhat lengthy depending on the dollar values and things like that. So, I don't want to speak too soon, but I would. I would hope that we could get an (Request for Proposal) RFP out, you know, sometime by the end of the year.

Jeff Cranson:

Yeah, t hat's not terrible, knowing how these things work.

Amanda Novak:

Yes, it's complicated as you move through, and then we still have to put the RFP together with DNR, and so we want to make sure everything needed by both agencies is represented to these kinds of things and you might hear it yourself in your own life from family or friends.

Jeff Cranson:

So what do you say when people kind of scoff at the notion that we need to study how to allow for safer crossings?

Amanda Novak:

I would say overall. I do get some folks that don't agree with the approach, but overall it's pretty well received. My family gets pretty excited. My family's from the Gaylord area, so seeing these larger animals is very normal and deer car crashes I mean, almost everybody in the public has been impacted by that at some point. But I think it's incredibly important to think about their populations and connecting their populations, as well as protecting motorist safety and recognizing that those two things go hand in hand.

Jeff Cranson:

That's great. Well, I think your family's doing a good job of staying off the MDOT Facebook page.

Amanda Novak:

That is true, yes.

Jeff Cranson:

Yeah, we'll be right back, stay tuned.

MDOT Message:

Know before you go. Check out MiDrive at www. michigan. gov/ drive on your desktop or mobile device before you hit the road. Get the latest traffic construction and lane closure information for Michigan roads.

MDOT Message:

Bookmark or create a link on your home screen so you can plan your route accordingly and avoid lengthy delays. That's my drive at www. michigan. gov/ drive.

Jeff Cranson:

Well, okay, then, as you talked about the timeline and the planning, and I mean, what's your, you know your blue sky, most fervent hope for how this goes and where we're at, you know, five or ten years from now.

Amanda Novak:

My hope is that we look at all MDOT corridors and figure out how to manage them for all species, you know, not looking at just these larger species where we have all the wildlife, vehicle collisions, or maybe we use that as a starting point, but then we mitigate for everything we can in those locations and manage all our corridors in some fashion. Recognizing it'll be very difficult on M routes, you know that's something I can't quite picture, but we'll work through it.

Jeff Cranson:

Yeah, well, you know, you remember that I talked to someone from what's called the Yellowstone to Yukon initiative, where they've done some really creative things both in the United States and in Western Canada, and it's been successful. I mean, they have metrics that show that it's working. So I think that one of the things I would say to the people who are at least skeptical about this is that it can work, and the animals tend to figure it out over time.

Amanda Novak:

Yes, they do, and I actually was talking with Parks Canada recently to try to get some of their design information and they did let me know that we will see a decrease in wildlife vehicle collisions over time. It can be documented and proven, especially since they've been doing this for so long, so that was encouraging to hear.

Jeff Cranson:

And we talked before, but I think it's worth repeating that again. People think the turtles. How could t urtle crossings present a danger? But we have places in the state and I've seen it myself where a turtle is crossing slowly, as a turtle does, and drivers come along and they're concerned and they want to help, which is great, but it presents its own danger. So this is one of the things that you would hope to mitigate with better turtle crossings, right?

Amanda Novak:

Yes, exactly yes, and some of the turtles are not small. You know we talked in the last podcast about them being a washtub size. I mean that's pretty, that's a dramatic crash. And then, yeah, like you said, when we have a lot of turtles crossing, for example, in the one location on US 127 on Gratiot County, we had folks just pulling over and trying to move them in live traffic just constantly.

Jeff Cranson:

Yeah, it's both the danger of pulling over on the shoulder where people are going pretty fast and then actually running into the travel lane to move the turtles. I mean, you know good intentions, but my goodness.

Amanda Novak:

Yes, very dangerous.

Jeff Cranson:

Yeah well, so what have we learned over the years? As you know, there was some silly controversy when one lawmaker in particular really demagogued the issue several years ago about turtle fences near Grand Haven. But do you know what we've learned in terms of design or technology to make them more effective?

Amanda Novak:

Yes, we're going to be utilizing a different type of fencing where we're going to drive some lightweight sheeting adjacent to the roadway, so it's going to go in quicker, hopefully be a little more cost effective. But also I have learned from researching turtle activity or behaviors is that when they can see through the other side of the fence, they will often pace, they can climb the fence. They'll try endlessly to figure out a way to get over it which can cause them to be exhausted or stressed. So this, hopefully, will eliminate that behavior as well.

Jeff Cranson:

Yeah, I'm hopeful for that too, because I really like turtles. Yes, so anything else we talked about, the pine marten and the rattlesnakes and the bears, I guess wild turkey or pheasants are they part of this too?

Amanda Novak:

No, Wild turkey are yes, those are not that fun to hit either.

Jeff Cranson:

No, they can be pretty big.

Amanda Novak:

Yes, they are pretty big, they can do a lot of damage to your vehicle. But yes, they are included. We do have records of where those crashes happen. Often folks file police reports for those, too, for their insurance claims filed police reports for those, too, for their insurance claims. So they will be included. Pheasants are not currently included but, as a disclaimer of how this might work, we will leave it up to, hopefully, our research team, whenever we get someone on board, to determine if there are other species that we should include. So this is not an all-inclusive list necessarily.

Jeff Cranson:

When you think of the turkeys and you often see them in flocks, obviously by the side of the road or crossing would there be something different for them, as opposed to the mammals that we're talking about?

Amanda Novak:

I don't think so. I think the exclusionary fence would work for them. Just keeping them from walking towards the roadside would be pretty helpful. They could fly over it, I guess, but they would probably be less likely to do that than walking up right to the road shoulder and flying out in front of live traffic.

Jeff Cranson:

That's the hope, right? Well, because it is Earth Week. We've talked about this before, but I want to take a chance to highlight some of the other things that you and others have done around the state. With you know, sunflowers and other plantings that aren't just for aesthetics. They serve a real environmental purpose in terms of pollinators and helping the bees, which we should be doing all we can to support. Can you talk about that a little bit?

Amanda Novak:

Sure. Well, we have since Bay Region started their planting sunflower planting program in 2016. Now we are planting, I think, in every region, excluding, I don't think, the UP is participating, but everybody else is participating in some way, which is really exciting to see. We are experimenting with some new plantings this year, so we will be planting our sunflowers, adjusting some of those locations the DOT shell stopper, which we talked about previously and then we'll be planting zinnias in various colors as well this year.

Jeff Cranson:

What are they known to draw?

Jeff Cranson:

Is there a particular bee or another species that really likes zinnias?

Amanda Novak:

Not that I know of. I think we just pick them. Um, we were trying to pick things that would be visible from the roadway, especially when you're traveling at high speeds. That was more of our focus. But also all of these function as pollinator species.

Jeff Cranson:

Yeah, that makes sense. What else is on the horizon on that front? Anything, I mean. You talked about that, obviously, as a newer species to be planting, but are there other new things we can look forward to?

Amanda Novak:

No, we're just going to be planting a couple of different varieties of sunflowers that we didn't plant in the past, just trying out some new varieties, wondering if they'll do better in the right of way. Every year, we fight the weather conditions and the site conditions based on rainfall or severe drought, so we're always looking for new species that will survive a little better.

Jeff Cranson:

Okay, if you don't know the answer to this, that's fine, but do you know all the places in the state where we've done sunflowers?

Amanda Novak:

Not outside my region. I'm not as familiar with those.

Jeff Cranson:

I mean, I guess I don't know, is the soil a concern, or you guys have to figure out, you and the other resource specialists figure out where they'll do especially well?

Amanda Novak:

Yeah, the soil is always a concern.

Amanda Novak:

Um, surprisingly, sunflowers can grow pretty much anywhere. It's just we have found that after repeat planting in the same location, they just don't do as well. So we're going to try to kind of rotate them out, so this year there may be wildflowers where there were sunflowers previously, just to kind of give those plots a break.

Jeff Cranson:

That makes sense. So just like you know soybeans or corn or wheat, you've got to rotate your crops right.

Amanda Novak:

Yes, yes, and that is being managed actually out of TSMO, or the Traffic Safety Maintenance and Operations, safety and maintenance yes, maintenance operations yeah, I always stumble on that one too.

Jeff Cranson:

It's um, an acronym without a vowel. I mean, it has a vowel at the end, but it feels like you should have a vowel earlier. Well, what else do you want to mention, Amanda? I mean you're probably pretty excited today about that grant. Is there anything else you want to add?

Amanda Novak:

I am excited. I look forward to partnering with DNR on this and really getting into the details and hopefully getting an RFP out as soon as we can.

Jeff Cranson:

Yeah, that's great, all right. Well, thank you for coming on to talk about this again on short notice. I appreciate it.

Amanda Novak:

Thank you, Jeff.

Jeff Cranson:

I'd like to thank you once more for tuning in to Talking Michigan Transportation. You can find show notes and more on Apple Podcasts or Buzzsprout. I also want to acknowledge the talented people who help make this a reality each week, starting with Randy Debler, who skillfully edits the audio, Jesse Ball, who proofs the content, Courtney Bates, who posts the podcast to various platforms, and Jacke Salinas, who transcribes the audio to make it accessible to all.