BC Press: Despite tunnels, many amphibians flattened while trying to cross highway

[Herp News]

THE PROVINCE (Vancouver, British Columbia) 20 December 09 Despite tunnels, many amphibians flattened while trying to cross highway, experts say (Clare Ogilvie)
The $600-million upgrade to the Sea-to-Sky Highway is a death trap for thousands of red-legged frogs and other animals.
Two kilometres of the new highway was built through the frogs' migratory path in a wetland area near Pinecrest, 15 minutes south of Whistler.
Steps taken by the highway developer, the Ministry of Transportation and the Ministry of Environment to save the amphibians, a threatened species, don't seem to have worked.
The efforts include passageways built under the highway and short netting fences installed along the edge of the road to guide the frogs into the tunnels.
"My sense of it is that they are not working very well for frogs," said Joshua Malt, an ecosystems biologist with the Ministry of Environment.
"I did . . . surveys and walked the highway and counted dead frogs -- and I counted over 200 amphibian mortalities in the summer season from spring to fall.
"However, the actual number is likely to be much larger."
The frogs were flattened while crossing the road. (When tadpoles metamorph into frogs, they go in search of new habitat.)
Many salamanders and frogs climbed the fences, went underneath or went around, said Malt.
"If you look at the distribution of roadkill, there is not less roadkill next to the passages," he said.
"It is all over the place, so clearly, the fencing isn't stopping them."
The situation has been on the radar of John Buchanan for months. The long-time Squamish resident and wildlife researcher said he doesn't understand how it was allowed to happen.
"I have to ask why [the transport ministry] was allowed to construct a highway there in the first place," he said.
"As soon as you fragment frog habitat, it will be a death scene.
"It is clear to me that the environment just got tossed aside.
"I don't know if a local extinction has happened here, but I am starting to lean toward that as a possibility."
Frogs are not the only animals living -- and dying -- along the upgraded highway. Deer, bears, small mammals such as skunks, weasels, coyotes, raccoons and ducks live along it. As the highway was upgraded, different types of passageways were created at various locations to help migration from one side to the other.
Results have been mixed, said Malt, who is still hopeful.
"I think that the small- and medium-sized mammals . . . seem to be quite fine with using them.
"But the bear and the deer . . . they check it out, they go in and go out, but I haven't seen anything go through. So they are a bit more hesitant."
The latest statistics, from 1998 to 2007, show that six bears,12 coyotes, 69 deer,16 raccoons and 15 other types of animals have been killed by vehicles between Squamish and Pemberton.
Buchanan believes the numbers are higher, as these account for only the ones highway workers remove. And, he believes, the numbers will go up as more cars drive the road at greater speeds and wildlife is trapped by the new concrete, centre-line barrier system.
Angela Buckingham, chief biologist for the transportation ministry, said fencing along the highway is impractical. There are 72 access points to the highway and each one of those would need a gate or a cattle guard.
"We did certainly consider it for this corridor, but it was not workable," she said, adding that well over $2 million has been spent on studies and mitigation for wildlife and that further studies will be done on how to prevent animal deaths along the route.
Meanwhile, Buchanan said the wildlife carnage is worse than he's ever seen.
"I have lived in Squamish my whole life and I have never seen the type of wildlife kill, ever, that has been going on in the last year or so on the road," he said.
"You [fence] this because it is the right thing to do."
Frogs the losers in Sea-to-Sky upgrade