Doing the Right Thing: Improving Transportation and Enhancing Ecosystems

Exemplary Ecosystem Initiatives

Flint River Ravines conservation area (Georgia DOT)

It's about connections. It's about the future.

Ecosystems are interconnected communities of living things and the physical environment within which they interact. Preserving and enhancing ecosystems is critical to protecting our diverse biological resources and sustaining our communities and economies that rely on their products.

The ecosystem approach looks at the present and beyond. It envisions future conditions under which ecological, economic, and social factors are integrated.

In 2002 the FHWA identified ecosystem conservation as one of three performance objectives under the agency's "vital few" goal of Environmental Streamlining and Stewardship. As a hallmark demonstration of its commitment to this goal, FHWA agreed to identify a minimum of 30 exemplary ecosystem initiatives in at least 20 States or Federal Lands Highway divisions by September 2007. The agency also developed specific criteria for selecting the initiatives.

In the success stories showcased on this website, you'll see examples of how exemplary ecosystem initiatives in eight States are reducing habitat fragmentation and barriers to animal movement, encouraging the development of more sustainable mitigation sites, stimulating early ecosystem planning, and fostering ecosystem-based research

"These innovative and forward-thinking initiatives aren't single-issue, project-specific efforts," says FHWA Administrator Mary Peters. "They look at 'the big picture,' and they're sure to make a significant difference in future transportation decisionmaking."

Here are the State Department of Transportation Exemplary Ecosystem Initiatives we've designated thus far:

2006

• Alabama - Wetland Mitigation Program

• Arizona - Wildlife Linkages Initiative

• California - South Bay Expressway Mitigation Program

• Colorado - Linking Colorado's Landscapes

• Illinois - IL 29 improvements to protect ecosystems

• Kentucky - Preserving "Greatest Potential" Ecosystems

• Louisiana - Cameron Creole Watershed - Marsh Terracing Project

• Maine - Study to Restore Sunday River Watershed

• Maryland - Protection and Enhancement of Bog turtle Habitat

• Michigan - Southeast Michigan Greenways Initiative

• Minnesota - Bob Jacobson Restoration Site

• New Mexico - Reduction of Animal-Vehicle Collisions

• New York - Stewart Airport Access Improvement Project

• North Dakota - Replacing North Dakota "No-Mow" Sites with Wildlife Management Areas

• Oregon - Ecosystem-Based Approach to Mitigation and Conservation Banking

• Pennsylvania - Surveying Freshwater Mussels

• South Carolina - Sandy Island Ecosystem Initiative

• Texas - Wetland Mitigation Banks

• Utah - Legacy Nature Preserve

• Virginia - South Fork Rockfish River Restoration

2005

• Arkansas - Ecoregion-Based Approach to Wetlands Mitigation To help mitigate historic wetland loss, a statewide, ecoregion-based mitigation banking system was initiated by the Arkansas DOT in 1996, when a mitigation bank came on-line in the Mississippi Alluvial Plain ecoregion of eastern Arkansas. Four other banks were established over the following nine years, each in one of the five ecoregions of the State.

• California - Coachella Valley Habitat Preservation Initiative As part of a cooperative effort to develop conservation measures and mitigation, State, Federal, and local agencies worked with private partners involved in environmental planning and approval for Caltrans projects to design an ecosystem-based plan to restore and protect critical habitats for threatened and endangered species in the Coachella Valley.

• Florida - GIS Technology Applications In cooperation with resource conservation agencies, the Florida DOT has developed a GIS-based decision model to integrate road improvement projects into habitat management and conservation plans.

• Kansas - Prairie Restoration, Conservation, and Education Initiative With over 650,000 acres of right-of-way, the Kansas DOT implemented a variety of cooperative management and public information activities to restore and promote roadside ecosystems, including the restoration native grasses and other prairie plants along highways in the State.

• Pennsylvania - Ecological Mitigation and Enhancement Projects The Pennsylvania DOT implemented an integrated, ecosystem approach to the management of environmental impacts and mitigation. With input from a broad spectrum of Federal, State, and local agencies, the DOT is building design features into its projects that address important and widespread impacts on natural ecological communities and habitats at a landscape scale.

• South Carolina - Carolina Bays Ecosystem Initiative The South Carolina DOT developed a cooperative effort to protect important ecosystem resources in the Waccamaw River drainage while accommodating the present and projected transportation needs of Myrtle Beach. Land acquisitions and donations were used to preserve, enhance, and maintain an important wildlife corridor connecting large natural areas.

• Washington - Interstate 90 Snoqualmie Pass East Project The Washington DOT partnered with Federal and State resource agencies in developing proposals to meet regional objectives for management of old growth forest habitats and important wildlife corridors in concert with improvements to I-90. This included a habitat linkage study that helped identify critical linkage zones across the highway corridor.

• Wyoming - Moran Junction to Dubois Project Wildlife Crossing Study Concerns with potential habitat fragmentation by the proposed highway improvements resulted in studies by the Wyoming DOT to collect primary data about wildlife crossing zones and wildlife-vehicle collisions. The information collected will be used to identify mitigation opportunities and accommodate wildlife crossings into design plans, based on landscape-level habitat needs.

2004

• Alabama - ALDOT's Gopher Tortoise Conservation Area. To help preserve the habitat of the federally-threatened gopher tortoise, ALDOT has acquired and manages this 600-acre longleaf-pine forest area in Mobile County, in cooperation with the USFWS. Tortoises are being relocated here when encountered during project development activities.

• Florida - FDOT's Wildlife and Wetland Habitat Mitigation Program. This program highlights a variety of wildlife habitat and wetland mitigation sites that showcase FDOT's conservation approach to transportation development. Highlands' County Platt Branch Mitigation Park, home to the federally-protected red-cockaded woodpecker, is one example.

• Georgia - GDOT's Building Partnerships to Balance Transportation Planning with Ecosystem Integrity. This is a GDOT-FHWA collaborative effort to establish a program of ecological stewardship, including acquisition of the Flint River Ravines Tract, one of GDOT's newest stream mitigation bank models and conservation areas. The site is a mosaic of unique bottomland hardwood-forested wetland, streams, ravines, bluffs, slope forests, and geologic features that provide habitat for a variety of uncommon plant and animal species. The area was in danger of being subdivided into a riverfront residential area prior to the GDOT purchase.

• Illinois - IDOT's LaGrange Wetland Bank. This is a 1,645-acre site in Brown county that will provide regionally-based restoration and enhancement opportunities for a variety of wetland types important in a large part of the State. It will also serve as a floodplain for the watersheds of the Illinois and LaMoine Rivers. The wetland is home to a federally-endangered plant called the decurrent false aster and three State-listed birds.

• Mississippi - MDOT's Deaton Ecological Preserve. This is a 3,400-acre preservation and enhancement effort in the Pascagoula River Basin done in cooperation with The Nature Conservancy and several resource agencies. The Pascagoula River Basin is the largest undammed and unchannelized drainage system in the lower 48 States.

• New York - NYSDOT's Adirondack Park Invasive Plant Program. This is a cooperative effort to control invasive plants across the park where transportation corridors are a primary cause of the introduction and spread of species exotic to the park. The program involves several partners: the NYSDOT, NYDEC, The Nature Conservancy, Adirondack Park Agency, and Invasive Plant Council.

• Virginia - VDOT's Great Dismal Swamp Wildlife Management Area. This initiative was developed as part of the US 17 upgrade in Chesapeake, Virginia. This multi-agency program will use designated bear crossings and other measures to protect and enhance Great Dismal Swamp resources. Thanks to its location between the swamp's National Wildlife Refuge and forested "Green Sea" wetlands, the project will be able to link habitats and provide a wildlife corridor.

2003

• Arizona - ADOT's Comprehensive Approach to Wildlife Protection on State Route 260. This approach involves wildlife passages along SR 260 and area-wide habitat connectivity monitoring. Along a stretch of highway with one of the highest wildlife-vehicle collision rates in the state, ADOT is building 17 sets of bridges under 17 miles of highway and across a canyon. The placement and design of the structures and the length of the adjoining fencing are based on habitat studies, interagency coordination, and "adaptive management." Video clips demonstrate many elk are using the completed passages.

• Nevada - NDOT's Washoe Lake Wetland Mitigation Area. This 335-acre mitigation bank was created collaboratively by State and Federal agencies for regional transportation impacts. Thanks to interpretive wildlife-viewing platforms and an educational program developed by the Nevada Division of Wildlife, the site frequently attracts local school groups and visitors from the general public. The wetland mitigation site has long-term monitoring and established water rights, and it is now part of the Nevada State Parks system.

• New Hampshire - NHDOT's Route 101 Ecological Protection and Enhancement Features. Restoring saltwater marsh, replacing culverts with bridges, acquiring a farm for wildlife habitat linkage, and other measures which are part of a multi-faceted mitigation plan to improve 17.6 miles of NH Route 101 from Epping to Hampton. The plan also includes mitigation and preservation efforts on the 320-acre Pine Road wetland creation site-the largest site of its kind in the State. The Association of State Wetland Managers has visited Pine Road, and local colleges and high schools have used it as an outdoor laboratory.

2002

• Colorado - CDOT's Shortgrass Prairie Initiative. This is a public-private partnership agreement to work with landowners and communities on preserving wildlife species and thousands of acres of imperiled shortgrass prairie. The agreement calls for predictions of transportation's impacts on prairie species over the next 20 years—predictions that will enable early avoidance, minimization, and mitigation efforts.

• Montana - MDOT's US 93 Memorandum of Agreement. This collaborative process with MDOT, FHWA, resource agencies, tribal councils, watershed groups, and local governments focuses on build wildlife crossings and making long-overdue improvements on US 93. In the 2000 Memorandum of Agreement, participating governments agreed to design the new highway as a "visitor" respectful of and responding to the land and Spirit of Place.

• North Carolina - NCDOT's and NCDENR's Ecosystem Enhancement Program. This initiative launched by NCDOT, and NC Department of Environment and Natural Resources will protect the State's natural resources by assessing, restoring, enhancing, and preserving ecosystem functions. It will safeguard ecosystems at the watershed level, identifying the highest-quality sites for preservation in collaboration with a network of local, regional, and State conservation organizations and compensating for the unavoidable impacts of highway construction on streams and wetlands.

• Oregon - ODOT's Fish-friendly Maintenance Practices. This is a geographic information system-based inventory of sensitive resources along nearly 6,000 miles of State highway. The resource maps give ODOT roadside maintenance crews an accurate way of making sure mowing, pesticide application, and other activities do not harm listed salmon species and other vital resources.

• Washington - WSDOT's Watershed-Based Environmental Improvements. This community-based environmental decisionmaking strategy focuses on natural watershed-level goals. The process coordinates and integrates human activities to enable watershed recovery and to prevent further degradation of ecosystems within the watershed basin. This approach allows mitigation funds to be targeted to sites offering the greatest ecological benefits.

Exemplary Ecosystem Initiatives Information

• FHWA Exemplary Ecosystem Initiatives Criteria

• Related Links