In the northwoods of Minnesota, there have been four major highway improvement projects in the past year. With each of these projects, the Twin Cities Ecological Services Field Office has worked with the Federal Highway Administration and the Minnesota Department of Transportation to secure plan modifications that include fencing, over-sized culverts, and bridges where there used to be culverts, to reduce habitat fragmentation and vehicular collisions with wildlife.

The most recent of these projects involves the rebuilding and upgrading of Trunk Highway 1, in the Superior National Forest. Rights-of-way clearing has been reduced by 15 percent, speed limits lowered at three locations, and bridges constructed at four locations. These include the redesign of two existing bridges to facilitate wildlife crossings, and the construction of two new bridges where before there were only small culverts.