Wildlife overpasses planned at Snoqualmie Pass

Seattle Times ^ | 3-25-12

[SJackson]

YAKIMA, Wash. — There was no way the agencies monitoring wildlife along the Interstate 90 corridor could supply the manpower needed for a yearlong survey of animals along the highway, so they turned to you.

Well, you and anyone else who drives the stretch of I-90 connecting Eastern and Western Washington. That was the genesis of the I-90 Wildlife Watch, a multi-agency effort that enlisted public volunteers -- commuters -- to document wildlife sightings.

"That information is really hard to collect," said Paula MacKay, an Ellensburg-based research associate with Western Transportation Institute. "You have to be in the right place at the right time."

Tapping the occupants of the 28,000 vehicles that pass over the Snoqualmie Pass corridor each day for help greatly increases the odds that someone will be in that right place, she said. The Western Transportation Institute, a department of Montana State University, launched the project in November 2010 with the nonprofit I-90 Wildlife Bridges Coalition. The goal is to help the state Department of Transportation better understand the area's wildlife as it plans construction of 24 wildlife crossings over and under I-90 between Easton and Hyak as part of a highway expansion over the next several years. The crossing are intended to both reduce the number of animals killed by vehicles and maintain gene diversity of species that might otherwise stay on one side of the highway

[Daffynition]

Case in point, I pay $10.99 for Snoqualmie Reisling in NH [tax free] ...which is the top end for what I’ll pay for a bottle of wine of any kind. Yeah. I’m cheap. :)

Find me a better reisling at the price, and I’ll try it.

We’re very fond of the Columbia Valley wines, like Chateau Ste. Michelle, Snoqualmie, Goose Ridge.

[dila813]

The shame of this is that there is a bridge with the freeway on it where the wildlife can cross under it already.

I know, I went on the iron horse trail and saw it for myself, the wildlife don’t have any issue in getting back and forth.