For most Arizona residents, travelling Interstate 11 — the to-be-constructed roadway linking Phoenix to Las Vegas — is a long way down the road.
That’s not the case for desert bighorn sheep and other wildlife needing safe passage over the Nevada stretch of I-11, three miles west of the Arizona-Nevada state line. It’s there where Arizona Game and Fish Department biologists teamed with Nevada and federal officials to design and build a wildlife overpass over the new 15-mile stretch of roadway, which opened last month.
“This has been a great project and example of interstate collaboration to assist in conserving and protecting desert bighorn sheep and wildlife,” said Jeff Gagnon, Arizona Game and Fish Department statewide research biologist. “Barriers such as roadways can fragment wildlife habitat and impact their access to water. Through projects such as these, our collective goal is to do what we can to minimize such impacts by providing locations for wildlife to safely cross highways.”
Find more information here and go here to watch a video about it.
(Photo source: Arizona Game and Fish Department)