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Keeping It Simple:
Easy Ways to Help Wildlife Along Roads

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"Rock spurs" stabilize river bank and make fish passage easier

If you drive on State Road 35 along the winding Provo River in Summit County, Utah, you may notice what look like small angled dikes or jetties extending out into the water. The 8-foot-long structures are rock spurs installed by the Utah Department of Transportation to control erosion. During spring runoff, high river flows used to threaten the structural integrity of the roadway and the stability of the river bank. The angled spurs solved the problem by directing excess flow towards the center of the river instead of towards the bank. In addition to stabilizing an estimated 1,000 feet of river bank, the rock spurs have made the slower-moving waters at the river's edge more habitable for wild brown trout, cutthroat trout, rainbow trout, and other fish species.

Doing the right thing - simply

"Keeping it simple" is more than a concept. It's a commitment.

It means using simple solutions when simple solutions will work.

It involves going beyond "compliance" to identify easy ways of helping wildlife and fish.

It means doing the right thing just because it's the right thing to do and because one has an opportunity to do it.

"We can build bat roosts in pre-fab bridge concrete or extend the right-of-way fence to create elkproof fencing," says April Marchese, Director of FHWA's Office of Natural and Human Environment. "Simple measures like these link habitats, reduce roadkill, and save taxpayer dollars."

This website highlights more than 100 simple, successful projects from all 50 states and beyond. Each is "easy." Most are low- or no-cost. All benefit wildlife, fish, or their habitats.

Many projects were completed only once - to protect specific species in specific environmental conditions. Others have been repeated numerous times and have become "routine."

Some projects are undertaken regularly because research has proven them effective. Others are new innovations, "best practices," or state-of-the-art strategies.

Some projects - for example, modifying mowing cycles and installing oversized culverts in streams - are common to a large number of states. Others represent a simple solution to a site-specific environmental challenge.

We invite you to explore them all. We encourage you to find out for yourselves, through this website, how transportation professionals are working with others to do the right thing for wildlife and--wherever possible--to do it "simply."