A wildlife bridge that Thoreau would love

Maintaining habitat connections is particularly pressing in Massachusetts, a state projected to have 37 percent of its forestland transformed by urban growth by 2050, surpassed only by Rhode Island and New Jersey, according to a recent report in the Journal of Forestry.

Some residents are debating the value of the project. While the overpass seeks to minimize the detrimental effects of ecological fragmentation, improving transportation safety is the prime concern for many in the community, says Jack Ahern, head of the University of Massachusetts at Amherst team leading a feasibility study to determine whether the overpass would benefit wildlife populations and humans.

"The people here are first of all worried about keeping the roads safe and have had other roadwork projects on the drawing board for some time that they don't want to lose funding for," says Dr. Ahern, who has received public comment on the proposal throughout the year.

Concerns that funding of the overpass might shelve a popular highway safety project has led the WWP to promise that the proposed land bridge would not compete for federal money.

Well-planned corridors may help improve highway safety. Nationwide, vehicle collisions with animals are responsible for more than 200 human deaths, millions of animal deaths, and billions of dollars in vehicular damage every year, according to the National Cooperative Highway Research Program.

When used in conjunction with roadside fencing, wildlife overpasses and underpasses at Canada's Banff National Park have reduced ungulate road kill (hoofed mammals) by 96 percent. If built, the Walden Passage would take a page from that park's playbook, constructing fences along the highway to funnel wildlife toward the safe-crossing zones.

Supporters of the overpass see it as a step toward combating further development of Walden Woods, which has been chiseled away for decades. Some 30 percent of Walden Woods' 2,680 acres are still unprotected from development. The National Trust for Historic Preservation has twice listed the area as one of America's 11 most endangered historic places.

While the University of Massachusetts team won't reveal its final recommendation on the overpass's feasibility until later this month, its preliminary recommendation in June was favorable. Those closely involved with the project say they are confident that that will be the team's final recommendation later this month as well.

But it is ultimately up to the communi­ties of Concord and Lincoln, says Ahern, to decide if the land bridge's benefits are worth the money.

Linking the current proposal to the area's rich history, Burne says, "Walden Woods is the ecosystem that Henry Thoreau lived in and wrote about. His writings about Walden are arguably the cradle of the American conservation movement."

That leaves some conservationists wondering: If a wildlife overpass can't gain support around Walden Woods, then where could it?

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