Deer Cross Unfinished California Wildlife Bridge Hours Later

Three mule deer didn't wait for the ribbon cutting. Just 15 hours after construction workers left a wildlife bridge project in Northern California on March 24, cameras caught the animals confidently crossing the new structure near Mount Shasta.

The Wildlife Crossing Project on U.S. 97 in Siskiyou County won't officially open until later this year. But wildlife has already figured out what it's for.

"While the contractor is still completing final touches, it's incredible to see wildlife already embracing the new structure, even with workers still in the area," Caltrans District 2 shared on Facebook. A bobcat and other animals have also used the crossing.

The bridge addresses a deadly problem. Between 2015 and 2020, vehicles killed over 50 deer and 16 elk in this highway corridor, where truck traffic moves fast and doesn't slow down for animals.

The project includes more than just the bridge. An 8-foot-high fence stretches about 3 miles along the highway, guiding animals toward safe crossing points. A concrete tunnel beneath the roadway offers another option for wildlife to get across.

Rocky Mountain elk, gray wolves, black bears, and mountain lions will all benefit from the new crossings. The quick adoption by deer suggests the bridge was built in exactly the right spot.

"You build these things in the right location where the animals want to be, and you're going to get usage," Wesley Stroud, a Caltrans environmental program manager, told SFGATE.

The Ripple Effect

California is building similar wildlife crossings across the state, with most projects concentrated in Southern California. The success in Siskiyou County offers encouraging signs for the largest project underway near Los Angeles.

The Wallis Annenberg Wildlife Crossing will span 10 lanes of the Ventura Freeway when it opens later this year. The massive overpass will reconnect the Simi Hills with the isolated Santa Monica Mountains, helping restore an ecosystem fractured by decades of highway traffic.

Fraser Shilling, director of the UC Davis Road Ecology Center, sees these bridges as solving two problems at once. They protect wildlife populations that highways have separated while making roads safer for drivers who no longer risk collisions with large animals.

These crossings prove that humans and wildlife can share the landscape without either paying a deadly price.