SISKIYOU COUNTY — A camera trap captured images of three mule deer using a wildlife bridge over Route 97 in Siskiyou County on May 24. This marks the first use of California's first wildlife over-crossing built above a major highway.
The Route 97 wildlife bridge project cost $20 million to construct. The structure is complete and accessible to wildlife, while contractors finalize adjacent fencing designed to direct animals toward the crossing.
"This is our first over-crossing laboratory in California," Fraser Shilling, Director of the Road Ecology Center at the University of California, Davis, said. "It gives us a structure to learn how to make them better." "While the contractor is still completing final touches, it is incredible to see wildlife already embracing the new structure, even with workers still in the area," a California Department of Transportation District Two representative said.
"In addition to deer, a bobcat and other wildlife have also been spotted using it," the representative said. According to a 2024 Road Ecology Center report, California drivers kill nearly 50,000 mule deer annually, which represents approximately 10% of the state's deer herd. Vehicle collisions also cause nearly 100 mountain lion deaths and thousands of other animal deaths each year in California. Before the bridge's construction, 50 deer and 16 elk died at the Route 97 crossing site between 2015 and 2020, according to the California Department of Transportation.
"Wildlife crossings by themselves do not stop roadkill," Shilling said. "It is the fencing associated with them that stops roadkill." Another wildlife crossing, the Wallis Annenberg wildlife crossing in southern California, spans a 10-lane freeway and is scheduled to open at the end of the year.