每日英語跟讀 Ep.K156: How Do Animals Safely Cross a Highway?

The engineers were used to building overpasses for vehicles, not wildlife. But every spring and fall, collisions with mule deer and pronghorn spiked in the Pinedale region of Wyoming, where Route 191 disrupted their age-old migration paths. So the state Department of Transportation joined with the state wildlife agency and nonprofit groups to create a series of crossings. Collisions have dropped by roughly 90%.

工程師慣常為車輛建造高架道路，而非動物。但是每年春季和秋季，美國懷俄明州派恩戴爾地區車輛與騾鹿和叉角羚碰撞事故激增，當地191號公路截斷了牠們長久以來的遷徙路線。因此懷州運輸部和野生動物局及非營利團體合作，打造了一系列穿越道，碰撞事故約減少了九成。

“It felt like we finally found something that works,” said Jennifer Hoffman, an engineer at the Wyoming Department of Transportation. “People are pretty hesitant to do something new. Once you’ve done it, and it does what you said it would do, they’re willing to do it more.”

「感覺像是我們終於找到了有用的方法。」懷州運輸部工程師珍妮佛‧霍夫曼說，「人們對做新事常很猶豫，一旦做了而且效果一如預期，人們就更願意去做。」

Examples like that, along with earlier success stories from Canada and Europe, have led to a broad consensus on the value of animal crossings, according to environmentalists and transportation officials alike.

環保人士和運輸官員都表示，前述例子加上早前加拿大和歐洲的成功事例，匯集成對動物穿越道之價值的廣泛共識。

“This is the time of the wildlife crossing,” said Mike Leahy, director of wildlife, hunting and fishing policy at the National Wildlife Federation. “This issue has been building for decades, and it was like pulling teeth. And now everyone who works on these issues seems to get it.”

「這是野生動物穿越道的時代。」全國野生動物協會野生動物、狩獵及釣魚政策主任麥克．李伊說，「這個議題已發展數十年，相當艱難，現在為這些議題努力的所有人似乎都弄清楚了。」

Research shows that, across the country, there are 1 to 2 million collisions between vehicles and large animals each year. These accidents cause more than 26,000 human injuries and about 200 human deaths.

研究顯示，全美每年車輛和大型動物碰撞事故有100萬至200萬件，造成超過2萬6千人受傷，約200人死亡。

Funding for crossings is a challenge, but that may get easier, too: A bipartisan Senate version of the transportation bill being hammered out in Congress includes $350 million for wildlife crossings and corridors.

為穿越道籌資是項挑戰，不過也可能變得更容易些，一項參議院跨黨派版本的運輸法案正在國會審議協調，列有3.5億美元建造野生動物穿越道及廊道的經費。

While transportation officials emphasize that human safety is the main motivation for these new projects, the structures do not come a moment too soon for animals. Development continues to erode wildlife habitat, disrupt migration corridors and fragment groups, leading to population collapse and unhealthy genetic isolation. Looming large is another threat: climate change. As certain species move in search of cooler, moister conditions, they will have to contend with busy roadways.

儘管運輸官員強調保障人的安全是新計畫的主要驅動力，實則這些設施對動物而言也來得正是時候。人為開發持續侵蝕野生動物棲息地，截斷遷徙廊道及分裂群體，導致族群崩解與不健康的遺傳隔離。另一項威脅也日益嚴重：氣候變遷。某些物種在遷移以尋找更涼爽、更濕潤的環境時，將碰上車流很大的道路。

There are more than 1,000 dedicated wildlife crossings in the United States today, up from just a few in the 1970s and '80s, according to Patricia Cramer, an ecologist who has studied and worked in the field for two decades. But only 10 or 20 are overpasses. 

研究並投身此領域20年的生態學家派翠莎‧克萊默表示，今日美國已有超過1000處野生動物專用穿越道，遠超過通道寥寥可數的1970和1980年代。

While overpasses tend to get the most attention, underpasses and tunnels are far more common.

不過目前僅有10或20處是高架通道。雖然高架通道最受注目，卻遠不及地下通道和隧道普及。Source article:https://udn.com/news/story/6904/5528953

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