Vehicle-Wildlife Collisions.
On average, the Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) receives 1,500 reports from law enforcement each year for vehicle-wildlife collisions. Wildlife carcass removal by the WSDOT suggests that a minimum of 5,000 collisions with deer and 200 collisions with elk occur each year, and collisions also occur with other large mammals and smaller wildlife such as raccoons, snakes, and squirrels. The WSDOT uses tactics such as wildlife fencing, crossings, and median barriers to encourage animals to stay off highways.
Habitat Connectivity.
The degree to which the landscape facilitates or impedes wildlife movement across the landscape is known as habitat connectivity. Wildlife needs to move through the landscape for a variety of reasons, including food, protective cover, and in response to seasonal conditions. The WSDOT has partnered with the Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) and other stakeholders on a statewide habitat connectivity assessment, which identified areas where wildlife requires movement across highways, and the findings from this partnership have informed the WSDOT's projects statewide.
Connectivity Funding.
The 2021 federal Bipartisan Infrastructure Law provided $350 million for the Wildlife Crossings Pilot Program (WCPP), which provides funding for projects that seek to protect motorists and wildlife by reducing collisions and improving habitat connectivity. In creating the WCPP, Congress found that there are more than one million collisions between vehicles and wildlife annually, which present a danger to human safety and wildlife survival, cost over $8 billion, and result in approximately tens of thousands of serious injuries and hundreds of fatalities on United States roadways.
Treasury Income Account.
The Treasury Income Account (Account) is used to hold the earnings of investments of surplus balances from various accounts and funds of the State Treasury. Monthly, the State Treasurer distributes interest earnings credited in the Account to the State General Fund. There are specific exceptions in which the interest earnings are not distributed to the General Fund, but are distributed to certain listed accounts and funds based upon each account's and fund's proportionate share of the average daily balance for the monthly period.
Integrated Wildlife Habitat Connectivity Strategy and Wildlife Habitat Connectivity Action Plan.
The WSDOT and the WDFW must develop an integrated wildlife habitat connectivity strategy (Strategy) in order to implement and periodically update the Washington Wildlife Habitat Connectivity Action Plan (Action Plan), developed by the WDFW. In developing the Strategy, the WSDOT and the WDFW must consult with tribal governments, federal agencies, and nongovernmental partners representing nonprofit conservation organizations and academia, for recommending funding strategies and priorities to the Legislature, and developing agency budget requests. The Strategy should include the following objectives:
The WDFW must take the following actions to implement the Action Plan:
Washington Wildlife Corridors and Washington Wildlife Crossings Accounts.
The Washington Wildlife Corridors Account and the Washington Wildlife Crossings Account are created in the State Treasury for use by the WDFW and the WSDOT, respectively.
Contingent on funds being appropriated, the WDFW is authorized to use funds from the Washington Wildlife Corridors Account for the implementation of strategic activities that promote the protection and management of wildlife corridors identified in the Action Plan, which includes a variety of enumerated activities.
Contingent on funds being appropriated, the WSDOT is authorized to use funds from the Washington Wildlife Crossings Account for the design, construction, identification, restoration, and protection of wildlife crossings and other highway features to reduce wildlife-vehicle collisions and habitat fragmentation, which includes a variety of enumerated activities.
The WSDOT and the WDFW must report to the Legislature and the Governor's Office on expenditures from their respective accounts and how the expenditures have furthered the Action Plan by December 1, 2026, and by June 30 of each even-numbered year thereafter, contingent on funds being appropriated.
The Washington Wildlife Corridors and the Washington Wildlife Crossings Accounts are added to the accounts that receive interest earnings monthly from the Account.
As compared to the engrossed substitute bill, the amended bill requires landowners, agricultural producers, and other members of the community to be consulted prior to the construction of any wildlife crossing structure.
(In support) More animals, more hunting, and more safety is what this bill would bring. This bill would help put in fencing to funnel animals towards a crossing point, and then over an overpass or an underpass. With the Interstate 90 (I-90) over and underpass, everything from elk to salamanders are crossing.
One of the problem statements here, from an ecological perspective, is all kinds of different species that are cut off from each other, and so the genetic diversity in these species that will not easily cross the highway gets ratcheted down, so the health gets ratcheted down.
This bill would have WSDOT and the WDFW work much more closely together. It would create an account to receive federal matches, and the federal government still has money available. If this bill is in place, it makes Washington more competitive by saying there is coordination between the agencies, a portion of state matching, and an account that money can go into.
Each year, wildlife-vehicle collisions cost Washingtonians millions of dollars, and in too many cases, result in injury and worse. They also ruin the state's investment in managing healthy wildlife populations. Over 5,000 deer and hundreds of elk are lost to collisions each year, representing a loss of revenue from outdoor recreation, limiting herd growth, and diminishing the value of the state's natural resources.
State Route 18, I-90, and Interstate 5 (I-5) are all areas identified in the Washington Habitat Connectivity Action Plan as critical ecological corridors, and many contain high-priority collision areas. Washington already has a foundation of solid interagency collaboration, but what is needed now is an implementation pathway.
This bill allows the state to act on the knowledge that has been amassed in the Action Plan, by prioritizing projects, reducing costly retrofits, and leveraging federal and private dollars for proven design in construction, all while keeping minimal investment from the state and no obligation on landowners.
Thoughtful science-based habitat connectivity planning can strengthen the ability to keep forests working and intact. Privately managed forests already function as critical corridors. They remain intact because they are actively managed and economically viable, and keeping these lands working reduces fragmentation, supports habitat connectivity, and avoids the much greater impacts that come with land conversion.
This bill recognizes that wildlife connectivity cannot be achieved one parcel at a time. Species move across entire landscapes, public lands, private forest lands, and agricultural areas. The bill takes a landscape-level approach that directs WSDOT and the WDFW to coordinate where highways intersect known species movement corridors. This means solutions can be placed where science shows to make the most sense.
There are multiple locations being considered across I-5 to place a wildlife corridor, and WSDOT and the WDFW have tried to coordinate with landowners in advance of anything being determined about where these would go.
The federal WCPP, which was intended to specifically fund wildlife crossings, is one funding source, but there are about seven or eight other transportation-related grants that were existing where wildlife crossings also became eligible components, like BUILD grants, formerly Tiger grants. That is something like $8 billion worth of grants available, and these are for building major highway projects, but they do allow wildlife crossings to be eligible.
There is a completed wildlife crossing structure feasibility study that comes with conceptual designs for I-5 and high-level cost estimates, and there is a tribally led project by the Puyallup Tribe on Highway 12 in the Packwood vicinity that is also completing a similar project.
The bill is a planning and coordination measure, focused on roadway safety and infrastructure. It is a science-based framework to reduce wildlife vehicle conflicts while strengthening habitat connectivity across Washington. Its primary function is improving public safety through strategic data-driven transportation planning.
It builds on the state's Action Plan by formalizing partnership between the WDFW and WSDOT, alongside tribes, federal agencies, and local host stakeholders, to identify priority corridors and implement proven crossing solutions. This bill reflects bipartisan priorities, public safety, fiscal responsibility, interagency coordination, and stewardship of Washington's natural heritage. Importantly, it does not create new regulatory authority over private land, impose fencing mandates, alter agricultural or hunting laws, or authorize eminent domain.
Landowner participation remains voluntary, and the bill focuses on planning, partnership, and efficient use of resources.
The Legislature funded the WDFW to, during the 2023-25 biennium, complete the Action Plan. This plan identifies priority locations for transportation mitigation projects, like road crossing structures, as well as surrounding landscapes that support wildlife movement and ecological connectivity.
The bill better positions the state to be successful in applying for federal grants, as well as the significant private endowments that have indicated interest nationwide in funding connectivity work. Doing that helps protect critical ecosystem functions.
It is important to ensure healthy and resilient wildlife populations now, as weather and climate are changing. And it is amazing to be able to support the cobenefits, by helping saving lives, avoiding collisions, and avoiding the associated costs with those collisions that are often caused by large wildlife crossings.
There are a number of maps in the actual plan that speak more than a thousand words and really show some of the locations that are popping out as priorities early on. The important concept to take away is that these priority locations were identified by bringing together the data for types of wildlife of different scales, large to small.
Washington State University found that the reduction in collisions thanks to Washington wildlife crossings saves the state and its residents roughly $235,000 to $443,000 per crossing every year. Even more significantly, the massive reduction in wildlife vehicle collisions saves lives, both human and animal.
This bill is an efficient and reasonable step to protecting bears and deer and other wildlife. It will create peace of mind regarding both animals and people.
(Opposed) There has been absolutely no engagement in Southwest Washington with landowners and local governments on this plan. It is a poor use of state funds while there is a budgetary shortfall.
No one wants wolves in Southwest Washington, and that is what this bill is about. It is an effort to get wolves in Southwest Washington. Genetic diversity is not an issue, unless science can prove it.
Times are tough for everybody in this state, and the people have been taxed enough. This should be somewhat cost-effective.
(Other) Agency representatives are happy to answer any questions pertaining to the policy of the bill.
(In support) Senator Jesse Salomon, prime sponsor; Claudine Reynolds, Port Blakely Tree Farms; Dan Wilson, Washington Chapter, Backcountry Hunters and Anglers; Nadine Nadow, Conservation Northwest; Margen Carlson, WDFW; Cat Kelly, Animal Legal Defense Fund; Betsy Norton, South Sound Bird Alliance; and Timothy Dong.