Renee Callahan

An interview with the Executive Director of Arc Solutions (Animal Road Crossing) about innovative and collaborative efforts that drive the implementation of wildlife crossings

1. ARC Solutions is an organization pioneering innovative collaboration within habitat connectivity. In your role as Executive Director and with over 30 years of experience in policy and research, what is the driving force behind your passion for reducing wildlife vehicle collisions?

Unlike so many challenges facing us as a nation today, there are proven solutions to making our roads safer for people and wildlife.  Properly sited, wildlife crossing structures with fencing have been shown to reduce wildlife-vehicle collisions (WVCs) by up to 97%. These investments also save society money: where a stretch of highway experiences 5+ motorist collisions involving deer per mile per year, it actually costs more to do nothing than it costs to invest in crossing structures and fencing, and fix the problem once and for all.  So no matter what your perspective is, this is a win-win-win: It saves peoples lives. It saves wildlife lives. It saves taxpayer dollars. And it’s solvable – today.

2. In 2010, ARC Solutions began as a competition called The ARC International Wildlife Crossing Infrastructure Design Competition. Can you walk us through the specifics of the competition? What advancements originated from it related to the future need to redesign our roadways and implement wildlife crossing structures nationwide?

Inspired by the prototypical wildlife crossing structures in Banff National Park that reconnect wildlife habitat bisected by the TransCanada highway, ARC’s mission is to move people and animals safely across North America’s roads. Conceived to find an interdisciplinary solution to a complex problem, ARC sponsored the world’s first design competition to build a wildlife crossing bridge over a major interstate highway near Vail, CO (http://competition.arc-solutions.org/). 

To meet this challenge, the ARC International Wildlife Crossing Infrastructure Design Competition engaged interdisciplinary design teams that included the most innovative landscape architectural, engineering, transportation and ecological professionals from around the world to develop solutions for animal road crossing structures that would be cost efficient, ecologically responsive, safe, educational and flexible. ARC deliberately sought solutions based on rigorous scientific data, state-of-the-art technologies, and leading-edge design standards—solutions that could be readily adapted for widespread use in other locations and conditions, including in the face of climate change and increasing extreme weather events.

The ARC Competition ran in 2010 and attracted 39 interdisciplinary teams of more than 100 of the world’s best scientific and design professionals from 9 countries. From these, 5 international teams were short-listed to compete for the winning prize. The competition culminated in January 2011, when a jury of internationally-recognized experts in design, engineering and ecology selected the winning design by HNTB with Michael Van Valkenburgh & Associates (MVVA). Collectively, the 5 finalist designs have garnered a wide spectrum of media coverage for their innovation and promise.

Although the competition focused on a particular wildlife crossing site near Vail, Colorado, ARC is about much more than a single bridge for wildlife:  it is a compelling story of research, science, ecology, and art to reconnect landscapes through infrastructural innovations in architecture, design, planning, engineering and education. 

Image: Finalists in the ARC International Wildlife Crossing Infrastructure Design Competition.

3. In your leadership role with ARC, what project are you most proud of and why?  What has been the most challenging connectivity project to set in motion?  

Most proud: The Wallis Annenberg Wildlife Crossing project is unique in that the primary motivating factor is not reducing wildlife-vehicle collisions but rather preventing the extinction of a keystone species through the reconnection of an ecosystem fragmented by roads. The resulting design thus not only connects wildlife and carnivores in a highly urbanized area, but also has the power to connect cultural and natural ecosystems to their landscapes in a way that has not previously been realized. As a result of the visionary leadership of the project partners, we are confident that the Wallis Annenberg Wildlife Crossing will serve as a long-term living laboratory – the first of its kind that will stand as a worldwide model for the design of green infrastructure for wildlife. The impacts of this precedent-setting partnership and structure representing the next generation of wildlife infrastructure design are anticipated to extend far beyond the geographic footprint of the site itself and accrue value over many decades following construction.

Most challenging: The most challenging projects are the ones that still haven’t been set into motion, even after decades of stakeholders pushing the rock up the hill! These projects too often involve a case of “mission mismatch,” where the wildlife agency points out that roads aren’t within its mission, while the transportation agency similarly asserts that wildlife aren’t within its mission. Although there is no “one-size-fits-all,” our recently released Wildlife Infrastructure Funding Guide highlights a number of key strategies that have proven successful in alleviating “mission mismatch” and elevating the issue of wildlife-vehicle collisions (WVCs) with agency decision-makers. Top of the list is working to raise awareness about the proven role of wildlife infrastructure in reducing WVCs and the public safety benefits of investing in measures to mitigate priority WVC and habitat connectivity “hot spots.”

Credit: Rock Design Associates and National Wildlife Federation.

4. A shared challenge among many states in need of wildlife crossings is funding. Why should North Carolinians be hopeful that our state will receive allocated funds for these structures in the future?  What can we all do in North Carolina to help support efforts to increase habitat connectivity?

North Carolina has already proven itself a leader in securing funding for highway mitigation measures for wildlife! During the inaugural round of funding for the National Infrastructure Project Assistance Program, known as “Mega” for short, North Carolina secured a $110 million grant to replace the existing US 64 Alligator River “swing bridge” with a modern high-rise, fixed-span bridge. In addition to potentially reusing project materials as artificial reefs, the project integrates measures to “improve wildlife habitat connectivity between the north and south areas of the roadway by providing wildlife crossing structures and directional barrier fences; and to eliminate wildlife-vehicle collisions and increase the permeability of the roadway for the wide diversity of wildlife in the area.” Click here to review the full announcement.

What can you do to help? Notoriously difficult to secure, funding is perennially identified as the #1 barrier to reducing WVCs and reconnecting habitats bisected by roads. Even where Federal funding is available, many programs require a state/local match of about 20% of total project costs. One concrete action (pun intended!) that North Carolinians could take would be to reach out to their Federal, state and local representatives to educate them about the importance of this issue, including the anticipated “return” on investing in the state’s highest priority projects to reduce WVCs and improve habitat connectivity.

Image: Robin MacLennan, North Carolina Construction News, Alligator River Bridge replacement project receives $110 million federal grant.

5. With your experience in policy and law, how are our government leaders working together to increase funding and add more funding programs?

Wildlife crossings, corridors, and connectivity have benefited enormously from strong bipartisan support at all levels of government, as highlighted by the following three examples of government leaders working together to secure funding. 

First, we are about half-way through the bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act’s once-in-a-generation investment in making our highways safer for people and wildlife. In celebration of the Act’s birthday, we recently released the Wildlife Infrastructure Funding Guide, authored in partnership by ARC Solutions, National Parks Conservation Association, and Wildlands Network.Designed as a one-stop shop detailing federal funding opportunities to reduce WVCs and improve habitat connectivity, this in-depth guide includes an overview of discretionary and formula allocation program information including eligibility details, selection criteria, set-asides, and other considerations alongside sample grant award descriptions from successful applicants in previous funding cycles, all with the goal of assisting eligible applicants with navigating the surface transportation funding puzzle.

Second, the bipartisan bill known as the Wildlife Movement Through Partnerships Act has been introduced in the House and is expected to be introduced in the Senate shortly. Co-sponsored by Senator Padilla (CA-D) (press release) and Representatives Zinke (MT-R) (press release) and Beyer (VA-D), this bill seeks to protect wildlife movement and habitat connectivity by, among other things, establishing the “Wildlife Movement and Migration Corridor Program” to conserve, restore, or enhance habitat, migration routes, and connectivity, with a 50% set-aside for big game movement areas. You can view the full bill text here, a 1-page summary here, and a complete list of supporters here.  

Finally, Wildlands Network and the National Caucus of Environmental Legislators recently released a new State of the States Report that explores 25 years of U.S. state habitat connectivity legislation and case studies. Among other things, the report concludes that “80% of all U.S. habitat connectivity legislation has been passed within the last five years, successfully connecting vast landscapes and improving roadway safety for both drivers and wildlife.” In addition to summarizing state legislative efforts, topics covered include: the impact of federal policy; the role of wildlife corridors; the importance of public-private coordination; ​and the need for funding to support wildlife connectivity projects.

6. We would love to know more about what led you into habitat connectivity work. What was your inspiration? When was the first time you felt a calling to use your voice to help wildlife and humans travel safer?

A lifelong wildlife lover, it distresses me to no end to see an animal lying injured or dead on the side of the road. As with many seemingly intractable issues, I spent much of my adult life simply assuming this problem was unsolvable. All that changed around 15 years ago, when I read a National Geographic article on the difficulties pronghorn antelope – who typically won’t jump fences – face when attempting to navigate a roadway. Riven by the heart-wrenching story, I was struck by an overwhelming desire to do something. Fast forward two years, and I had moved 3,000 miles from my home state of Virginia to enroll in the University of California-Santa Barbara’s Masters of Environmental Science and Management, with the ultimate goal of raising my voice on behalf of wildlife.

7. We learned of your incredible road trip across America with a very special team that was inspired by the famous mountain lion, P-22. What was the mission of the road trip? What did you learn as you drove through each state, viewing connectivity projects and wildlife crossings?  Who was with you on the trip?

Wildlife Crossings Across America is a series of epic road trips that will explore wildlife crossings and connectivity projects across the United States and beyond.  Our primary goals for these efforts are three-fold: (1) to shine a spotlight on successful on-the-ground crossing projects and local conservation leaders; (2) to raise awareness about the anticipated benefits of investing in a nationwide network of wildlife crossings; and (3) to illustrate demand and drive private investment in crossings. 

Following the initial southern leg of the tour – which featured projects in California, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Louisiana, and Florida – the team will undertake additional legs in other connectivity hotspots across North America. Two tours are slated for later this year, including a fall northeastern US tour (Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York), and a California regional tour this summer. In addition to supporting local efforts to promote existing projects and building momentum to construct connectivity infrastructure in identified areas of need, ultimately the project will support an ongoing campaign to develop and support the Wildlife Crossing Fund, which aims to raise $500 million from private philanthropy to leverage public dollars and accelerate the building of wildlife crossings across California, the United States, and beyond, reconnecting lands for our collective future.

Core members of the Wildlife Crossings Across America tour include: 

• Beth Pratt. A lifelong advocate for wildlife, Beth Pratt has worked in environmental leadership roles for over 30 years, and in two of the country’s largest national parks: Yosemite and Yellowstone. As the California Regional Executive Director for the National Wildlife Federation, Beth leads the #SaveLACougars campaign to build the Wallis Annenberg Wildlife Crossing and also serves as Director of The Wildlife Crossing Fund.

• Steve Winter. A wildlife photojournalist who has worked for over two decades with National Geographic Magazine, Steve has produced stories on some of the world’s most elusive and iconic animals, specializing in big cats. A National Geographic Explorer, Steve’s documentary films on jaguars, leopards, tigers, and tree-climbing lions have aired on Nat Geo WILD and Disney+. Steve has been named BBC Wildlife Photographer of the Year and co-authored Tigers Forever and The Ultimate Book of Big Cats with Sharon Guynup.

• Sharon Guynup. An award-winning journalist, photographer, producer and presenter, Sharon covers wildlife, ecosystems, conservation initiatives, climate change, zoonotic disease and other environmental issues. She’s a National Geographic Explorer, a global fellow at the Wilson Center, and with Steve, co-founder of Big Cat Voices. Her work has been featured in outlets including National Geographic, The New York Times, The Washington Post, Smithsonian, and Scientific American; and her research has been published in Conservation Science and Practice, ReVista-The Harvard Review and The Georgetown Journal of International Affairs.

• Marta Brocki. Associate Director of ARC Solutions since 2020, Marta has coordinated multidisciplinary solutions for wildlife connectivity and the safe movement of people and wildlife for over a decade. Prior to joining ARC, she managed the Ecological DesignLab at Toronto Metropolitan University, where she studied Urban and Regional Planning. Her work in research and practice centers on the implementation of green and adaptive infrastructure in service of resilience and biodiversity.

Credit: Marta Brocki, ARC Solutions.

8. What advice would you give someone who is seeking a career in conservation? What lessons would you like to impart from your own career journey?

“Better late than never”: I would encourage those interested in conservation not to be discouraged if you come to this calling later in life or otherwise encounter difficulties breaking into the field.  Even with 15+ years of experience under my belt, finding a conservation job in 2011 was definitely not a slam dunk. Indeed, during my first year in Bozeman, MT (where I am fortunate enough to still live today :), I worked three part-time jobs to get to full-time!  On the flip side of the coin, I rose from a part-time partnership coordinator for ARC Solutions in 2011 to Executive Director in 2017. To me, this illustrates the power of cross-disciplinary experience in greatly enhancing your value-add to a conservation career. 

And that is a nice segue to my other piece of advice, which is to “not let perfection be the enemy of progress.” Rule #1: Get your foot in the door. Volunteer. Attend conferences and public meetings. Send your resume to your dream organization, even when there isn’t a current job opening. Ask for an informational interview. Being proactive not only gives you a chance to potentially “test-drive” an organization to see whether it’s a good fit for you, it also provides an opportunity to showcase your skills and demonstrate why they can’t afford not to hire you!