5 Reasons for Colorado to Build More Wildlife Crossings
Continuous, permanent funding is needed to build these lifesaving projects
Colorado is known for its mountains, rivers, and wildlife. People come from near and far to explore its great outdoors—but this leads to frequent vehicle collisions with wildlife, which cause injuries and cost lives and money. These crashes also kill and injure wildlife, as highways and roads cross some of the ancient migration routes that animals depend on each spring and fall.
Fortunately, a proven solution exists that can nearly eliminate these accidents: wildlife crossings. These crossings—overpasses and underpasses designed for animals—often pay for themselves in reduced costs from fewer collisions and create a variety of important benefits for Colorado’s residents and visitors.
The primary obstacle to constructing these projects is a lack of available funding, according to transportation officials across the country. The General Assembly created the Colorado Wildlife Safe Passages Fund in 2022 and has invested $5.5 million to build wildlife crossing projects, which, in many cases, serve as the necessary match to federal dollars that stretch the impact of state investments.
However, continuous and permanent funding is needed to complete the series of projects that the Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT), Colorado Parks and Wildlife (CPW), and local organizations have identified. That reliable funding allows crossings to be incorporated into long-term transportation planning, which is especially crucial given that it takes years to identify the best location for crossings and to design and build projects.
When Colorado lawmakers meet in their upcoming session, they will have an opportunity to enact this kind of robust funding. Here are five reasons why Pew hopes they will.
1. Wildlife crossings are highly effective.
Wildlife crossing structures yield a high return on investment by significantly reducing collisions. In 2025, research from Scioto Analysis found that one wildlife crossing with a lifespan of 70 years in an area with a moderate to high number of collisions will lead to 1,400 fewer accidents. The Interstate 25 Greenland wildlife overpass north of Colorado Springs—which will be one of the largest in the country—is expected to reduce wildlife-vehicle collisions by 90% while reconnecting huge swaths of crucial habitat for big game as they move seasonally in search of food, water, and mates.
Data on these animal movement patterns inform where wildlife crossing structures are built so that the projects are successful. For instance, the wildlife crossings on State Highway 9 significantly improved the ability of deer, elk, pronghorn, bighorn sheep, black bears, mountain lions, bobcats, and coyotes to cross the road.
2. Wildlife crossing projects are a sound investment.
According to a recent study, collisions between vehicles and animals in Colorado cost about $313 million in 2025 dollars annually in property damage, emergency responses, medical expenses, and other costs. Traffic jams and road closures caused by these collisions can cost millions of dollars more, especially on roadways like Interstate 70, which is why CDOT is planning to build a wildlife crossing at East Vail Pass, a route vital to the state’s $65.8 billion outdoor recreation economy.
3. Crossings protect the annual hunt and the Colorado way of life.
In 2022, over 7,000 animals were hit and killed in Colorado. In fact, the CPW estimates that more Western Slope female mule deer are killed each year in collisions than by hunters. The cumulative impact of collisions reduces valuable wildlife populations and diminishes wildlife viewing opportunities and hunting, which is a $843 million industry in Colorado, according to the Colorado Wildlife Council. Building wildlife crossings will protect big game species so that hunting traditions are passed on to the next generation, helping local outdoor recreation economies stay strong.
4. Reducing traffic accidents improves safety and quality of life.
Colorado is grappling with growing traffic problems, and wildlife crossings that reduce accidents and road closures allow drivers to get where they need to go more efficiently and safely. Avoiding accidents reduces fatalities and injuries and the medical bills and loss of work that accompany them.
Those who have experienced these accidents know this firsthand. In 2024, an 81-year-old Colorado man, Victor Rodriguez, died and his wife was injured when their vehicle collided with an elk along Highway 85 near Castle Rock. In an interview with 9News about the death of her father, Mary Rodriguez said her family loved the iconic animals and that fencing that would lead elk and other herds to overpasses to cross roads were needed. “We’re the ones who are unsafe. Our animals are unsafe,” she said. “And we are crying out for help.”
5. Coloradans support wildlife crossings.
CDOT maintains over 23,000 miles of highway, which crisscross wildlife habitat and corridors. So it’s no wonder so many Coloradans are affected by animal collisions. Because of that, there is broad bipartisan support for wildlife crossings from voters across the state.
According to Colorado College’s State of the Rockies Project 2024 Conservation in the West Poll, 87% of Colorado voters “support constructing wildlife crossing structures across major highways that intersect with known migration routes.”
Patrick Lane is a senior manager and Anna Wearn is an officer with The Pew Charitable Trusts’ U.S. conservation project.
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