LAS VEGAS, Nev. (FOX5) – Millions of dollars are now coming to Nevada to add wildlife crossings for the federally threatened Mojave desert tortoise. The U.S. Department of Transportation is awarding NDOT a $16.8 million federal grant to add dozens of tunnels in the upper part of Clark County, a hot spot for tortoise crossings.
“My brain is just programmed to see turtle silhouettes on the highway. I’ve been doing this for almost 15 years, so I knew immediately what it was, what I was looking at. I flipped on the amber lights on the truck and pulled over safely. Waited till there was no oncoming traffic and I was able to help him along the way,” recounted Kristi Holcomb, Southern Nevada Supervising Biologist for NDOT. The little guy she helped off Highway 93 near Coyote Springs got the nickname Lucky One.
The Mojave desert tortoise is listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act. Their population is declining. Holcomb showed FOX5 broken shells from tortoises hit by cars on Nevada roadways.
“It is important to conserve these species because I want future generations to be able to enjoy them,” Holcomb asserted. The area where she helped Lucky One cross the road is critical tortoise habitat.
“Critical habitat is land that is set aside as essential for the species survival,” Holcomb explained. NDOT will be adding more than 60 tunnels under the highway and two-foot-high tortoise fencing on both sides of the road for 34 miles so the tortoises can safely roam.
“Their home ranges can be quite extensive and they expand them routinely, and they also need to find mates,” Holcomb revealed
NDOT says wildlife crossing are often associated with bigger animals like bighorn sheep. Four crossings for them were added to the I-11 near Boulder City in 2018.
“The large animal collisions get a lot of attention because obviously human safety is a big concern in those. However, human safety is also a concern with small animal collisions because of swerving or unexpectedly hitting anything on the roadway,” Holcomb stated. The new crossings are part of a federal initiative to protect both animals and people by reducing wildlife-vehicle collisions.
NDOT has more than 500 miles of tortoise fence already installed in Nevada. The 34-mile segment near Coyote Springs is the last remaining unfenced section dividing critical desert tortoise habitat in the state.
A construction start date has yet to be determined.
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