How to cross I-70 if you're a beast: a primer

In this week's cover story, "The Bridge to Somewhere," I look at the rising animal-vehicle collision rate across Colorado and the effort to build a wildlife bridge over Vail Pass. Our relentless interstates have fragmented habitat, disrupted migration patterns -- and led to a lot of nasty roadkill, along the...

By Alan Prendergast

July 31, 2009

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In this week's cover story, "The Bridge to Somewhere," I look at the rising animal-vehicle collision rate across Colorado and the effort to build a wildlife bridge over Vail Pass. Our relentless interstates have fragmented habitat, disrupted migration patterns -- and led to a lot of nasty roadkill, along the lines of this peculiar Flickr photo collection.

But there are also places where the deer and the antelope can play without crossing guards, thanks to underpasses and other structures -- some intended for wildlife use, some discovered out of necessity. The citizen science project described in my feature, in which motion-triggered cameras were set up at strategic locations between Vail and Copper Mountain, caught a lot of wildlife using the roomy corridors under the bridge spans west of Vail Pass. For a massive collection of wildlife caught in the act of being wild, check out this archive of photos from the monitoring on the Southern Rockies Ecosystem Project website.

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Alan Prendergast is a former staff writer at Westword and is now a senior contributor. He writes about various topics but primarily focuses on news. He’s contributed to Rolling Stone, Los Angeles Times, Outside, USA Today, Men's Journal and other publications and is the author of two nonfiction books, Gangbuster: One Man's Battle Against Crime and The Poison Tree: A True Story of Family Violence and Revenge. He’s earned numerous accolades for his work including the Eugene Pulliam National Journalism Writing Award and two national feature writing awards from the Society of Professional Journalists.

Contact: Alan Prendergast

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