The Kind of People Who Build Bridges for Animals

Three mule deer wandered up to a brand-new bridge near Grass Lake, in the far north of California, and walked across it. The bridge was built just for them, and other animals, and a trail camera caught them taking advantage of it. Remarkably, the bridge was not even finished being built when they used it. Workers were still onsite, and yet the deer had already decided that it was theirs.

The Grass Lake bridge is the first overcrossing in Northern California. Located in Siskiyou County, the bridge is a wide green span over U.S. 97 and was built by Caltrans. It is covered in soil and native plants so that the animals crossing over it feel like they’re crossing a meadow, not a deadly highway. The bridge is roughly 100 feet long and 140 feet wide, with two miles of 8ft fencing to funnel animals toward it instead of into high-speed traffic. Since it opened, deer, bears, coyotes, foxes, and a bobcat have all used it. This is wonderful news.

That particular stretch of road along U.S. 97 was in dire need of a bridge. Between 2015 and 2020, more than 50 deer and 16 elk were killed by cars in that spot, the worst record in the district. Every one of those tragic instances was an animal that died a horrific death, and a driver who hit something the size of a refrigerator while driving at highway speed. And these crashes are not harmless to humans, either. Nationwide, wildlife collisions kill about 200 drivers and injure 26,000 every year. But the new bridge ends that along a good stretch of the road.

This particular bridge is not just special because it worked so quickly. Indeed, Caltrans did not build it because a court ordered them to, or because a bigger project forced it as a condition. Instead, they planned it, funded it, and built it for one reason and one reason only. To give wildlife a safe way home. Rennie Cleland, a retired Fish and Game warden, spent 30 years logging where animals crossed and, sadly, died. And his patient, consistent, heartbreaking record is what finally moved a highway agency to take action. All because one man took notice, for decades, of what happened to the animals that mattered to him when they tried to cross the highway.

Mr. Cleland deserves our respect and thanks. But this special crossing is not a California oddity. Around the country, other states are doing the same thing, helped by a federal pilot program that set aside $350 million for exactly these animal crossings. With multiple successful wildlife crossing projects, Wyoming built a crossing on Highway 91 and then watched wildlife collisions fall by 81%, with pronghorn collisions dropping to zero. Utah, Colorado, and dozens of other states have put together proposals, amounting to far more than the initial money for the pilot program can cover.

The Grass Lake crossing bridge cost $15.1 million. For a state that routinely turns public works into an endless money pit, that amount is a tight, well-run figure. Compared to California’s other famous wildlife crossing bridge – the giant one over the 101 in Los Angeles – Grass Lake is a breath of fresh air. Slated to open in late 2025 but running past its target date, the 101 crossing blew past its budget by $21 million, and now runs north of $113 million. That project has become so expensive that other counties have said they could never afford one. The Grass Lake bridge is proof that California can still do something right.

Indeed, if the Newsom-run state can summon that kind of focus, competence, and genuine care for the deer, elk, and bobcats they are blessed to live among, where is the care for the state’s people? In recent years, California has spent something like $24 billion on homelessness, and its own auditors have not much to show for where much of that money went or what it paid for. And, tangled up with addiction and untreated mental illness widespread, the homeless crisis continues to grow, with tents lining highway underpasses, and people dying on the sidewalks. Yes, right here, people are dying on the sidewalks of the richest state in the richest country on earth.

So California and other states built a beautiful bridge, and three deer crossed it before the workers had even left. Wow. That is a wonderfully good and decent thing, and a reminder that caring for all life is not sentimental; it is who we humans are supposed to be.