The Idaho Transportation Department (ITD) has released its draft Idaho Transportation Investment Program (ITIP). This lists proposed projects for the next seven years (FY21-27), and includes programmed improvements to highways, bicycle routes, airports, pedestrian projects, freight, safety projects, bridges and public transportation. It is an opportunity for the public to comment on transportation projects in the state.
All projects in District 1 can be found here. So far it appears projects in the Panhandle include only road repairs, upgrades, and bridge repairs. In this document, Benewah, Bonner, and Boundary transportation projects are listed. Again, there does not appear to be any references to wildlife overpasses. However, Yellowstone to Yukon (Y2Y) is keeping its eye on ITD. "Now is the perfect time for Idaho to make mitigation for wildlife a priority in the project’s initial planning, budgeting and engineering process." Reference is made to the 2018 Idaho Fish & Game (IDFG) migration corridors action plan that is based only on a Department of Interior (DOI) Secretarial Order (SO) 3362. There is no federal or state law that endorses this action even though Congress continually tries to pass legislation to support wildlife corridors. In the IDFG plan the Panhandle Complex is specifically mentioned for priority corridors beginning on page 19, including the area between the Selkirk, Cabinet, and Purcell mountains from the Canadian border south along the Kootenai River and US95 corridor and east along US2 to the Montana state border. Y2Y is at it again, they will be interfering with local jurisdictional authority and citizens to push their agenda for wildlife overpasses. Citizens in the Northern Idaho Panhandle area need to keep an eye on these transportation projects and watch for insertion of wildlife overpasses into the projects. Also keep an eye on Y2Y buddying up to ITD as was done in Island Park on the Targhee Pass project. Advocate early for preventative measures to reduce wildlife vehicle collisions, there are plenty of them. Let ITD know where you stand.
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