The Project:

Gateway to Glacier Wildlife Crossing

The Gateway to Glacier Wildlife Crossing Project at Bad Rock Canyon will improve motorist safety and restore lost connectivity in an important wildlife corridor on the southwest corner of Glacier National Park.

Making Bad Rock Good

For 30 years, the Montana Department of Transportation (MDT) has been planning to improve US-2 in Bad Rock Canyon, between Columbia Heights and Hungry Horse. It’s a notoriously dangerous stretch of road that sees an average of 14 vehicle crashes per year, many of them resulting in serious injury or fatalities.

It’s also adjacent to a brand new 800-acre Wildlife Management Area, which Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks recently purchased for $7 million. It is closed during the winter months to provide habitat security for wildlife. The concentration of elk and deer from November to April could increase the number of wildlife-vehicle collisions.

Soon, MDT will finalize its construction plans and invest more than a hundred million dollars to widen a ~1.5-mile stretch of US-2 in the canyon to make it safer for motorists, including a separate cycling path. This will be a welcome improvement that will benefit the thousands upon thousands of us who drive or cycle this road every year.

But widening the highway will not eliminate motor vehicle accidents.

Why does this matter?

Over the last decade, local drivers and agency wildlife biologists from FWP, USGS and Glacier National Park have identified this as a dangerous location for wildlife-vehicle collisions.

The five-mile stretch of US-2 from the Columbia Falls Bridge to the Hungry Horse Bridge, which includes Bad Rock Canyon, sees an average of ~30 wildlife-vehicle collisions per year, at a cost of more than $400,000 each year.
If these wildlife safety accommodations are not included in the Bad Rock Canyon Highway Safety Improvement Project, these collisions will continue to endanger our wildlife and harm the motorists who share the landscape with them.
Investing in adequate wildlife safety accommodations at Bad Rock Canyon will more than pay for itself, as it will be much cheaper over the infrastructure’s lifetime (~75 years) than the ongoing costs to individual motorists and society at large from needless wildlife mortalities, vehicle repairs, emergency services, and health and hospital care.

The Story of Bad Rock Canyon

From Buffalo Trail to Highway Corridor

Originally, Bad Rock Canyon was the western end of the Buffalo Trail, which led Native American tribes from the Flathead Valley to the Rocky Mountain Front to hunt the buffalo that were so important to their existence. Now, it’s a dangerous highway pinch point between the Flathead River and a brittle cliff face, and an essential travel corridor for wildlife between the Swan and Whitefish mountain ranges.

A Dangerous Stretch for Drivers and Wildlife

The 1.5-mile stretch of US-2 through Bad Rock Canyon is one of the most dangerous stretches of highway in all of Montana. Between 2013 and 2023, there were 143 single and multi-vehicle crashes, including seven that involved serious injuries and three fatalities. That’s why the Montana Department of Transportation has been planning for 30 years to reconstruct this stretch of highway to make it safer for motorists.

In the meantime, biologists have identified this location as a key wildlife crossing location in an increasingly busy Flathead Valley for grizzly and black bears and several ungulate species, including elk, moose and deer. Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks recently spent $7 million for 800 acres at this location because of its value as prime wildlife habitat for elk, deer, and moose.

A Once-in-a-Lifetime Chance to Get It Right

In the next year or two, MDT will decide whether or not they will include a crossing structure in its final project plans. Given that MDT only builds crossing structures when it is reconstructing the highway, this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to include a Gateway to Glacier overpass (and fencing) that would restore wildlife connectivity and prevent wildlife-vehicle collisions on a five-mile stretch of highway between the Columbia Falls and Hungry Horse bridges.

What are we waiting for?

The First of Many

Central Crown Connectivity Initiative

The heart of the Crown of the Continent Ecosystem is anchored by Glacier National Park and the Bob Marshall Wilderness complex, 2.5 million acres of wild country that provides limitless recreational opportunities for people and intact wildlife habitat for grizzly bears, elk, moose, and many other species.

Unfortunately, the busy US-2/BNSF Railway transportation corridor between Columbia Falls and East Glacier separates the park from the wilderness areas to the south, creating significant risk to motorists and wildlife, and preventing wildlife from moving through the landscape.

More than 1,500 animals have been killed by vehicles and trains along the US-2/BNSF transportation corridor in the last decade, at a cost to society of more than $100 million. These mortalities include 40 dead grizzly bears since 2004. This makes this transportation corridor one of the deadliest and most expensive stretches of highway in Montana.

Thankfully, we know how to solve this problem in a cost-effective manner.

The construction of wildlife crossing structures and fencing is a proven solution to make highways safe for both animals and people. That’s why it’s so important that the Gateway to Glacier Wildlife Crossing Structure is included in the Bad Rock Highway Safety Improvement Project.

It will be the first of many wildlife accommodations needed to reconnect Glacier National Park and the Bob Marshall Wilderness Complex.

FAQs

Crossing structures over or under highways are so expensive. Why do we need them?

It’s true that wildlife accommodations can be costly, but they are much cheaper over their lifetime than the ongoing costs associated with wildlife-vehicle collisions, which include vehicle repairs, the health care costs of injured (or dead) motorists, and the loss of valued wildlife. A cost-benefit analysis for Bad Rock Canyon indicates it would be cheaper over the long-term to build an overpass and fencing than to do nothing.

Why is Bad Rock Canyon such an important location for wildlife movement?

According to Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks, the highway at Bad Rock Canyon runs through key lowland habitat for 43 species of “greatest conservation need” as identified in Montana’s 2015 State Wildlife Action Plan. FWP also concluded that it’s a key crossing area for grizzly bears, black bears, mountain lions, wolverine and other wide-ranging carnivores that move north and south between the Whitefish and Swan mountain ranges.

How long have we known that Bad Rock Canyon was an important wildlife crossing location?

Since at least 2014, when road ecologist Rob Ament and other experts wrote a report prioritizing highway mitigation opportunities in northwest Montana. The top three mitigation sites were all on US-2 between Columbia Falls and the Autumn Creek West Trailhead (MM 194). Bad Rock Canyon was the third priority. In 2019, Bad Rock was again identified as a priority mitigation site by an interagency team of biologists.

What type of crossing structure is best suited for Bad Rock Canyon?

Given that the target species include grizzly bears and large-bodied ungulates, a Gateway to Glacier overpass would be the best option. If wildlife exclusionary fencing were included between the Hungry Horse and Columbia Falls bridges, it would virtually eliminate wildlife-vehicle collisions along a 5+ mile stretch of US-2 that currently sees significant numbers of wildlife-vehicle collisions.

When and where was Montana’s first wildlife crossing structure built?

The Walton Goat Lick underpass under US-2 near Essex was built in 1980, making it Montana’s first wildlife crossing structure and only the second in the nation.