In 2019, New Mexico passed SB 228 the Wildlife Corridors Act, which charged New Mexico Department of Transportation and New Mexico Department of Game and Fish with compiling a Wildlife Corridors Action Plan so that the state could proactively mitigate the impacts of roads and highways on migrating and resident wildlife. Following up on this first-of-its-kind legislation, the agencies released their draft Wildlife Corridors Action Plan in January 2022. The draft plan included 11 priority safe passage projects – five of which were prioritized based on wildlife-vehicle collisions and six that were identified based on the need to reconnect important habitats. Now comes the hard part, implementing the plan’s recommendations.
Speaker: Michael Dax is the Western program director for Wildlands Network, a binational organization that has been committed to protecting habitat connectivity, biodiversity and wildlife migration for more than 30 years. He was integrally involved in the drafting and passage of SB 228 and continues to work with legislators, agencies, tribes, NGOs and others on its implementation. He has worked in Yellowstone and Grand Canyon National Parks and received a masters degree in environmental history at University of Montana where he initiated work on his book, Grizzly West: The Failed Attempt to Reintroduce Grizzly Bears in the Mountain West (2015). His talk will cover the history of wildlife crossings in New Mexico, current efforts to improve connectivity and safe passage, and state of the field of corridors and connectivity across the country.
