The Michigan Department of Transportation has applied for a federal grant to study traffic crashes involving wildlife around the state.

MDOT’s Amanda Novak tells us the funding through the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Wildlife Crossings Pilot Program would help MDOT develop a plan to prevent wildlife crashes.

“That’s going to look at where the cross locations are, where the known species information is, and it’s going to generate a GIS-based layer that’s going to show us where these are across the state,” Novak said.

Novak says the study will identify the top 20 locations in Michigan for wildlife crashes. Right now, MDOT doesn’t really have such information.

“I do have some ideas on where some of these might end up being just based on my travel and the data collection I’ve been doing in the field, but overall, we don’t know at this point.”

Novak says with a detailed picture of where and how wildlife crashes happen in Michigan, MDOT could develop a plan for preventing them. She says mitigation measures could be implemented using culverts and bridges to corral animals toward different areas so they aren’t crossing roads in certain spots.

The study would look at all animals, and not just deer. So, Novak says included would be deer, elk, bear, moose, geese, and even turtles.

MDOT is seeking $467,000 of federal funds that it would match with $116,000 in state funds for the study.