Phone interviews were conducted with eight state DOTs to discuss more in-depth their efforts at minimizing habitat fragmentation impacts by providing either terrestrial or aquatic (non-fish) passages or crossings. To aid in selecting states for interview in Task 68, the results of a comprehensive survey conducted in NCHRP Report 615: Evaluation of the Use and Effectiveness of Wildlife Crossings (2008) were used. The survey in Report 615 attempted to capture the number of wildlife crossings per state, province or territory in North America as of 2007. After reviewing the results of the Report 615 survey, the four U.S. states with the highest number of terrestrial crossings and the four states with the most aquatic crossings were contacted to see if they were interested in participating in a telephone interview to discuss these minimization efforts further under NCHRP Task 68. If any of these states were not available, the next state with the highest number of crossings was contacted until a participant could be established. Efforts were also made to maintain regional representation among states when possible.
The states that ultimately participated in Minimization interviews were:
Interview questions were developed and reviewed by the NCHRP Panel prior to conducting the phone interviews. The intent of the questions was not to examine the state of the science, since this has already been studied, but instead how to insert the science into common practice. The questions were directed at finding out how practitioners are changing or adopting new processes to address minimization of habitat fragmentation, what specifically drives the change, how performance and success are defined, how performance and success are monitored and where the best dollars: results ratios are obtained. The original questionnaire can be found in Appendix A.
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