Highway 21 Underpass Fencing Project Awarded Grant

The National Fish and Wildlife Foundation has awarded a $25,000 grant to the Boise River Wildlife Linkage Partnership to support the Idaho Highway 21 Big Game Habitat Linkage project. This grant is provided through the Wells Fargo Environmental Solutions Program on the condition that the funds will be matched by $50,000 in non-federal contributions raised by the Boise River Wildlife Linkage Partnership. The funds would help complete fencing associated with a wildlife underpass on Highway 21. The eight-foot fence on both sides of the highway is essential to funnel migrating deer and elk off the road and to the underpass. So far the west-side fence is completed, but only a portion of the east side fence is done. The underpass, built to allow wildlife to travel under the road and out of the path of vehicles, was completed in October 2010. The Idaho Transportation Department built the wildlife underpass with federal stimulus dollars. Once the project is finished, with the fencing on both sides of the road, an estimated 80 percent of the deer and elk currently crossing this section of Highway 21 will move under the road instead of over it. The Wildlife Linkage Partnership includes Idaho Fish and Game, Idaho Transportation Department, Boise, Ada County, ACHD, Boise County, Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation and the U.S. Forest Service.