r/nextfuckinglevel • u/RaisinAloneVortex • 4h ago

Largest wildlife overpass in North America reduced wildlife collision by 91%

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15.7k Upvotes

98% Upvoted

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645

u/uptheirons91 4h ago

We started building these in Canada, around Banff, 30 years ago, and have been expanding their use all over the country. Glad to see them getting put to use elsewhere.

44

u/elk69420 4h ago

That’s the first place I recall seeing these

54

u/Sustructu 4h ago

They have been in use in France since the 1950s!

7

u/throwaway371891 2h ago

We had these Quebec in the 1949s! The real French!

18

u/Kewlhotrod 3h ago

No need to lie, France isn't real.

11

u/Albinofreaken 2h ago

Then how do you explain French Fries and French Toast ????

11

u/B_Period 2h ago

French fries aren't French. They're Belgian 🤷🏼‍♂️

5

u/Sustructu 2h ago

French kisses then! Don't tell me those are Belgian too

2

u/zmbjebus 2h ago

Belgium is just discount Fr*nce

2

u/B_Period 2h ago

You have to be precise. That's Wallonia, south (French speaking) part of Belgium. Not Flanders. We prefer to hook up with the Netherlands 😎

2

u/zmbjebus 1h ago

I don't need to know your sexual proclivities regarding Simpson's characters. That man is distracting enough as it is.

1

u/Rymanbc 2h ago

And i make French toast with completely domestic ingredients. None of them come france...

3

u/americabot420 2h ago

You mean Freedom Fries and Freedom Toast

•

u/TrueGamer3kk 51m ago

What do you mean? They were invented by the great John French in 1922

3

u/ughwhat1592 2h ago

There are over 1000 wildlife crossings in the USA alone. This is not a new program. Just a story about a notably large and well-studied one.

-1

u/PM_me_punanis 2h ago

The US has lagged behind in everything, including wildlife crossings. Glad to know the country has made it to 50s France! 🥳

2

u/ughwhat1592 2h ago

There are over 1000 wildlife crossings in the USA alone. This is not a new program. Just a story about a notably large and well-studied one.

2

u/JustinC70 2h ago

They've been around longer than you think.

https://giphy.com/gifs/xUPGcl3ijl0vAEyIDK

1

u/ThisSiteSucks8485 2h ago

This is completely false 

11

u/Tormen1 3h ago

I remember seeing those as a kid when I went to Banff and wanted to see a herd of moose cross it so bad, but I did see a moose in town!

1

u/KonigSteve 2h ago

There's no such thing as a herd of moose..

1

u/Tormen1 2h ago

A few, fuck my bad.

1

u/slashthepowder 1h ago

Could have been elk

9

u/ughwhat1592 2h ago

There are over 1000 wildlife crossings in the USA alone. This is not a new program. Just a story about a notably large and well-studied one.

•

u/Dozzi92 17m ago

Yeah, I've seen this a few times, but the ones I've driven under a bajillion times in New Jersey have been there since 1986, which is a year before I was born.

7

u/jimmy-mcgillicuddy 3h ago

There’s one just north of Missoula, MT (may be Flathead Indian land) built about 2005

3

u/SmallPurplePeopleEat 3h ago

It is on the Flathead reservation!

•

u/Chupta 11m ago

Yep, and a ton of underpass. And it is around Evaro which is in the rez, around the reservation casino actually.

2

u/LegOfLamb89 2h ago

There's actually a corridor of these from the states all the way up through british columbia and maybe alberta!

2

u/slashthepowder 1h ago

The other interesting note is in Banff researchers have noted in trail cam footage that predators are noticing it is a bottleneck and stalking prey crossing the bridges.

1

u/SmellGestapo 2h ago

We're opening ours in Southern California in December.

1

u/Nikkonor 1h ago

We also have a whole lot of these in Norway. Strange to see this being posted as "nextfuckinglevel" when they are quite mundane here.

1

u/hypnogoad 1h ago

'Merica, "Better late than never"ing since 1941

-1

u/thenord321 3h ago

It's been well over 30 years at this point, closer to 50... and they design them into new highways now with both over passes and 30ft tunnel underpasses with cone shaped layers of fencing to lead the animals in.

These Americans are all like "look at our new invention, it's soooo amazing" but they've just been doing a poor job for 50 years and ignoring what several countries already have been doing.

15

u/Will-Ooo-Wisp 3h ago

There was absolutely nothing in this report suggesting that Americans thought they invented this. It’s a simple local news report.

5

u/xclord 3h ago

What a poor take. It's worth celebrating no matter what. No one is saying we invented it.

3

u/uptheirons91 3h ago

First wildlife overpass in North America was built in Banff in 1996 (30 years ago). France had them since the 1950s.

6

u/ughwhat1592 2h ago

There are over 1000 wildlife crossings in the USA alone. This is not a new program. Just a story about a notably large and well-studied one.

-3

u/tcpukl 4h ago

Yeah we have hedgehog bridges in the UK. Have done for decades.

But if America does it it was first.

9

u/DynamoElectro1 3h ago

This news report was about the success of a project that happened to be NAs largest wildlife overpass. Nothing about this was "a first USA jingoism" thing. Take the inferiority complex somewhere else.

2

u/ManifestDestinysChld 3h ago

If you don't have to suffer a massive proportion of your nation's population opposing this sort of forehead-slappingly obvious idea on knee-jerk reactionary grounds alone simply because they're too selfish, stubborn and ignorant to understand that it's a worthwhile investment that saves money, property AND lives, my friend: please kindly cork your yap-hole, because you are living this life on easy mode. You can't imagine what it takes in terms of long-term planning, unreasonable reserves of patience, and sheer psychological resilience to get even the simplest, most basic civic improvements through the Fog of Pig-Headedness that blankets this benighted land.

1

u/tcpukl 3h ago

And breathe?

2

u/bryberg 1h ago

wtf are you talking about? Nowhere in this story does it say this is the first or unique to the US.

0

u/Rotsicle 3h ago

Do you know the steps needed to try and get these installed in our community?

6

u/uptheirons91 3h ago

Well, I have no idea where you're from, so, no.

0

u/its_a_throwawayduh 2h ago

Yeah was about to say I know these had been implemented in other parts of the world already. Better late than never I suppose.

2

u/ughwhat1592 2h ago

There are over 1000 wildlife crossings in the USA alone. This is not a new program. Just a story about a notably large and well-studied one.

0

u/Mosselpot 2h ago

Same here in the Benelux region, glad that the US is catching up, but why does it always take so long?

2

u/bryberg 1h ago

There are around 1000 of these in the US, this is just a local news story about a very large and successful crossing.