EAGLE MOUNTAIN, Utah, May 12, 2023 (Gephardt Daily) — Eagle Mountain and state wildlife officials were operating this week what they call the state’s first electronically controlled, computerized wildlife crossing.
“Thank you Eagle Mountain, for approving a Wildlife Corridor Overlay Zone and becoming the first city in Utah to implement this type of zoning!” the state Division of Wildlife Resources said on social media. “This will help protect migrating wildlife in the area.
“Along with this important zoning change, we were able to install a first-of-its-kind thermal infrared detection system in Utah. This system, located along Highway 73, will detect wildlife along the roadway and will flash a light to warn drivers in the area to slow down. This is an effort to reduce wildlife/vehicle collisions.”
The wildlife detection and alert system was made possible by several partnering organizations, including Eagle Mountain, UDOT, Jessi James Outlaw Electric LLC, Potshot Boring, Utah Power and Light, and the Eagle Mountain Nature and Wildlife Alliance and more, the DWR said in its Thursday press release and Eagle Mountain in its Monday press release.
Eagle Mountain noted 190 deer have been killed by the 5,000-vehicle-a-day traffic from 2018 to 2022 along the stretch of Highway 73 now featuring the wildlife “crosswalk,” as the Eagle Mountain wildlife alliance has dubbed it.
The wildlife corridor zoning was approved in 2021 and is meant to protect the important historic migration pathway for deer and other wildlife between the Oquirrh Mountains and Lake Mountains. The pathway across Highway 73 is now a 35-foot opening in protective fencing the deer are traversing, officials said, near the Cory Wride Memorial on the highway.
Eagle Mountain’s wildlife biologist regularly sets out a pair of fake deer which help guide their real counterparts to the “crosswalk.”
Thermal infrared cameras sit atop two power poles scanning for deer and other larger mammals as they approach the highway, as officials described the radar-equipped computer-controlled system. When wildlife approach to cross the roadway it activates flashing lights to warn motorists a crossing is imminent.
