5.6 Transportation and Service Corridors
5.6.1 Anticipated Impacts Potential impacts from transportation and service corridors on terrestrial wildlife species and their habitats are numerous. Te characteristics of a road or service corridor will afect the degree to which it creates a barrier to species (Clark et al. 2010; Clevenger et al. 2003; Wiens 1997) . Corridors consist of impervious surfaces or vegetation that is mowed or otherwise main- tained periodically. New corridors have the potential to convert diverse wildlife habitat (e.g., mixed hardwood forest) to habitats that support few or no species. Maintained corri- dors can also serve as pathways for the spread of invasive plant species. Habitat fragmentation is the most common impact to terrestrial environments but there are other important impacts that can negatively impact wildlife (Clark et al. 2010; Forman and Alexander 1998) . Te presence of roads increases the mortality of wildlife from vehicular collision, which can lead to changes in demographic and structural changes of popu- lations (Clark et al. 2010; Mazerolle 2004; Row et al. 2007) . For small animals with limited dispersal capacity (e.g., some amphibians), roads and service corridors can create a barrier to gene fow, resulting ultimately in loss of diversity and decreased population ftness (Clark et al. 2010; Frankham et al. 2002) . Te results of a study on the efects of roads on Timber Rattlesnakes demonstrated there was a signifcant efect on genetic structure and gene fow among pop- ulations (Clark et al. 2010) . Highways impact wildlife through avoidance, fragmentation, direct and indirect loss of habitat, and mortality (Ruediger 1996, 1998) . Conover et al. (1995) , extrapolating from a variety of sources across the United States, estimated 726,000 deer–vehicle collisions annually. Studies have also identifed short-term negative impacts on Black Bears (Brody and Pelton 1989; Beringer et al. 1990) , Grizzly Bears (Mattson et al. 1987) , Gray Wolves (Paquet and Callaghan 1996) , and other carnivores (Gibeau and Heuer 1996) . North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission (NCWRC) data indicate that a minimum of 50 to 100 Black Bears are killed in central and northeastern North Carolina by automobiles yearly. Road mortality of amphibians and reptiles is likely to correlate highly with fuctuations in water level, breeding and nesting season, dispersal of juveniles, and availability of food resources (i.e., insects attracted to street lights) (Jochimsen et al. 2004) . Tere is a clear need for management actions that reduce the incidence of vehicle–wildlife collisions for large mammals. For example, to help select locations for three wildlife under- passes along a new 23-km-long segment of US Highway 64 on the Albemarle/Pamlico pen- insula in Washington County, track surveys were conducted to collect species crossing data (Scheick and Jones 1998) . Survey results identifed 1,335 tracks of seven wildlife species (Black Bear, White-tailed Deer, Bobcat, Coyote, Gray Fox, Raccoon, and Opossum). Building underpasses during road construction has several benefts including reduction of both human and animal injury and death (Scheick and Jones 1998) .
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2015 NC Wildlife Action Plan
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