Transportation Corridors as Vehicles for Cultural and Ecological Regeneration - Restorative Redevelopment of Devastated Ecocultural Landscapes - page 351

FIGURE 17.22

Large culvert at Mission Creek.

around each wildlife crossing. All these crossings and the associated site restora-
tion activities will remediate damage caused by the existing highway by restoring
wildlife passage, stream and river floodplains, and native vegetation. Given the rar-
ity of such an extensive system of wildlife crossing structures in the United States,
the Western Transportation Institute (Hardy 2007) has conducted pre-construction
monitoring and will continue with several years of post-monitoring to assess wild-
life use and survival (Figure 17.23).

Revegetation Guidelines
Grazing and clearing have eradicated most of the native vegetation, especially
sensitive plant communities such as palouse prairies. Working with CSKT staff
and botanists, Jones & Jones developed restoration plans for 16 different plant
communities identified within the highway corridor. The revegetation of the cor-
ridor was based on the full complement of species found in each of the native plant
communities bisected by the road. To support cultural values consideration was
given not just to the plant species that will survive corridor conditions but also
to where opportunities might exist to use a broader plant species palette that will
restore a particular cultural landscape type. By identifying the target plant com-
munities and projected plant quantities well ahead of construction, time-sensitive
activities such as seed collection, plant salvage, and propagation were started early
enough to meet the need for revegetation materials once the road construction was
completed.
The U.S. Highway 93 Revegetation Guidelines were therefore developed to iden-
tify key revegetation strategies to support cultural values, and to ensure successful