Wyoming Highway Exceeds Grizzly Death Cap
JACKSON, Wyo. (AP) — The number of grizzly bears killed by vehicle collisions on a stretch of highway in northwest Wyoming exceeds the estimate officials expected when a redesign of the thoroughfare was approved more than a decade ago.
At least two federally protected, threatened grizzlies have been run over on 38-mile stretch of U.S. 26/287 east of Jackson Hole in the past two years. That is double the allowed unintentional killing of a single grizzly along the road that underwent a seven-year reconstruction at a cost of more than $100 million.
The Jackson Hole News & Guide reports (http://bit.ly/2b1Vjlg ) the highway from Moran Junction to the Shoshone National Forest boundary had zero reported grizzly deaths in the decades leading up to the road construction, which took years to complete.