Great Smoky Mountains National Park is an ideal place to see bear, elk and other mammals, large and small. But too often the place these wild animals are seen most is dead along the side of Interstate 40 in the Pigeon River Gorge, victims of a fragmented habitat combined with an increasing number of motor vehicles.

A collaborative effort to study wildlife mortality from motor vehicle collisions and find solutions for wildlife to safely cross this winding highway along the Pigeon River outside the national park is fully underway with nearly 100 stakeholders in North Carolina and Tennessee.  

The Traveler’s Lynn Riddick reached out to Jeff Hunter, facilitator of the project, to learn how it will come to fruition and the greater benefits to us all when we create safe places for animals to cross roadways