Roaring Fork Safe Passages (RFSP) was created in 2022 by Cecily DeAngelo, and since then the group has come to be made up of a variety of people from different walks of life who are all passionate about helping wildlife cross highways safely and keeping drivers safe.
According to the Colorado Department of Transportation, roughly 7,000 animals get hit each year in Colorado. And, according to the World Wildlife Fund, there are over one million collisions in the United States each year.
There are many tools that are used to help wildlife circumvent roadways, including crossings, fencing, guards and jump outs. Leading up to any future brick-and-motor changes, RFSP created a new program collecting data specific to the Valley and Highways 82 and 133.
With the help of the Pitkin County Sheriff’s Office — which has seen its fair share of wildlife accidents — the data collection program started on Sept. 22, ahead of the national 2026 Roadside Wildlife Count, which took place from Oct. 2 to 11 and is facilitated by Environment America Research & Policy Center in partnership with Environment Colorado Research & Policy Center, Wild Aware, the Center for Large Landscape Conservation and state partners, including RFSP, according to a press release.
Anyone can participate in RFSP count by filling out a form at roaringforksafepassages.org/help-us-with-wildlife-data-collection
Tucker Vest Burton, who is in charge of community engagement on behalf of RFSP, was asked how the program has been going.
“It is going really well. People are using this and it’s really cool to see,” Burton said. “This gives us so much more power as a community to capture the full picture of what’s going on across our roads in terms of wildlife-vehicle collisions.”
Since the launch of the program, and as of Oct. 27, community members logged 27 dead carcasses or wildlife-vehicle collisions along highways 82 and 133 (and some on I-70), Burton explained, noting that there were around five duplicate entries, meaning that people logged the same animal, in the same location around the same time.
The animals involved in the recorded instances have ranged from elk, deer, bears, raccoons and coyotes.
“We are really happy to see folks are also tracking the smaller animals, like raccoons,” Burton said. “Obviously, a collision with a deer, bear or elk is more dangerous for humans, but there are many smaller creatures that cross our roads and are hit all the time.”
The Pitkin County Sheriff’s Office also logged five relevant incidents since Sept. 22.
“We all can’t be everywhere, including the sheriff’s office, so this is a powerful tool that leverages all drivers commutes throughout the entire Valley,” Burton said.
As far as the national count, Burton relayed that, according to Andrew Rothman of Environment America, 76 signed up in Colorado, collecting 201 data points between Oct. 2 and 11. Burton added that that number didn’t include nine additional observations in the Valley. Nationally, 548 participants logged 1,635 instances in 33 states. He added that data for Oregon was still pending.
With this tool, RFSP hopes to expand participation and get more people helping to track collisions. It also opens up funding for future projects, such as building wildlife crossings.
Folks can find out more about Roaring Fork Safe Passages at its website, roaringforksafepassages.org, and navigate to the “Get Involved” tab to participate in the data-collection effort.