Mule deer test California’s first major highway wildlife overpass before fencing is finished

A $20 million wildlife crossing over Route 97 in Siskiyou County, California, is already being used by mule deer (and a bobcat), even as adjacent fencing and final touches are completed. Caltrans says it’s California’s first overpass for a major highway, designed to reduce wildlife-vehicle collisions and improve driver safety, with fencing crucial to funnel animals onto the crossing. The project is part of a broader effort that includes the planned Wallis Annenberg crossing on I-101, and researchers at UC Davis’s Road Ecology Center view it as an “over-crossing laboratory” to guide future wildlife crossings.