Crossings eyed to reduce the number of collisions involving animals, vehicles
“Wildlife crossings in my mind are some of the single biggest improvements that can be done to landscapes to help improve the status of our wildlife populations.”
While driving down Interstate 11 toward the Hoover Dam, travelers get the treat of watching a herd of bighorn sheep leisurely making their way along the dirt overpass across the highway.
The local sheep, which can be observed in places like Hemenway Park in Boulder City, can pose a road hazard during their treks through the mountains, and other animals — like the threatened desert tortoises — have been caught under cars while trying to graze.
Wildlife crossings — bridges or tunnels dedicated to help wildlife cross roads — are one of Nevada’s solutions to reducing animal-involved collisions and preserving some of the animals that call this state home.
“Wildlife crossings in my mind are some of the single biggest improvements that can be done to landscapes to help improve the status of our wildlife populations,” said Cody Mckee, elk and moose staff biologist at the Nevada Department of Wildlife (NDOW).
Nevada has more than 20 wildlife crossings throughout the state, including under- and overpasses. And out of the 22 bridges in the United States for animals, Nevada has six of them, said Nova Simpson, a biological supervisor at the Nevada Department of Transportation (NDOT). Nevada has been considered a pioneer in bringing these wildlife crossings to life, she added.
More could be in the works.
State lawmakers are considering Assembly Bill 112, which calls for identifying areas where wildlife bridges should be erected and asks for the state to match federal funds from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law designated for wildlife crossings.
The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law includes $60 million for the Wildlife Crossings Pilot, a grant program providing financial assistance to projects that reduce animal-vehicle collisions through solutions like wildlife crossings.
Proving successful
These wildlife passages are built above or beneath roadways and have been used in places like Canada’s Banff National Park and throughout Europe for years, according to National Geographic.
The first wildlife overpass here was built in the early 2010s in northeast Nevada to help protect migrating mule deer, said Mike Cox, bighorn sheep and mountain goat staff biologist at NDOW. Arizona, Montana and Wyoming had already been constructing underpasses in the 1990s, he said.
Simpson helped study the effectiveness of these crossings in Wells — even amidst initial skepticism from Nevadans on whether they were worth the money spent.
Within the first few years of the wildlife crossings being opened, Simpson and her cohorts “documented a 50% decrease in mortalities with each subsequent migration (of deer).”
“A lot of people didn’t think they were going to work, but once we started to get results and once the local people saw the actual improvements, the lack of (deer) carcasses and the lack of hitting animals on the road, they then realized how successful (the wildlife crossings) were being,” Simpson said.
With Nevada finding a way to “practically eliminate these animal-vehicle colli
Cody Mckee, elk and moose staff biologist at the Nevada Department of Wildlife
Capri Uzan finished his college basketball career this month at Westcliff University in Irvine, Calif., with a unique distinction: The Las Vegas native is one of a few players to compete professionally and then return to the collegiate game.
Following his freshman season at Vanguard University, the 5-foot-11 point guard joined the Seattle Ballers of the Junior Basketball Association, the Lavar Ball-created league billed as an alternative for junior college and high school players instead of playing in college.
Seattle reached the championship game in the league’s lone season of 2018 and Uzan made a few thousand dollars, but his participation ruined his amateur status with the NCAA and his career would be stuck in neutral.
“It’s a wild story, and I would do it all over again,” he said.
The junior association featured high-scoring games, where Uzan said he rekindled his love for the sport “because we were having fun and putting on a show.”
That show included the championship game against the Los Angeles Ballers (all the teams were the Ballers, named after the Ball family), which were led by brothers Lamelo and Liangelo Ball, and Uzan’s former high school teammate at Desert Pines, Greg Floyd Jr. Another prep teammate, Jerell Springer, played for Seattle.
“It made me enjoy playing basketball again,” he said.
Once the league folded, Uzan returned home to attend UNLV and study business. He was playing a pickup game at Desert Pines when assistant coach J.C. Isakson with the University of Providence, a National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) school in Montana, arrived on a recruiting visit.
They instantly hit it off, and Isakson — unlike other college coaches — took a calculated risk in helping Uzan reenter the college game.
The NCAA wouldn’t allow Uzan or others from the junior association to compete, but the NAIA was a different governing body. Uzan wrote a letter to the commissioner explaining his situation and asking for eligibility, and the league agreed to let him play after forfeiting one collegiate season.
When Uzan returned for the 2020-21 season, he helped Providence to a 17-3 record and league championship by averaging 12.3 points and 29.5 minutes per game.
After sitting out another season, he finished at Westcliff this winter. He averaged 10 points and two assists per game and Westcliff won its league to advance to the NAIA tournament. Westcliff lost to College of Idaho on March 7, officially ending Uzan’s collegiate journey.
When Uzan checked his phone after the game, there was a text message of encouragement from his dad, Mike, detailing his pride in his son finishing out his career.
It’s a journey that included four teams — and three months of being a professional.
“It’s a path I have to live with,” he said of the journey. “If I didn’t (play in the junior association), I would not have met the people I met and enjoyed basketball the way I do.”
That enjoyment was on display when Westcliff won the Calpac Conference tournament this month, overcoming a 13-point halftime deficit to secure the league’s bid into the national tournament. In the celebratory photo after the win, Uzan is playfully lying on the gym floor soaking in the moment with teammates.
“That’s me expressing myself,” he said. “As you get older, and you see your eligibility going away and realize the ball will stop bouncing, it’s about making a fun experience.”
Uzan, with his business degree to fall back on, hopes to get another crack at the professional game overseas. If that doesn’t pan out, he’ll stay in the game as a coach.