FAIRBANKS -- Crosswalks similar to those used in school zones, complete with flashing lights and a warning that a moose is crossing the road.

Electronic mats built into roads that shock moose if they step on them.

Groomed trails leading to feedlots well off the road.

Those are just some of the techniques the Alaska Moose Federation is promoting to help keep moose off Alaska roads.

As AMF president Gary Olson put it, "Everybody loves moose and they taste a lot better when they're not marinated with antifreeze."

Olson, the head of the nonprofit organization that is trying to reduce the number of moose vs. vehicle collisions in Alaska, met with officials with the Department of Transportation in Fairbanks this week to talk about what can be done north of the Alaska Range to achieve that goal. Olson explained what his organization is doing in Southcentral Alaska and he hopes to duplicate some of those same efforts in the Interior.

"A moose crossing the road ... we've got to do it better," Olson told a small gathering at the Department of Transportation on Peger Road that included officials from DOT and the Department of Fish and Game. "We need to start looking at some of these new technologies."

A record six people, including two in the Fairbanks area, died in collisions with moose in Alaska in 2007, Olson said. The fatalities have prompted more action by state officials, including Gov. Sarah Palin, Olson said.

While most of the federation's efforts have focused on Anchorage, the Mat-Su region and the Kenai Peninsula, where the majority of the state's traffic is centered and where the majority of the moose are hit, the group is ready to go to work in the Interior, Olson said.

For the past two years, the AMF has been grooming trails along a 30-mile stretch of the Parks Highway from Willow to Trapper Creek in an attempt to keep moose away from the road. The organization uses Sno Cats -- all of which have been donated -- to groom trails that are designed to keep moose off the road and lead them to areas of downed birch trees that have been cut to create a browsing area.

"The intent is to encourage moose to live back in the woods and the browse is to hold them there," Olson said. "It's amazing at how quickly those moose take to these trails we make."

The AMF is working closely with the departments of fish and game, transportation and natural resources in Southcentral, Olson said. He would like to see similar partnerships with agencies and communities north of the Alaska Range.

Whether similar strategy would work in the more wide open Interior is questionable, according to Howard Thies, DOT's maintenance and operations chief for the northern region. Neither traffic nor moose are as concentrated in the Interior as they are in Southcentral, he said, where there are several known corridors that moose travel along.

The only moose mitigation in the northern region the DOT currently does is mowing brush along the sides of roads in the spring and fall to help decrease roadside browse and increase visibility. Road signs are also put up at known moose crossings, Thies said.

But the northern region would be more than happy to work with the AMF on different mitigation efforts if there is money to do so, he said.

"If there's dollars to make it happen, you bet," Thies said.

Another new technology being employed in some parts of the country are electronic mats that shock moose when they step on them. The mats can be built into roads at strategic points to keep moose from crossing the road or steer them to a safer crossing.

The Wasilla airport installed an electronic mat at the entrance to the airport four years ago to keep moose out of the fenced-in facility, a common occurrence prior to the installation of the mat.

"In four years, there's only been one moose come in, and that was a calf that jumped it and the cow wouldn't go get it," Olson said, adding that the mats won't shock humans as long as they're wearing shoes.

Electronic moose mats also were recently installed at the entrance to Fort Greely in Delta Junction and are being studied at the Kenai Moose Research Center, he said.

The Department of Transportation is currently studying the use of electronic moose mats, according to Clint Adler, chief of research for the department's research and technology transfer division based in Fairbanks. One of the reasons the state is interested in the electronic mats is that they are much cheaper than building overpasses or underpasses.

"This is a heck of a lot cheaper than building a bridge," Adler said of the mats. "It would cost millions to build (overpasses) and it only costs thousands for an electronic mat."

"We can treat a lot more moose crossings that way than we can building overpasses," he said.

Some states also have started using wildlife crosswalks, Olson said. Fences are used to steer wildlife to a designated crossing where cameras detect their presence and trigger a flashing warning sign to oncoming motorists that an animal is preparing to cross the road.

"In essence you have a school zone where it puts the responsibility on the driver to slow down," Olson said.

The sooner the state takes action to keep moose off the roads, the better it will be for drivers and moose, he said.