Groups' goal is to minimize moose/vehicle collisions

Gary Olson, chairman of the Alaska Moose Federation, loves seeing moose but not that way. Along roadsides, Olson and state transportation officials say, they're a hazard. Together they're trying to change moose habits.

"Moose tend to congregate along highways because that's where a lot of the young willow they feed on is, and where it's easiest to get to. The theory that if you move that further back from the highway (the moose will move too) seems to be a reasonable way to mitigate the problem," said Department of Transportation spokesman Rick Feller.

Working on a project in Point MacKenzie recently, Olson said vegetation close to the road in that area is an example of what he hopes to prevent elsewhere in Southcentral Alaska, where moose/vehicle collisions are a frequent danger.

Olson applauds a project on the Parks Highway north of Willow, between Mileposts 72 and 83, where the state Department of Transportation has completely cleared the land it owns along the highway in an effort to lower moose/vehicle collisions.

"I'm getting so many calls from people going through, saying 'you can see them!'" Olson said.

Generally the department clears within its right-of-way, not to the edge. Feller said the area was cleared for several reasons: to increase visibility, reduce moose browse, and to allow more solar warmth to reach the highway, reducing chronic icy spots.

The road-clearing project in Willow is a prelude to a $23 million road rebuild planned there. Feller said the project will widen shoulders, rehabilitate pavement and add passing lanes in that section.

State transportation engineer Scott Thomas said the department listened to Moose Federation input suggesting broader clearing and plans to incorporate the practice into other upcoming road projects, including a project to widen the highway between Wasilla and Houston.

Feller said the Department of Transportation tries to clear all state roads in the region every two years. But the maintenance crews, taxed with other duties, often fall behind, clearing only 60-70 percent of the roads in that two-year cycle.

"Generally we're taking care of major-volume highways first, then concentrating on areas with high moose concentrations and where line of sight is an issue," Feller said.

Young hardwoods like willows and other moose browse grow fast, up to three or four feet in a year, Olson said. Thomas said willows can grow back the same summer they're trimmed.

"We can only do our regular cycle," Thomas said. "Ideally we'd have a double cutting."

That's where groups like the Moose Federation come in. Olson wants to establish a consistent corridor management program that groups like his and volunteers can participate in.

He likened it to the adopt-a-highway program used for trash cleanup and said he envisions businesses adopting stretches of highway and groups of volunteers helping while certified equipment operators clear the brush with machines.

The federation is working on a separate but linked project to create good moose feeding grounds on either side of the highway to lure moose away from the road in the Willow area.

"If we can create habitat on either side for them to go to, it'll stop the enticement," Olson said.

Olson calls it critical wintering habitat enhancement.

The idea is to collaborate with state, federal, Mat-Su Borough and other large landowners to crush parts of old forested land near the highway to allow room for new growth. Moose might still walk across the highway, but they'll be headed directly from one "salad bar" to the other, not meandering back and forth across the highway picking at vegetation.

Find Rindi White online at adn.com/contact/rwhite or call 352-6709.