Ridgway Wildlife Ramps

Funding Available for Two More Wildlife Ramps

After the completion of ten new wildlife ramps on U.S. Hwy. 550 north of Ridgway, close to $18,000 of American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funds are left over. The Ouray Board of County Commissioners on April 12 approved a change-order with the contractor to use the rest of the money to build two more ramps and conduct additional fence repair work.

The Colorado Department of Transportation “really wants us to use all the money up,” County Administrator Connie Hunt told the commissioners. Approximately $160,000 of federal money was awarded for the wildlife mitigation project. “This is just a change order and will require no extra money from the county. To use all the money, two more [ramps] will be built and extra fence repaired.”

Several of the commissioners have received questions about the design of the completed ramps, which appear to contain handrails.

“If you look at old ramps, they are all done at [fence] corners,” Commissioner Keith Meinert said, adding that he attended a presentation about deer psychology and wildlife ramps where he learned that deer will follow a fence looking for a break or something to keep it from moving in that direction. What appear to be “handrails” on the new wildlife ramps are essentially corners that urge the deer to cross the fence at that point.

“What the handrails do,” he joked, “is steer them over that ramp.”