Wildlife Crossings Pilot Program Grant

In 2025, SHA was awarded a $388,000 grant through the Federal Highway Administration Wildlife Crossings Pilot Program to study wildlife-vehicle collisions (WVCs) throughout the State of Maryland, and to identify areas of high concentrations of WVCs, termed “hotspots.” This “hotspot” data will be used to guide future project construction with the goal of reducing WVCs and improving habitat connectivity statewide. This grant will also strengthen statewide environmental and transportation system resilience by building a long-term collaborative partnership between SHA and the Maryland Department of Natural Resources (DNR).

Maryland Connectivity Coalition

On July 1, 2025, the Maryland General Assembly passed House Bill 731 (Wildlife – Protections and Highway Crossings). This bill formally establishes the “Maryland Connectivity Coalition,” which will be led by SHA and DNR. The Coalition will foster collaboration between stakeholders to protect threatened and endangered species from habitat fragmentation, to protect motorists and wildlife by reducing wildlife-vehicle collisions, and to facilitate the sharing of resources, data and expertise relating to these topics. This collaboration includes developing criteria for prioritizing wildlife connectivity projects, along with developing performance metrics to evaluate the success of these projects. Quarterly meetings will be held among stakeholders to provide pertinent updates and make recommendations on wildlife connectivity projects.

The full version of the bill can be found here and a link to the MD Connectivity Coalition website can be found here.

Northern Diamondback Terrapin Fencing

Maryland’s 2015 Wildlife Action Plan (SWAP), which was prepared by DNR and approved by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, established “Transportation and Service Corridors” as the #4 direct threat to Maryland’s wildlife. The 2015 SWAP lists the northern diamondback terrapin as a Species of Greatest Conservation Need. Designated as Maryland’s state reptile, the northern diamondback terrapin is threatened by predation, habitat loss, road mortality and crab traps. Northern diamondback terrapins exclusively inhabit coastal salt marshes, estuaries, tidal creeks and ditches with brackish water, bordered by Spartina grass. The species has a very small home range, with some individual terrapins occupying the same creek year after year. Almost all terrapin road mortalities are with gravid (egg-carrying) females that leave their marshes to nest where high tide cannot reach them. As terrapins mature slowly, the loss of breeding-age females to vehicular collisions has devastating and cascading impacts on local terrapin populations.

Maryland State Highway Administration is working at two sites on the Eastern Shore of Maryland, at Deal Island and Dover Bridge, to study the effectiveness of different types of wildlife fencing at preventing terrapin road mortality. The Deal Island site has a rebar-anchored, 6-inch PVC fencing while the Dover Bridge site uses a combination of chain link, mesh wiring, and PVC top capping. Results of this work will be used to guide future terrapin fencing implementation efforts.

Maryland map showing terrapin fencing locations near Dover Bridge and Deal Island