Modifying roadside vegetation management practices to reduce vehicular collisions with moose Alces alces

Vegetation management practices currently used within transportation corridors are primarily aimed at minimising encroaching shrub and tree growth in order to increase driver visibility and road safety. Such practices create prime foraging habitat for ungulates such as moose Alces alcesby inhibiting forest succession and maintaining early seral shrub communities. Increased foraging activity within the corridor increases the likelihood of encounters between moose and motorists. Moose-related vehicular collisions are costly in terms of material damage claims and have significant negative impacts on public safety and moose populations in many parts of their range. Although several countermeasures have been developed in an attempt to reduce the frequency of these collisions, few have proven effective and even fewer have taken into consideration possible links between roadside vegetation management, the quality of browse regenerating from cut vegetation, and how moose use browse within the transportation corridor. To better understand these relationships, I reviewed the literature on ungulate-related vehicular collisions in combination with literature on plant response to mechanical damage. Many authors recognise the need to reduce the attractiveness of vegetation growing within transportation corridors. To date, diversionary feeding, forage repellents, establishment of unpalatable species and elimination of roadside brush have been used. Unfortunately, such techniques are only semi-effective or are not cost-efficient when applied across the landscape. It has long been recognised that the ability of plants to regenerate following mechanical damage is influenced by the timing of damage. Current research suggests that the quality of regenerating plant tissues for herbivores also depends on when plants are cut. Plants cut in the middle of the growing season produce regrowth that is high in nutritional value for at least two winters following brush-cutting as compared to plants cut at other times of the year, and uncut controls. Because roadside brush is generally cut during mid-summer, possible links between the quality of regenerated browse and increases in ungulate-related vehicular collisions during the autumn and winter should be elucidated. Based on this review, I recommend cutting brush early in the growing season and emphasize the need for collaborative long-term research to properly address this issue.