Latest / Talking Michigan Transportation / How MDOT is protecting people, animals and plants on Earth Day 2026

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How MDOT is protecting people, animals and plants on Earth Day 2026 · Talking Michigan Transportation

• 0:07
  Jeff Cranson: Hello, welcome to the Talking Michigan Transportation Podcast.
• 0:10
  Jeff Cranson: I'm Jeff Cranson.
• 0:12
  Jeff Cranson: On this Earth Day, 2026, I spoke with Amanda Novak, who has made other appearances on the podcast.
• 0:23
  Jeff Cranson: She is a resource specialist at the Michigan Department of Transportation, and she's working on some really creative things that both do a lot in terms of sustainability, but also to enhance safety of travel, especially the grant she has pursued in partnership with the Michigan Department of Natural Resources for wildlife crossings and ways to reduce collisions between vehicles and wildlife.
• 0:50
  Jeff Cranson: Deer, bears, smaller animals, turtles, everything.
• 0:55
  Jeff Cranson: And she's got a lot of good things to say about where it stands with that grant to study it and where things will go from there.
• 1:02
  Jeff Cranson: And she also talks about the expansion of wildlife plantings, both for pollinators and for aesthetics and trees and what MDOT is doing with replacement and planting of trees that are both also helpful as pollinators and to the species that pollinate, but to providing oxygen, which is something that matters to all of us.
• 1:27
  Jeff Cranson: So I hope you enjoy the conversation.
• 1:30
  Jeff Cranson: So, Amanda, thank you again for appearing on an Earth Day episode of Talking Michigan Transportation.
• 1:36
  Jeff Cranson: I always enjoy talking to you about all the things that you're doing and your passion.
• 1:41
  Jeff Cranson: You and many others at MDET.
• 1:42
  Jeff Cranson: I don't want to make it sound like it's a one-person show.
• 1:45
  Jeff Cranson: You've got a lot of support in the central office and the other regions, but I'm specifically interested in catching up first on the grant to study better ways to protect wildlife and motorists from each other.
• 1:58
  Jeff Cranson: This isn't just about protecting the animals.
• 2:00
  Jeff Cranson: Obviously, that's part of our mission.
• 2:03
  Jeff Cranson: But as we've talked about a lot, these crashes with wildlife that are happening with more frequency as we know fewer people are hunting deer have a tremendous impact on the safety, you know, and the cost of driving in Michigan.
• 2:18
  Jeff Cranson: So can you tell us where we're at with that?
• 2:21
  Amanda Novak: Yeah, sure.
• 2:22
  Amanda Novak: Um I'm happy to report we're making excellent progress.
• 2:26
  Amanda Novak: Um we actually screened proposals uh last Friday on April 17th.
• 2:32
  Amanda Novak: Um, and so the next step is to work through some contracting things, and then it is scheduled to um go to the administrative board on May 12th.
• 2:42
  Amanda Novak: Um, and then hopefully it'll be approved there, and then we'll get the kickoff meeting underway.
• 2:48
  Jeff Cranson: So that's the the administrative board, I should say.
• 2:50
  Jeff Cranson: It's a board that uh all the state agencies go to with proposals for contracts and they have to sign off on it.
• 2:56
  Amanda Novak: So yes, yep.
• 2:58
  Amanda Novak: So uh we're making progress on that.
• 3:01
  Amanda Novak: Um, we're excited.
• 3:02
  Amanda Novak: It we had a lot of really great proposals and a lot of great interest in this study.
• 3:07
  Amanda Novak: So that was really nice to see.
• 3:09
  Amanda Novak: Um, and a lot of great work being done nationally, um, and folks that had worked on some of those national project projects as well.
• 3:17
  Jeff Cranson: So with some changes at the federal level, different administrations, different priorities looking at things, this got held up a bit.
• 3:25
  Jeff Cranson: These things are always fits and starts, right?
• 3:27
  Jeff Cranson: But um what have you learned along the way so far about you know what this could be and what the potential is?
• 3:35
  Amanda Novak: I I have been able to uh reach out to some other DOTs who have similar projects going on right now, which was exciting.
• 3:42
  Amanda Novak: And actually, they sent one of them in particular found me based on your past podcast that you we did together.
• 3:49
  Amanda Novak: Um yeah, that that was exciting.
• 3:53
  Amanda Novak: Um, and so I was able to connect with some other DOTs and and discuss kind of like what what went well so far with their their grant projects and maybe some things I might be able to do differently.
• 4:04
  Amanda Novak: Um, so that's pretty exciting.
• 4:07
  Amanda Novak: Um but I guess that's about it as of now because we haven't really started anything, so I haven't learned too much yet.
• 4:14
  Jeff Cranson: But I'm guessing some of these are Western states.
• 4:17
  Jeff Cranson: I I spoke before with somebody from Alberta, which is a Western province, about the Y2Y, which is the Yellowstone to Yukon conservation initiative, where they've been working on this for a long time and done some very successful things and Western Freeways in Canada.
• 4:34
  Jeff Cranson: So is it some of the Western U.S.
• 4:36
  Jeff Cranson: states that you've been in touch with?
• 4:38
  Amanda Novak: Uh yes, I've talked to folks from Montana, um, but most recently, um actually Missouri DOT and they're um much more um similar to us with their white-tailed deer issues.
• 4:50
  Amanda Novak: So they they've been a great resource.
• 4:52
  Amanda Novak: They've actually reached the point where they've gone through kind of the planning process and now they're starting to figure out how to implement the data they've gained from the planning grant into their future planning.
• 5:04
  Amanda Novak: So I think that'll be really interesting to see how they work through that.
• 5:08
  Amanda Novak: And I'm sure there will be some parts in the process we can use as well.
• 5:12
  Jeff Cranson: Yeah, no, it's it's I I didn't know that about the whitetailed deer, but it makes sense because the state geographically has a lot of similarities to Michigan.
• 5:19
  Jeff Cranson: It's very diverse.
• 5:20
  Jeff Cranson: Uh parts of it are very flat and just rural farmland.
• 5:23
  Jeff Cranson: And obviously, there's mountains in the south and all kinds of lakes in Missouri too.
• 5:27
  Jeff Cranson: So that's really, really interesting.
• 5:29
  Jeff Cranson: What would you say?
• 5:30
  Jeff Cranson: What's the most tangible thing you've heard about that actually works to curtail these crashes?
• 5:35
  Amanda Novak: Um, well, it's just getting um the data back and and really doing the risk analysis by corridor.
• 5:42
  Amanda Novak: I think that's really important.
• 5:43
  Amanda Novak: For us, it's gonna be, you know, it's great that we're gonna identify the hot spots, but I think it's also gonna be a corridor approach.
• 5:50
  Amanda Novak: Um, how do we manage the entire corridor for the issue?
• 5:53
  Amanda Novak: Because it's really not gonna stay isolated to one location.
• 5:57
  Amanda Novak: And so they're looking at it in that regard.
• 6:00
  Amanda Novak: Um, and then kind of looking at how they're gonna fit it into future project planning.
• 6:06
  Amanda Novak: And I guess my goal too would be as we create road projects, we start thinking about, you know, we would automatically check that risk layer and maybe start talking about mitigation efforts during that planning phase.
• 6:19
  Jeff Cranson: Yeah.
• 6:19
  Jeff Cranson: I think one question you hear from people is, you know, why can't we just fence off all of the freeways and you know, talk about why that's just not practical?
• 6:28
  Amanda Novak: Um, well, it's really, it's really expensive.
• 6:30
  Amanda Novak: Uh but it it may be something that we have to do long term um in certain areas, uh, but you have to have other factors included.
• 6:40
  Amanda Novak: You have to have a way for them to cross.
• 6:42
  Amanda Novak: You know, they still we still have to maintain the habitat connection.
• 6:45
  Amanda Novak: Um the wildlife fences are very species specific, so they're not going to solve the issue of climbing, climbing animals, you know, like bears, for example, can climb the fences.
• 6:57
  Amanda Novak: So if you have a bear issue, that's not really a practical mitigation measure.
• 7:01
  Amanda Novak: Um, but we also want to look at it where we're including other species as well, you know, not just solving the collisions with the larger animals, but also mitigating for some of the issues for the smaller animals, like the herp herps that go unreported, the turtles and and things like that.
• 7:19
  Jeff Cranson: So yeah, talk a little bit about that.
• 7:21
  Jeff Cranson: We've talked about it before, but for the uninitiated, um, people think, well, turtles are small, you know, how much damage can they do?
• 7:27
  Jeff Cranson: But there's a reason why they present a safety concern too.
• 7:31
  Jeff Cranson: Yeah, because people want to help them.
• 7:34
  Amanda Novak: Probably one of the biggest reasons is people want to help them.
• 7:38
  Amanda Novak: Um, yes, we get the motorists, you know, who leave their vehicles and try to try to move the turtles.
• 7:43
  Amanda Novak: Um, but there are the bigger turtles that when vehicles hit them, they do vehicle damage as well.
• 7:50
  Amanda Novak: So there's a mix there.
• 7:52
  Amanda Novak: Um, but turtle fencing um is another thing that Missouri um, you know, just providing safe passage passage for the smaller um animals was important to Missouri as well.
• 8:04
  Amanda Novak: So they have some mitigation measures that I've been looking into.
• 8:08
  Amanda Novak: And we have the wildlife fencing um for the turtles that we've actually found um a product that's actually made in the US, because I guess another lesson learned for me with the turtle fencing um is that some of the fencing products out there don't meet the Bi America standards, which were held to at MDOT federally.
• 8:28
  Jeff Cranson: Yes, for important.
• 8:30
  Amanda Novak: So that was an interesting lesson learned.
• 8:32
  Jeff Cranson: Um so Yeah, well, no, that's okay.
• 8:36
  Jeff Cranson: I I just I wanted to touch on just quickly again, because we've we've talked about it before, but you hear from the naysayers, the critics, you know, the armchair engineers, like how can you you're you're trying to teach the deer where to cross?
• 8:48
  Jeff Cranson: And it's like, well, yeah, actually, actually we are.
• 8:51
  Jeff Cranson: That's it, it has been done successfully.
• 8:53
  Jeff Cranson: They they are somewhat trainable, right?
• 8:56
  Jeff Cranson: And uh you can do things that they'll they'll teach those animals, which they've done with great success in in Western Canada, to funnel them to these safe crossings.
• 9:06
  Amanda Novak: Yes, we we will be funneling them.
• 9:08
  Amanda Novak: We have a few culvert locations in our current fencing project.
• 9:12
  Amanda Novak: I guess an update to that as well is it's part of the Transportation Alternatives program.
• 9:17
  Amanda Novak: Um, it's a pilot project, and we are gonna put in some wildlife exclusionary fencing to keep the deer out of the right-of-way.
• 9:26
  Amanda Novak: Um, and so we're gonna learn a lot through that process, which measures work.
• 9:31
  Amanda Novak: Um, but we're funneling them to big box culvert crossings.
• 9:35
  Amanda Novak: So we are going to encourage their crossing in a safe spot.
• 9:39
  Jeff Cranson: Can you talk a little bit about what some of those hot spots are um around the state?
• 9:43
  Jeff Cranson: You might be most familiar with the Bay region where you are, but you probably know of others.
• 9:48
  Amanda Novak: Yeah, I see a lot of them.
• 9:49
  Amanda Novak: I've done a fair amount of carcass collection, so noting actual carcass locations on a GIS map, and I start to see some definite trends with it.
• 9:59
  Amanda Novak: Um, they like to cross where our structures are.
• 10:02
  Amanda Novak: Um, they really utilize our interchanges and our bridges.
• 10:06
  Amanda Novak: Um, and you'll see really concentrated hits in those locations.
• 10:10
  Amanda Novak: And generally speaking, they have a some kind of drainage feature nearby where we see a lot of crashes.
• 10:17
  Amanda Novak: So I think it makes sense to funnel them to some of those areas because they're obviously drawn there.
• 10:23
  Amanda Novak: So if we can funnel and and help them um with safe passage, I think it can be laid out and planned out.
• 10:31
  Jeff Cranson: So you had an interest in this, obviously, in your college years, but did you ever know that you would be involved in in animal carcass collection?
• 10:38
  Amanda Novak: I did not expect to be doing this.
• 10:41
  Amanda Novak: No.
• 10:41
  Amanda Novak: Um it's it's interesting and exciting, especially when you see trends over a few years to see, you know, I'm marking deer in the same location I've marked, like nearly the same exact location I've marked for the last couple of years in a row.
• 10:55
  Amanda Novak: So it starts to really show there are trends.
• 10:58
  Amanda Novak: I know everybody thinks it's completely random, but I don't think it's entirely random.
• 11:03
  Jeff Cranson: Yeah, well, I mean, for some time we've known at least a little bit about hot spots, and that's why the signs go where they do, because that's a common crossing spot.
• 11:11
  Jeff Cranson: And I, you know what I find myself trying to do uh if I'm in a rural area, especially, is I keep an eye on Waze or Google Maps or whatever.
• 11:20
  Jeff Cranson: I try to look for bodies of water that I'm coming up on because that's gonna be an indicator of where they might be trying to cross.
• 11:26
  Amanda Novak: Yes, definitely an indicator or low ground, you know, where you have kind of like wetland uh adjacent.
• 11:33
  Amanda Novak: It's it's a definite crossing spot as well.
• 11:36
  Amanda Novak: Or folks' hay fields, you know.
• 11:38
  Amanda Novak: At my house, they cross at the end of end of our hay field and people hit them there all the time.
• 11:44
  Jeff Cranson: Yeah, yeah.
• 11:44
  Jeff Cranson: Including you, right?
• 11:46
  Amanda Novak: Yes.
• 11:48
  Jeff Cranson: Please stay tuned.
• 11:49
  Jeff Cranson: We'll be back with more talking Michigan transportation right after this.
• 11:53
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• 11:58
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• 12:00
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• 12:08
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• 12:12
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• 12:26
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• 12:33
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• 12:36
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• 12:43
  Jeff Cranson: Um, you you've been an advocate for a long time for wildflower seeding.
• 12:49
  Jeff Cranson: Um, we've talked about sunflowers and pollinators.
• 12:53
  Jeff Cranson: Um, so touch on that, bring me up to speed on where things stand there.
• 12:58
  Amanda Novak: Yeah, so this year um I haven't talked to everybody statewide, but I believe we're on track to plant what we planted last year as far as uh sunflowers and wildflower plots.
• 13:09
  Amanda Novak: Um I think in our region we expanded a little bit.
• 13:14
  Amanda Novak: Um, we are planting in Bay Region 16 and a half total acres, um, which is really exciting.
• 13:21
  Amanda Novak: Uh, but I think everything else will remain pretty much the same.
• 13:24
  Amanda Novak: We may have expanded a little bit in the other regions, but everybody's everybody's for the most part coming on board and at least putting some kind of plantings in their regions.
• 13:35
  Jeff Cranson: 16 acres.
• 13:36
  Jeff Cranson: Are you are you talking uh medians mostly, linear acres?
• 13:40
  Amanda Novak: We have uh several medium plants.
• 13:43
  Amanda Novak: Yes, we have them in the medians.
• 13:45
  Amanda Novak: Uh we have some loop ramps, um, and then we have some wildflower plots at uh the port here on Welcome Center, which has actually um helped us reduce total mowing costs of the turf at the rest area or the welcome center, um, which is also really exciting.
• 14:03
  Amanda Novak: It looks beautiful all year, you know, from the start of the spring into the fall.
• 14:08
  Amanda Novak: Um, it supports so many different types of pollinators and then also reduces our mowing costs.
• 14:14
  Amanda Novak: So it's it's been a really great project.
• 14:17
  Amanda Novak: And we've expanded that again this year.
• 14:19
  Jeff Cranson: So you've told me before, and I don't think uh we need to get into the numbers, but it sounds like the success in the Bay region with some of these has uh sparked interest in other regions around the state.
• 14:32
  Jeff Cranson: So could you talk about where else this is going on?
• 14:35
  Amanda Novak: Yeah, this is uh Grand Region.
• 14:38
  Amanda Novak: Um, and I don't know all the roadways that we've planted, but similar um planting locations, medians or loop ramps uh for grand region, southwest region uh joined us.
• 14:49
  Amanda Novak: Um they're also doing another, they obtained a grant for a different kind of like native wildflower planting.
• 14:56
  Amanda Novak: Um, I believe they planted last fall, so I don't think we have results of how that turned out yet, but that's that's exciting.
• 15:02
  Amanda Novak: That's a pretty large area.
• 15:04
  Amanda Novak: Um, it was like an excess parcel MDOT has.
• 15:07
  Amanda Novak: Um and I think university is joining, so that's exciting.
• 15:14
  Amanda Novak: Um so every everybody's coming on board with the project.
• 15:18
  Jeff Cranson: Yeah, well, that covers a lot of ground from a square miles if if you have those four regions involved.
• 15:23
  Jeff Cranson: So that's really really interesting and it's a good sign.
• 15:26
  Jeff Cranson: And I think I think uh people appreciate it.
• 15:28
  Jeff Cranson: I think you and I talked before a lot of these maintenance people, uh engineers who train to build roads, you know, pave roads, um, have been really interested in this and uh and get a lot of satisfaction out of that program.
• 15:44
  Jeff Cranson: Talk about that a little bit.
• 15:46
  Amanda Novak: Yes, we are actually now um we are planting, we're adding some of the native uh wildflowers into our turf seed mixes, um, maybe not necessarily in the Mozone, but we're actually making it a part of our construction projects now.
• 16:00
  Amanda Novak: Um, I don't know how successful it'll be.
• 16:02
  Amanda Novak: It is actually surprisingly difficult to grow wildflowers, um, you know, plant the plot and walk away from it.
• 16:10
  Amanda Novak: It doesn't, you know, it takes a lot of maintenance to get them established.
• 16:14
  Amanda Novak: And oftentimes it's it just doesn't quite work out in the right of way.
• 16:18
  Amanda Novak: So we'll see how.
• 16:19
  Jeff Cranson: In terms of weeds, what is the maintenance about weeds or yes, it's it's about weed competition.
• 16:25
  Amanda Novak: It were they require a lot of mowing, you know, sometimes herbicide control of other other weeds.
• 16:31
  Amanda Novak: It it just can be very labor intensive, and it takes a couple of years to get them established.
• 16:37
  Amanda Novak: Also, brush can outcompete them.
• 16:40
  Jeff Cranson: Right.
• 16:40
  Jeff Cranson: Yes.
• 16:40
  Jeff Cranson: So what else is uh keeping you busy in this in this front?
• 16:45
  Amanda Novak: Well, I'm excited.
• 16:46
  Amanda Novak: I wanted to talk today about I kind of wanted to highlight um how many trees um dot plants per year because I think this is an area that folks may not may not recognize as you know, another source for pollinators and pollinator habitat.
• 17:00
  Amanda Novak: Um we do tree removals with our projects, and I know sometimes they can be controversial just because you know it it can it might look devastated at first, but we always plant things back.
• 17:12
  Amanda Novak: We mitigate for any removals that we do, and we try to do replacements at a two to one ratio if possible.
• 17:18
  Amanda Novak: So um we did get some numbers.
• 17:21
  Amanda Novak: We we did we do plant on average about 4,297 trees per year.
• 17:26
  Amanda Novak: So that's really an exciting number.
• 17:28
  Amanda Novak: And pollinators uh use our trees as habitat.
• 17:33
  Amanda Novak: They support thousands of species uh um each year.
• 17:37
  Amanda Novak: And the other thing is many of them bloom before um many of the wildflowers even start.
• 17:43
  Amanda Novak: So they're that early food source for pollinators.
• 17:45
  Jeff Cranson: So talk about some of those species.
• 17:47
  Jeff Cranson: Any that would surprise people, do you think?
• 17:49
  Amanda Novak: I don't even know if folks know.
• 17:51
  Amanda Novak: I I think I don't know the exact number, but I think we have over 400 species of bees in Michigan.
• 17:57
  Amanda Novak: So I think that's a number that folks may not be aware of.
• 18:01
  Amanda Novak: And um it supports, you know, birds as well, will pollinate.
• 18:06
  Amanda Novak: So just a variety of species.
• 18:08
  Jeff Cranson: So would you include hummingbirds in that?
• 18:11
  Amanda Novak: Yeah, yeah, I would.
• 18:12
  Amanda Novak: Those um I have taken photos of them in our port here on plots.
• 18:17
  Amanda Novak: Um, they're real short sunflowers and uh wildflowers, and you can see the hummingbirds in there.
• 18:22
  Amanda Novak: So they definitely utilize, yeah.
• 18:24
  Jeff Cranson: That's always they're always fun to watch.
• 18:26
  Amanda Novak: Yeah, they are.
• 18:28
  Jeff Cranson: So so longer term, I mean not just from the the pollinator standpoint, but obviously trees are are vital to our oxygen supply and to our fresh air.
• 18:38
  Jeff Cranson: So that's a that's a huge factor and a reason why this is important to do, right?
• 18:44
  Amanda Novak: Yes, definitely.
• 18:45
  Amanda Novak: Um, water quality, um, soil stabilization, you know, they they serve a whole host of different purposes for us.
• 18:54
  Amanda Novak: So it's always important for us to put trees back.
• 18:56
  Amanda Novak: And that's in my role, we make sure they go back on our jobs.
• 19:01
  Jeff Cranson: Yeah.
• 19:01
  Jeff Cranson: So um looking forward, you've got the the trees and the wildflowers and the pollinators and the uh the animal control.
• 19:09
  Jeff Cranson: Is there is there anything else uh that's kind of on your your future docket, you know, in your mind that you would like to to see happen in a you know longer timeline?
• 19:20
  Amanda Novak: Um I don't I don't think so at this point.
• 19:22
  Amanda Novak: I think I just am excited to get our grant underway and and start through that process and see what the data tells us.
• 19:29
  Amanda Novak: I think that'll be exciting to see across the state where the hot spots are identified by species.
• 19:36
  Amanda Novak: Um and then from there, I guess following in Missouri's footsteps and trying to figure out how we're gonna then implement that into our standard planning process, I think that'll be another huge undertaking and huge project.
• 19:50
  Jeff Cranson: Yeah, yeah.
• 19:51
  Jeff Cranson: Well, I think that's that highlights a very important thing, though, that you and um your counterparts from other states, um, and this is all areas of the department, no matter what you're working on.
• 20:02
  Jeff Cranson: There is through the American Association of State Highway Transportation officials a number of ways to track best practices.
• 20:10
  Jeff Cranson: And um, you don't have to reinvent the wheel.
• 20:12
  Jeff Cranson: You know that there might be a state that's already tried something and they've had success with it.
• 20:15
  Jeff Cranson: And like you said, you can maybe learn from it, maybe learn that it wouldn't apply in Michigan, yeah, on a one-to-one basis.
• 20:22
  Jeff Cranson: But there are things that things to be learned.
• 20:24
  Jeff Cranson: And I think it's it's really important to have those peer exchanges and stay in touch with those folks.
• 20:29
  Amanda Novak: Yes, and that's been really excellent.
• 20:30
  Amanda Novak: Missouri has also put me in contact with other groups um and uh conferences that come up um where they do presentations and others do presentations on the same topic.
• 20:41
  Amanda Novak: So I think just being plugged into that whole community will be really nice moving forward.
• 20:45
  Amanda Novak: And I definitely will not be reinventing the wheel.
• 20:48
  Amanda Novak: So that will be good.
• 20:49
  Jeff Cranson: Yeah.
• 20:50
  Jeff Cranson: Well, thank you, Amanda.
• 20:51
  Jeff Cranson: Thanks for what you do.
• 20:53
  Jeff Cranson: Um, I think uh it's it's the hidden work.
• 20:56
  Jeff Cranson: A lot of people don't know that DOTs have people doing the things that you do, but uh I think it's a good thing that we do.
• 21:00
  Jeff Cranson: So I appreciate you talking about it as always.
• 21:03
  Amanda Novak: Yes, thanks for inviting me back again.
• 21:05
  Jeff Cranson: I'd like to thank you once more for tuning in to Talking Michigan Transportation.
• 21:09
  Jeff Cranson: You can find show notes and more on Apple Podcasts or BuzzSprout.
• 21:13
  Jeff Cranson: I also want to acknowledge the talented people who help make this a reality each week, starting with Randy Debler, who skillfully edits the audio, Jesse Ball, who proofs the content, and Jacke Salinas, who posts the podcast to various platforms and transcribes the audio to make it accessible to all.