Due to human factors (direct mortality, habitat loss, and human conflicts) grizzly bears have suffered habitat and population fragmentation. This fragmentation increases the risks to survival of the populations, and has occurred in part because of high speed highways that bisect the remaining ecosystems in which grizzly bears live. "Improvements" to high speed highways result in higher traffic volumes and speeds, increased fencing heights and effectivness, clearing of vegetation , placement of concrete dividers and increased lane numbers. All of these factors decrease the ability of wildlife to cross highways and increases fragmentation.

Grizzly bear populations south of Canada currently inhabit five areas, four of which are contiguous with Canada populations. Survival of the US populations are dependent upon connectivity with Canadian populations. High speed highways running east-west bisect four of Canada's populations and three of four US populations. The authors propose a three phase action plan to address high speed highways:

1) identify characteristics of grizzly bear habitat use in association with highways and highway crossing sites used by grizzly bears and develop a conceptual model based on these data to predict where crossing is most likely;

2) identify mitigaiton measures for design of structures or highway designs that will facilitate crossings; and;

3 ) monitor highway impacts on an ongoing basis to provide feedback and assessment of these impacts.

Three emphasis areas are considered for data collection and application of the program:

1)U.S. Highway 2 between East Glacier and West Glacier, Montana;

2) U.S. Highway 89, 49, and 17 between East Glacier, Montana and the Canadian Border;

3) The Trans Canada Highway through Banff National Park in Alberta and associated areas on the Trans Canada in British Columbia.

The authors suggest using GPS collars to obtain data. Results from crossing monitors in Banff along the Trans Canada Highway will be used along with bear behavior and movement data along the other highways to propose a list of crossing structure types and highway design modifications to facilitate crossing.