WTI is helping the Western Governor’s Association (WGA) conduct research to identify specific ways in which the WGA’s Crucial Habitat Assessment Tools (CHATs) can support efficient and environmentally sound transportation planning. It seeks to identify and help build a collaborative approach by advancing application of CHATs for transportation planning and project implementation in 16 western states.

In partnership with the Western Governors’ Wildlife Council and the Center for Large Landscape Conservation, WTI will conduct analyses, convene workshops, review best practices and make recommendations in support of efforts to better incorporate wildlife values into the surface transportation network of highways and roads. The WGA Project Team will develop recommendations for the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) and the WGA to prioritize new policies and operational solutions that incorporate state information on wildlife and crucial habitat into transportation plans and projects across the West.  In sum, the project will help to promote FHWA’s Ecological principles for collaborative, integrated, approaches that are tied to watershed or ecosystem scale decision-making during infrastructure planning, environmental review, and permitting.