【676-677】How Did the Animals Cross the Road?
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【676-677】
AS IT IS
How Did the Animals Cross the Road?
December 15, 2018
In this photo taken Oct. 4, 2018, Interstate 90 traffic passes under a wildlife bridge under construction on Snoqualmie Pass, Washington. (AP Photo/Elaine Thompson)
In the U.S. state of Washington, a road called Interstate 90 cuts through a wild, mountainous area to reach the city of Seattle. For the area’s many kinds of animals, the busy highway greatly limits their movements. Crossing I-90 – as the road is called – is a risky but sometimes necessary act. But soon, animals will have a safer choice for crossing the road. They will be able to go above it.
Jen Watkins is with Washington’s Conservation Northwest organization. She said, “Everything from an elk down to a small salamander, they need to move to find food, to find mates, to find new places to live as their populations expand or just when conditions change, like a fire breaks out.”
To help the animals, the state is finishing work on its largest-ever wildlife bridge. The 11-meter-tall, 20-meter-wide structure begins in the forest. It forms two archesabove the highway, one for each direction of traffic.
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Workers are adding fencing and plants to help guide the animals across the bridge. Two-meter-thick walls will help block noise from vehicles below.
Scientists chose the area because it is within a natural migration path for some animals.
At least one animal has already used the bridge. Washington’s Transportation Department tweeted last week that a wildlife camera captured a video of a coyote running over Interstate 90 on the new structure. The agency wrote, “Excited to see what other species cross!”
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More crossings needed?
The I-90 bridge is part of a growing number of wildlife crossings across the United States. Some are fences, some are overland bridges, and some are underpasses. They all aim to keep drivers and animals away from each other.
A 2008 U.S. Transportation Department study found crashes between animals and humans rose year by year. The accidents made up about 5 percent of all crashes nationally, and, at the time, cost the economy about $8 billion. Such costs come from car repairs, emergency room visits and removal of the dead animals on roads.
Collisions between animals and drivers are rarely deadly to people. But they are often deadly to wildlife. The 2008 study also found that 21 endangered or threatened species in the U.S. are affected by vehicle hits.
In Canada’s Banff National Park, studies have found that bridges, underpasses and fencing reduce the area’s animal-driver collisions by 80 percent.
And in the western U.S. state of Wyoming, crossing points and fencing built for a migration of North American pronghorns helped reduce animal-driver crashes by 85 percent.
Most of the wildlife bridges are in western states. But experts have noted many other areas that have a need for such paths.
Jen Watkins, whose organization has helped campaign for animal crossings, says finding money for more crossings is “the number-one obstacle.”
Patty Garvey-Darda of the U.S. Forest Service has worked on the I-90 crossing from the start of the project. She says the $6- million bridge will one day pay for itself because the highway will not have to be fully or partly closed each time a large animal is struck.
Garvey-Darda said, “If you shut down Interstate 90, you shut down interstate commerce.”
I’m Jonathan Evans.
The Associated Press reported this story. Ashley Thompson adapted it for VOA Learning English. Kelly Jean Kelly was the editor.
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Words in This Story
highway - n. a main road that connects cities, towns, etc.
elk - n. a large kind of North American deer with big antlers
salamander - n. a small animal that looks like a lizard with smooth skin and that lives both on land and in water
traffic - n. all the vehicles driving along a certain road or in a certain area
arch - n. a usually curved part of a structure that is over an opening and that supports a wall or other weight above the opening
commerce - n. activities that relate to the buying and selling of goods and services
endangered - adj. used to describe a type of animal or plant that has become very rare and that could die out completely
pronghorn - n. a large animal of western North America that looks like an antelope
obstacle - n. something that makes it difficult to do something
【677】
AS IT IS
Farmers Worry Plastic Christmas Trees Might Displace Real Ones
In this Friday, Nov. 30, 2018, photo, a man looks at artificial Christmas trees for sale at the Balsam Hill Outlet store in Burlingame, Calif. (AP Photo/Eric Risberg)
Christmas tree farmers in the United States are concerned about competition from plastic trees.
In the past, plastic, or artificial, trees were not very realistic. They looked like bad copies of the evergreen trees that many Americans traditionally put up and decorateduring the Christmas holiday season.
But today’s artificial trees look much more like real ones. Some even come with decorative lights already on them. They are easy to fold up and store until the following year.
Today, about 75 percent of Americans who get a Christmas tree choose an artificial one.
Growing the natural Christmas tree market
Christmas tree growers hope to get more people to buy real trees with the help of the Christmas Tree Promotion Board. The group is running a social media campaign in support of real Christmas tree sales. The campaign is called “It’s Christmas. Keep It Real!”
The board was set up in 2015 by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. It is paid for mainly by a 15-cent tax on each tree harvested.
In many ways, it is similar to earlier efforts to support other agricultural products, such as the famous “Got Milk?” and “Beef. It’s What’s For Dinner” campaigns. Those advertising campaigns are remembered by millions of Americans.
The target of the Christmas tree campaign is the “millennial mom.” Millennials are a generation that started to near adult age around the year 2000 or later.
The campaign includes a series of short films that appear on social media sites like Instagram and Facebook. They show families as they search for the perfect natural tree for their home.
Marsha Gray is executive director of the Christmas Tree Promotion Board. She said Christmas tree farmers are concerned that young families that are just starting their own traditions will choose artificial trees over real ones. That would mean losing a generation of possible buyers.
Gray said, “The target we’re talking about right now is millennials: first house, first baby. That’s kind of decision-making time.”
She said she hopes the campaign can help young adults “figure out how” to include a real tree in their holiday celebrations.
The National Christmas Tree Association supports sales of both natural and artificial trees. The organization estimates that 25 million evergreens are harvested each year. Not all are sold, however.
Thomas “Mac” Harman is with Balsam Hill, a big seller of artificial trees. He says Americans buy about 10 million of the products each year. People usually keep the same artificial tree for several years.
Many Americans say they buy artificial trees because they do not require the effort of going out and choosing one every year. Some say they use an artificial tree because they are allergic to pine trees. Others say they like the fact that artificial trees are less likely to catch fire than natural ones.
Harman said that artificial trees should not be seen as a threat to Christmas tree farmers. Many families have both a real tree and an artificial one, he said.
But Casey Grogan, who runs Silver Bells Tree Farm in Silverton, Oregon, is not so sure. Oregon is the top Christmas tree-growing state in the country. He said he has seen many tree farmers in his area go out of business. Grogan said that it takes eight to 10 years to grow an evergreen that may one day be a Christmas tree. That means farmers must plan for years before a crop is ready for harvest.
He worries that his industry will disappear if too many people buy artificial trees because of their easy use.
“It may be a little difficult, but not everything is easy,” he said. He added that choosing to use a natural tree is “worth the extra effort.”
I’m Mario Ritter, Jr.
Mario Ritter, Jr. adapted this AP story for VOA Learning English. Ashley Thompson was the editor.
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Words in This Story
artificial --adj. not natural or real; made, produced, or done to seem like something natural
decorate –v. to make something more attractive by placing something on it
figure out –v. to understand or find by thinking
allergy –n. a condition that causes someone to become sick after eating, touching or breathing something that is harmless to most people
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