Widening US Highway 85 -- But What Will Happen To The Wildlife?

This has been a topic ever since I was growing up in North Dakota. I remember my dad talking about the possibility. The Dickinson Press is reporting:

The Theodore Roosevelt Expressway Association is continuing its goal of turning Highway 85 from a two-lane road into a four-lane all the way through North Dakota.

Cal Klewin, Theodore Roosevelt Expressway Association executive director, said there are plans for the representatives to speak to the North Dakota Department of Transportation next week about further expansion of Highway 85, focusing on the area near Theodore Roosevelt National Park. Klewin spoke during Tuesday’s Stark Development Corporation’s board of directors meeting at the Dickinson Chamber of Commerce.

“We will need to address issues with the park,” he said. “They do not want any improvements to go through that park with a four-lane structure. We’re going to try and figure out how to work through that.”

He said the DOT has received two letters of concern about the expansion of Highway 85 — including one from the park — about moving wildlife when the highway is widened.

Are you kidding? Moving wildlife when the highway is widened? I've driven that stretch a hundred times, if not a thousand times.  The wildlife won't even notice. Won't even be affected. I assume a few field mice will have to re-locate, but if they work on the highway after the mice have had their babies for the season, the entire family of mice can move without incurring much hardship. In fact, maybe we can have the ranchers put out some mouse feed to attract the field mice from where the construction will be occurring. The few coyotes and fewer wolves will appreciate the field mice moving away from the highways.