If you’re out and about this summer in Fernie or anywhere across the Interior, keep your eyes open — and your camera handy. Our endangered American badgers need your help.

A new initiative is underway to reduce the risk of vehicle collisions with these elusive, ground-dwelling mammals. The Province of B.C., Badgers in B.C., and Simpcw Resources Group have launched a collaborative effort to install wildlife culverts in five high-risk areas — but they need help pinpointing where the danger is greatest.

That’s where you come in.

See a badger? Report it — dead or alive — at badgers.bc.ca/. Your report could help determine the safest and most strategic locations for new crossings.

“The mortality period for them on the roads starts in June, peaks in July, and then drops off in August,” explains Karina Lamy, Provincial Carnivore Conservation Biologist. “You might see a female right now with two to three kits, but with a mortality rate of up to 80 per cent in some areas, most of the kits might not make it into the fall.”

Badgers are federally listed as an endangered species in B.C., and populations in the Kootenays are particularly fragile. Road mortality is one of their biggest threats — especially during the summer months when young kits begin to venture from their dens.

Lamy is encouraging all residents, visitors, trail users, and road trippers to be part of the solution by reporting sightings and spreading awareness.

With just a few clicks, you can help build a map of badger activity across the province and give wildlife biologists the data they need to make our roadways safer for these rare and fascinating creatures.

Photo by Jared Hobbs