This week's Someone 2 Know, Nova Simpson, is considered one of the foremost experts in wildlife road ecology in the United States. She devotes herself to saving the lives of animals- and humans - that are at risk every day, where our highways and byways intersect with nature.

Simpson has been doing this work with Nevada Department of Transportation (NDOT) since 2013, and was recently honored with a leadership award from her peers. This week we caught up with her in Dayton, at the site of one of 23 current crossings in the Silver State.

What can appear like a random underpass on one of Nevada’s busy roadways is actually a structure that has been very mindfully created thanks to something called road ecology; “Road ecology is, you know, looking at animals and how they interact with the roads, or how they avoid the roads,” explains Simpson, “And yea, how do we bridge that gap and make it easier for everybody to live cohesively?"

This is something that Simpson does every day;

"I am northern Nevada’s Biological Supervisor and Large Mammal Mitigation Specialist”

Large mammals like the wild horses of the Virginia Range are often on the move, so crossings like the one in Dayton, keep all species safe; "You know, we have had human fatalities, the larger the animals are, the more risky (sic) they become to the drivers, and so we want to make sure that we're trying to minimize those risks.”

About eleven years ago the state of Nevada started building animal crossings - the larger structures, give safe passage to silver state's migrating mule deer and elk.  Simpson says it takes years of work and a dedicated team.

"So, I come in a look at the animal behavior and say this is where the animals are gonna be moving on the landscape I work with professional biologists like with the department of wildlife that are familiar with their particular areas and what the animals are doing in their areas so we come up with a game-plan as a team to do that"

Simpson says she has loved animals for as long as she can remember.  Her ball python made it into her high school senior portrait, and while working at Animal Ark, she helped raise two cheetah brothers.  Now, she's the proud owner of a spirited Appaloosa name Murray;

"He's a little crazy at times,” Nova laughs, “But we're still working on it”

Simpson says she's thankful NDOT supports her passion for animals and developing safe crossings in Nevada; "As long as I'm able to do that and continue that goal and mission, I'd like to stay with them until I retire"

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In March of 2020 Simpson spoke before the U.S House of Representatives about wildlife crossings in Nevada and how these help with safety, and now for the first time in US history a provision is being made for these projects.

The current infrastructure bill has a section dedicated to animal crossings.

There is an extraordinarily well-done video on the subject of animal crossings called (RE)CONNECTING WILD-RESTORING SAFE PASSAGE.  Created for NDOT by Jake Willers with Nine Caribou Productions. 

Link here – https://youtu.be/FvgqK4wsKvo