(a) Upon appropriation by the Legislature, the department may develop a pilot program to collect and compile information and data on wildlife-vehicle collisions to support wildlife conservation efforts conducted through regional conservation investment strategies approved pursuant to Chapter 9 (commencing with Section 1850), the Advance Mitigation Program (Article 2.5 (commencing with Section 800) of Chapter 4 of Division 1 of the Streets and Highways Code), or any policy or project implemented to reduce the loss of wildlife from vehicle collisions. The pilot program shall be at a maximum of three geographically dispersed sites identified by the department to be areas of high wildlife-vehicle collisions.
(b) In developing the pilot program, the department may coordinate with other state agencies that remove dead wildlife from roadways to determine the scope of data collected on wildlife-vehicle collisions.
(c) At the conclusion of the pilot program, the department shall report to the commission on the number of wildlife-vehicle collisions identified during the study period, barriers to additional data collection, and the feasibility of creating a statewide wildlife-vehicle collision reporting system. The report shall include an estimate of the costs of implementing the statewide wildlife-vehicle collision reporting system.
(Added by Stats. 2019, Ch. 869, Sec. 3. (SB 395) Effective January 1, 2020.)