Developing the Integrated Transportation and Ecological Enhancements for Montana Process

Construction and maintenance of transportation systems can result in direct, indirect, and cumulative effects on ecosystems. Mitigation of unavoidable adverse impact typically occurs on a project-by-project basis and commonly attempts to restore the same affected resource near the site at which the impact occurs. This piecemeal approach may fulfill regulatory requirements, but greater mitigation value may be achieved with a similar investment by evaluating and prioritizing off-site mitigation opportunities in the context of the entire ecosystem. In addition, project-by-project environmental permitting practices involve repetitious procedures that sometimes unpredictably delay project delivery. A recent federal guide encourages agencies to plan infrastructure projects and related mitigation with goals of conserving and connecting important habitat collaboratively and strategically, while increasing predictability and transparency of planning and regulatory permitting processes. This guide, Eco-Logical: An Ecosystem Approach to Developing Infrastructure Projects, was used by an interagency group in Montana to create the Integrated Transportation and Ecosystem Enhancements for Montana (ITEEM) process. As the first effort to pilot Eco-Logical's guidance, cooperating agencies gained insights that may help others follow Eco-Logical's framework. This paper summarizes Montana's efforts to adapt Eco-Logical to create the ITEEM process and offers insights for other interagency efforts to increase the efficiency of transportation project delivery while mitigating adverse impacts where the conservation efforts are most needed.