SLC awarded nearly $1 million for road safety education
Salt Lake City has been awarded $953,000 in grant funds for a new interactive road safety education program in public schools by the U.S. Department of Transportation.
The program, TravelWell Schools, will teach K-12 classrooms in Salt Lake City about safe streets and a zero-fatality strategy called Vision Zero. The strategy is built on the idea that policies and the road system should be designed not to avoid all mistakes, as those are inevitable, but to mitigate the lasting effects of those mistakes.
Early testing of the TravelWell Schools pilot program in other cities has reportedly led to a “significant increase” in behavior changes around active transportation.
In early 2022, Salt Lake City Mayor Erin Mendenhall announced the city’s intention to be a Vision Zero and have no fatalities or serious injuries on city streets by 2035.
Temporary microshelter community opens in SLC to address homelessness
Salt Lake City has opened its first temporary microshelter community to help support Utahns experiencing homelessness as they work to transition into more permanent housing situations.
The community, reportedly the first of its kind for Utah, can support up to 50 people, with each microshelter unit equipped with heating, lighting, beds, air conditioning and electrical outlets.
According to Salt Lake officials, residents will be selected through emergency shelter coordination by homeless service partners.
Operations at the microshelter community began last Friday, with Switchpoint, a nonprofit community resource center, providing 24-hour support and services until April 30, 2024.
The community will also be a pilot for a more permanent microshelter community, which is expected to begin operations in 2024 under state management.
Santa’s reindeer? No, it’s just the DWR tracking migration
Deer were flying over Utah on Tuesday, but they weren’t part of Santa’s sleigh — they were being flown by a Utah Division of Wildlife Resources helicopter.
The unusual sight is part of an annual department by the DWR to monitor and learn deer migration patterns.
Approximately 1,200 deer are captured by biologists across the state each winter and fitted with GPS collars. The deer are then brought to a staging area where the DWR performs health assessments before releasing the animals safely back into the wild.
Utah prepares for Colorado wolves to possibly cross the border
As Colorado reintroduces wolves to the state, Utah is preparing for if those wolves cross the border.
Colorado voters approved a ballot initiative to reintroduce wolves in 2020. On Monday, five wolves were introduced into the state, all a minimum of 60 miles from Utah, Wyoming and Mexico borders.
If the animals do cross into Utah, they cannot be killed, even if they attack livestock or property, as they’re on endangered species lists nationwide. Instead, the protocol will be to contact one of the trappers with Utah’s Department of Agriculture and Food, who will locate, capture and relocate the wolf back to Colorado.
Political leaders in Utah have opposed wolf reintroduction plans, with the legislature funding larger delisting efforts. The Center for Biological Diversity praised Colorado’s reintroduction of wolves.
