Kinsman Road Extension Project

In the summer of 2016, the City of Wilsonville began constructing an extension of Kinsman Road between Barber Street and Boeckman Road to improve north-south transportation routes along the west side of I-5. This new section of Kinsman Road was designed to include multiple wildlife crossing structures, including 2 small (2-foot) round culverts and 1 large (6x9-foot) box culvert. Prior to construction, 4 monitoring cameras were installed at the north and south ends of a temporary fence placed to mimic the future road's location and to create a wildlife movement funnel on the north and south ends. The purpose of this monitoring effort was to better understand wildlife usage in the area of the proposed road pre-construction so that it could later be compared to wildlife usage of the crossing structures. The pre-construction data was collected from October 2015 to June 2016.

After construction concluded, camera monitoring was held off for approximately 8 months to allow wildlife to acclimate to the new road and crossing structures. In September 2018, post-construction monitoring began, ultimately with 4 cameras installed on the east side of the road, strategically placed to capture activity of both small and large wildlife. These cameras continue to monitor wildlife activity in and around the crossing structures. As of June 2024, 7,966 instances of wildlife activity from 19 species have been observed and documented for this project, including all pre- and post-construction monitoring.Annually the monitoring efforts capture an average of 1,500 wildlife activity events, primarily composed of rabbit, coyote, Columbian black-tailed deer, deer mice, raccoon, California ground squirrel, and long-tailed weasel. Less frequently seen are the short-tailed weasel, vole, mink, Townsend’s chipmunk, beaver, river otter, skunk, and gray fox. 

Coyote (Canis latrans). Photo was taken by one of Wilsonville’s wildlife monitoring cameras located along Kinsman Road.

Coyote (Canis latrans). Photo was taken after a snowfall event by one of Wilsonville’s wildlife monitoring cameras located along Kinsman Road.