We really do wish they were kidding. Senator John Cornyn (R., Texas) has introduced a bill called the I-47 Future Interstate Act, which would designate U.S. Highway 287 from Port Arthur, Texas, to Choteau, Montana, as the future Interstate 47, otherwise known as Trump Interstate to honor "the most consequential president of our lifetime."
This could further separate animal populations, kill wildlife, kill motorists, and spread air, noise, and light pollution. This is unfathomable destruction in the name of speed, profits, and "development."
Montana Free Press reports:
"One impact could be direct mortality as a result of increased wildlife-vehicle collisions. A 2023 study conducted by the Center for Large Landscape Conservation and the Western Transportation Institute found stretches of U.S. 287 where wildlife-vehicle collisions per-year, per-mile were in the top 10th percentile across the West (sections between Lander, Wyoming and Moran, and north of both Three Forks and Helena, Montana). WVCs [wildlife-vehicle collisions] are expensive, too, costing Western states an estimated $1.6 billion per year, according to the same study.
"Beyond direct mortality, indirect impacts are oftentimes more important to consider. Increased traffic volumes, increased speeds, increased freight and long-haul trucks. Air pollution, noise pollution, light pollution. The linear infrastructure of transportation corridors such as fences, powerlines, railroad beds, and in the West especially, natural features like streams or rivers. All of these, [Andrew Jakes, a senior research scientist for the Wyoming Migration Initiative] said, natural or anthropogenic, would change the landscape. And wildlife would have to navigate them. Roads, highways and interstates have been well documented as semi-permeable or complete barriers that significantly affect an animal’s ability to move or migrate."
