On a recent Tuesday night in Keene, New Hampshire, local volunteers equipped with reflective vests and flashlights gathered along North Lincoln Street, bracing for the annual migration of spotted salamanders. This week’s warm, wet weather has triggered the amphibians’ seasonal journey from forested habitats to nearby wetlands, a trek that historically has been perilous due to vehicular traffic.

In response, the City of Keene, in partnership with the Harris Center for Conservation Education, has completed a new set of wildlife tunnels beneath a busy stretch of road. The project, which broke ground last autumn, aims to reduce an estimated 70% mortality rate for migrating salamanders previously documented on this half-kilometer stretch. The tunnels, coupled with guiding fences, allow amphibians safe passage during spring and summer migration events.

With $180,000 in funding from the New Hampshire Department of Transportation and local conservation groups, the infrastructure was finished ahead of this year’s migration peak. According to project lead Brett Amy Thelen, monitoring teams counted more than 1,200 salamanders and frogs using the tunnels in the past week alone—a sharp increase from previous years when most crossings happened on open pavement.

While the project is being lauded as a model for other small municipalities confronting biodiversity loss, experts caution that tunnels represent only one piece of a broader habitat connectivity strategy. Ongoing monitoring throughout summer 2026 will assess long-term effectiveness, with early data to be shared at the Northeast Conservation Conference in September 2026.

Keene’s tunnel initiative is being closely watched by conservation policy researchers across New England, where roadkill remains a significant barrier to amphibian population recovery. The town’s approach underscores the role of localized infrastructure solutions in supporting SDG 15 (Life on Land) targets for species protection in urban and peri-urban environments.