Uncommon technique is helping save wildlife — and humans — on Highway 101

Have you ever wondered what those mounds of dirt along Highway 101 that lead over a fence and into a pasture are for?

They're called jumpouts, and they're to help protect wildlife and vehicles from meeting a potentially deadly fate.

The four jumpouts along Highway 101 north of Cuesta Grade are made using compacted soil and a pressure-treated wooden frame system.

Officials say they’re there to prevent wildlife and vehicle collisions.

“So the Cuesta grade area, as many people know who drive that segment, we see a lot of roadkill," California Department of Fish & Wildlife Senior Environmental Scientist Dave Hacker said.

“I’ve known a lot of people that run into deer," longtime local John Brown said. "My brother ran into a bear one time on the grade years and years ago. It almost totaled his car.”

Caltrans and the state's Department of Fish and Wildlife identified the large open spaces and ranch grazing lands as a high-traffic terrestrial wildlife zone and declared protection was needed.

“You see deers that are on the freeway, on the 101, and they're kind of smashed up," Brown added.

The jumpouts were documented to have successfully helped with deer using night vision cameras.

“The jumpouts were documented," Hacker added. "So [it was] successfully used by deer that were trapped in the right of way and that were captured but with trail cameras actually using the jumpout to get safely out of the right of way.”

The project began in the spring of 2022, funded by Caltrans using the State Highway Operation and Protection Program , which awarded them $427,000.

“It's not a technique that has been used very broadly in California," Hacker said. "It's certainly more common, to my knowledge, in other Western states. And there's still some experimentation with the design, particularly the height of the jumpout and trying to dial that in so that they're as effective as possible.”

“The wildlife have been here," Atascadero resident Tom Modglin said. "They've been here before [us]. We need to take care of the wildlife around here.”