Forest roads allow for easy entry into mountains, giving people access to the healing power of nature and the resources of the forest. However, in order to maintain the structural integrity and safety of roads, deep earthworks such as drainage ditches, water collection wells, and still pools, and towering structures such as retaining walls often prevent wild animals from crossing or even cause accidental falls, becoming animal death traps. The Forestry Bureau of the Council of Agriculture, Executive Yuan has endeavored to improve the eco-friendliness of forest road facilities in recent years, with the aim of mitigating habitat fragmentation and narrowing the gap between human use and natural conservation. Today (7), the results were published of installing eco-friendly facilities for forest road structures, and examples were collected and published as the booklet "Escape: Eco-Friendly Facilities for Forest Road Structures", which may be used as a reference guide for engineering units. Automated cameras have recorded many precious images of wildlide using eco-friendly facilities, proving that simple escape facilities are greatly beneficial to their living environment. The Forestry Bureau pointed out that since 2020, it has continued to perform inspections along existing forest roads, starting from the forest roads leading outside the National Forest Recreation Area and main forest roads. Eco-friendly facilities made of simple materials such as wood (or bamboo), cotton-cord netting, and stone are added to existing structures so that wildlife that accidentally fall into the structures can escape without outside assistance. To date, 252 sites on 29 forest roads have eco-friendly facilities installed on existing structures to help wild animals escape or pass through, and multiple explanatory signs have been set up; this simple yet effective method can also be expanded to forest recreation areas, where they can minimize the impact of artificial structures on wildlife activities. The Forest Bureau stated that the budget for reconstruction of existing facilities would be quite large and may have causes secondary disturbances to the environment. In light of that, the Bureau adopted a method of minimal disturbance, and chose to build natural-material escape facilities, such as wooden ladders, ramps, and rope nets. These facilities allow wildlife that accidentally fall into artificial structures to pass through or escape, removing obstacles the artificial structures once presented to wildlife activities. In addition to setting up eco-friendly facilities for wildlife to escape from entrapment, the Forestry Bureau also set up explanatory signs at certain locations depending on the nature of the forest road so that visitors entering the forest for recreation can better understand the functions of the eco-friendly facilities. These signs also remind visitors to be aware that there are often wild animals on these road sections, so they should drive carefully and avoid littering and other habitat-disrupting behaviors, and let wildlife pass safely through. To understand if these facilities really help wild animals escape entrapment, the Forest Bureau also set up automated sensor infrared cameras to monitor wildlife using the facilities. Forest District Offices have discovered more than 20 species of wildlife use the facilities to escape or pass, such as masked palm civet, crab-eating mongoose, Taiwan serow, yellow-throated marten, and snakes and frogs. In addition to the Forestry Bureau, the Soil and Water Conservation Bureau and the Irigation Agency, both under the Council of Agriculture, Executive Yuan, have in recent years implemented ecological inspections and added eco-friendly facilities to new constructions in order to improve eco-friendliness. These facilities have similarly achieved many results. The Forestry Bureau has also collected the results from recent years and published them in the booklet "Escape: Eco-Friendly Facilities for Forest Road Structures" as a reference guide for engineering units. The content of the booklet uses simple pictures and text to show how to use simple materials to add eco-friendly facilities to existing drainage ditches, water collection wells, still pools, retaining walls and other structures on the forest road to provide wildlife with a route for escape. It is hoped that this exchange of ideas will provide government agencies at all levels as well as the general public with recourse for reference and understanding, and that a bridge can be built that connects people with the environment for the good of both.
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