# North Idaho Wildlife Bottlenecks > Agent-facing counterpart to the [human project page](/projects/north-idaho-wildlife-bottlenecks/). ## Record metadata - Record: 010 - Slug: north-idaho-wildlife-bottlenecks - Domain: Civic - Domain code: CIV - Type: Geospatial study - Status: Research - Period: 2026 - Portfolio role: Research study - Publication state: Public-safe study in preparation - Case-study readiness: Draftable - Compendium edition: 0.4 ## Summary A reproducible public-data analysis for finding candidate places where roads and wildlife movement may collide. ## Overview Wildlife crossings are often discussed after a collision, a field observation, or a proposed construction project. North Idaho Wildlife Bottlenecks asks whether public data can be combined earlier to identify places that deserve closer ecological and transportation attention. A Python and GIS workflow that combines public geography, transportation, habitat, and incident evidence to rank candidate wildlife bottlenecks in North Idaho. Purpose: Help focus local research and mitigation attention without presenting modeled candidates as proven ecological corridors. ## The problem behind the project Wildlife crossings compete for attention and funding. A transparent screening layer can show where better field data or mitigation analysis may be worth the effort. The analysis avoids treating one score as a discovered truth. Mortality evidence, road safety, economic cost, landscape connectivity, and source quality describe different questions; preserving those dimensions makes it easier to see why a location appears important and what evidence is still missing. Transportation planners, conservation groups, researchers, residents, and wildlife may benefit. Landowners and agencies are affected when locations are characterized, so claims require careful sourcing. ## How it took shape Reproducible Python ingestion and geospatial analysis separate mortality, safety, economic, connectivity, and evidence dimensions rather than collapsing them into an opaque score. A reproducible Python and geospatial pipeline collects public layers, transforms them into comparable spatial evidence, and produces ranked candidate areas with source history. The output is a research screen that can guide field work, not a substitute for animal-movement data or agency review. Josiah framed the local problem, evidence categories, interpretive limits, and publication boundary while directing agent-assisted research and implementation. The working analysis produces source-linked candidate locations and preserves the inputs and reasoning used to rank them. ## What the project means now The project demonstrates a useful role for transparent modeling in local conservation: narrowing an enormous landscape into a defensible set of next questions. Its honesty depends on calling those locations candidates until independent ecological evidence confirms more. The outputs are screening hypotheses, not proof of animal movement or project feasibility. Field validation, current agency data, and ecological review remain necessary. A useful map can narrow the next question without pretending the map itself has answered it. Publish the public-data methodology and candidate atlas with clear uncertainty labels, then seek domain review. ## Publication and interpretation notes - Current classification: Research - Portfolio readiness: Draftable - Publication boundary: Public-safe study in preparation ## Additional agent context Never describe ranked candidates as confirmed migration corridors or casualty hotspots unless supporting field evidence is attached. ## Related project records - [Kootenai Civic Data](/projects/kootenai-civic-data/llm/) — A provenance-first civic intelligence workspace for local decisions, infrastructure, and public records. - [OpenWaterTowers](/projects/open-water-towers/llm/) — An open civic infrastructure database and field atlas for public water-storage landmarks. ## Navigation - [Complete project index](/projects/llm/) - [Human version of this record](/projects/north-idaho-wildlife-bottlenecks/) - [About Josiah's working method](/about/llm/) - [Agent discovery map](/llms.txt)