North Bend Elementary student Jennifer Corgiat was honored Friday, June 12, for her winning artwork and essay in the fifth annual Bridging Futures Art and Essay Contest, held by the Washington Department of Transportation and the Interstate 90 Wildlife Bridges Coalition.

Corgiat was one of two Washington students honored for her drawing and essay depicting wildlife bridges to be built over the freeway as part of the state’s I-90 Snoqualmie Pass East project. It is the first road expansion project to be endorsed by the Sierra Club. Her artwork will be displayed on a billboard on Dearborn Street in Seattle through July 8.

The bridges allow passage across I-90 for wildlife, which otherwise would be increasingly isolated from other groups of their species. Isolation and diminishing ranges can contribute to decreasing populations.