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"Crossings" by Ben Goldfarb explores the impact of roads on ecosystems, highlighting how they fragment habitats, disrupt wildlife, and alter natural landscapes.
The book covers the narrow subject of "road ecology" through a deeply researched set of field examples of how roads act as barriers, fragmenting animal habitats and leading to roadkill, species isolation, and reduced biodiversity.
It is intense drive through the history of American driving culture both from a cultural standpoint, infrastructure, and economic impacts. But wrapping these around the ultimate impact all these integral components have on wildlife and natural landscape. Goldfarb explores how roads increase the interaction between humans and wildlife, often leading to negative outcomes like vehicle collisions and habitat encroachment. He discusses the challenges of balancing human development with wildlife conservation.
Roads are among the most powerful, pervasive, and underappreciated agents of environmental destruction. They carve the world into pieces, leaving habitats fragmented and wildlife stranded on the wrong side of the asphalt.
Innovative Conservation Efforts
The book highlights inspiring projects and innovative techniques to reduce the impact of roads, from designing eco-friendly infrastructure to implementing policies that protect wildlife. A major solution proposed is creating wildlife crossings—overpasses, underpasses, and corridors—to allow animals to safely navigate roadways. These have proven successful in many places and can reduce wildlife deaths while maintaining healthy ecosystems.
Goldfarb emphasizes the importance of viewing ecosystems as interconnected, with roads acting as disruptive forces that can have cascading effects on entire food webs and ecological balance. The place where I thought it could have gone deeper is the issue of road ecology to larger environmental challenges, such as climate change, and how smarter infrastructure design can play a role in reducing environmental harm. I think that not enough people connect changing wildlife roaming patterns because of roads and development can create more climate issues such as increased chance of wildfires.
If we're going to keep building roads, we have to start building them with the world’s other inhabitants in mind.
My remaining question remains how we move forward as a society to solve the environmental and wildlife impact of our human patterns while also keeping the arteries of society flowing. Better connected public transportation and localized living will need to be encouraged.
Next Meeting is Wednesday, October 9th, 7:00-8:30pm
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