By Keith Nasman

Roads. Like utilities, they are one of those things that we only comment on when something is wrong. Sure, there are the amazingly picturesque ones, but the vast majority of our driving is on the mundane lanes where what we notice is a pothole or faded lines. They are built for our benefit, but what are the impacts of them?

Crossings: How Road Ecology is Shaping the Future of Our Planet by Ben Goldfarb is a journey through time and space to find the myriad ways roads are affecting our wildlife and our planet. He covers the history of the science that coalesced into road ecology, and how the USFS is the world’s largest road network. Research and examples from four corners of the US, and farther afield in Europe, Brazil and other countries.

We have all seen or made roadkill. This is the most obvious damage from the use of our roads and Goldfarb dives into the history, science, and outcomes of our use. I was well aware of the habitat cleaving aspect of roads, but my eyes were opened to how much the noise of roads affects wildlife. Not only does it affect how well a bird will detect predators (3 decibels above ambient reduces their detection range by 50%), but some change the pitch of their mating calls to their disadvantage.

He delves into the evolution of road crossings, both above and below. How roads have severed migration corridors and what types have been successful for which species. There are efforts to bring the experience from around the world together to create best practices and show that it is possible to have positive outcomes (or at least less detrimental ones).

At the end of the book the author delves into the “shaping the future of our planet” by demonstrating how adding roads into forested areas brings more people and extraction, deteriorating their ability to manage the changing climate, and how that use of those roads is accelerating the change.

All in all, it is a book right up my alley – one that takes a common topic and deepens my understanding of how it came to be and how it connects with everything else.