The Center for Large Landscape Conservation and partners are proud to present a reading by conservation journalist Ben Goldfarb from his most recent book Crossings: How Road Ecology Is Shaping the Future of Our Planet, a scientific and literary feat, highlighting the impact of the 40 million miles of roadways that encircle our planet. For wildlife and ecosystems, roads are forces of disruption and at times causes of death. The reading will be followed by a Q&A with Ben and wildlife crossing expert Kylie Paul from the Center. On Tuesday, June 25th, join us at Shakespeare & Co. in Missoula at 7 pm to learn about this important issue and how emerging science can reduce and potentially reverse the damage caused!
Ben Goldfarb is the author of Crossings: How Road Ecology Is Shaping the Future of Our Planet, named one of the best books of 2023 by the New York Times, and Eager: The Surprising, Secret Life of Beavers and Why They Matter, winner of the PEN/E.O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award. His writing has appeared in the Atlantic, National Geographic, the New York Times, and many other publications, and has been anthologized in The Best American Science and Nature Writing. A recipient of fellowships from the Alicia Patterson Foundation and the Whiting Foundation, he lives in Colorado.
Kylie Paul is a member of the linear infrastructure team at the Center for Large Landscape Conservation. As a Road Ecologist, she brings her expertise into improving local, state, and federal projects, programs, and policies to better address the impacts of roads and other linear infrastructure on wildlife. She leads several coalitions working to bring more wildlife crossing structures to the western U.S. and has authored a number of reports sharing best practices for engaging in wildlife crossing efforts.
The Center for Large Landscape Conservation is a Montana-based nonprofit that works both locally and globally to promote ecological connectivity, support healthy wildlife habitats, and safeguard nature’s resilience to climate change.
About Crossings: How Road Ecology Is Shaping the Future of Our Planet:
An eye-opening account of the global ecological transformations wrought by roads, from the award-winning author of Eager.
Some 40 million miles of roadways encircle the earth, yet we tend to regard them only as infrastructure for human convenience. While roads are so ubiquitous they’re practically invisible to us, wild animals experience them as entirely alien forces of death and disruption. In Crossings, environmental journalist Ben Goldfarb travels throughout the United States and around the world to investigate how roads have transformed our planet. A million animals are killed by cars each day in the U.S. alone, but as the new science of road ecology shows, the harms of highways extend far beyond roadkill. Creatures from antelope to salmon are losing their ability to migrate in search of food and mates; invasive plants hitch rides in tire treads; road salt contaminates lakes and rivers; and the very noise of traffic chases songbirds from vast swaths of habitat.
Yet road ecologists are also seeking to blunt the destruction through innovative solutions. Goldfarb meets with conservationists building bridges for California’s mountain lions and tunnels for English toads, engineers deconstructing the labyrinth of logging roads that web national forests, animal rehabbers caring for Tasmania’s car-orphaned wallabies, and community organizers working to undo the havoc highways have wreaked upon American cities.
Today, as our planet’s road network continues to grow exponentially, the science of road ecology has become increasingly vital. Written with passion and curiosity, Crossings is a sweeping, spirited, and timely investigation into how humans have altered the natural world—and how we can create a better future for all living beings.
Ben Goldfarb
Photography Credit: Terray Sylvester
Kylie Paul
