Category Archives: roads

As most Pennsylvania motorists know (and a bunch in other states, too), the roads are dangerous for wildlife

Posted on October 23, 2012 | Leave a comment

I found and photographed this warning sign at Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge in coastal Texas seven years ago. In Pennsylvania, the white-tailed deer is the most-oft victim of motor-vehicle collisions. But scores of other species also are victimized – along with their habitat.Image

Leave a comment

Posted in off-road cowboys, off-road vehicle abuse, off-road vehicles, off-roaders, protected land, road ecology, road salt, roadkill, roads, urban sprawl

Tagged , , , , , ,

How green was my lawn?

Posted on September 21, 2012 | Leave a comment

This op-ed explores the current direction of “environmentalism” in light of the 50th anniversary of Rachel Carson’s “Silent Spring.”

Leave a comment

Posted in roadkill, roads, smog, sprawl, subdivisions, suburban sprawl

Tagged , , , , ,

Idaho gets federal grant to inventory rare species

Posted on August 24, 2012 | Leave a comment

And, then, after the inventories are done and the data published in binders that will collect dust in some archival dungeon somewhere, F and G will go ahead and hawk licenses and tags for some of the same species, all in a bid to bring in more dollars for its budget. This story that reads like a news release tells the story of the federal grant.

Leave a comment

Posted in Breeding Bird Survey, hunters, hunting, Idaho, Idaho and wolves, Idaho Fish and Game Department, Idaho wildlife, public land, public lands, public spaces, raping of land, raptors, Rewilding Institute, rewilding North America, roads, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, wolverine, wolves

Tagged , , , , , , ,

My newspape column: Roads vs. Wild Nature

Posted on March 18, 2012 | Leave a comment

I have been writing about the effect roads have on wildlife and habitat for many years. The road-builders, of course, keep on plowing and paving and grading and salting and picking up the carnage they help create. My latest stab on this is here.

Leave a comment

Posted in gas hogs, gasoline, greedheads, growth, habitat destruction, habitat fragmentation, habitat loss, protected areas, protected land, public lands, road ecology, road salt, roadkill, roads

Tagged , , ,

Road-closure plan for national forest targets 4,000-mile network

Posted on March 17, 2012 | Leave a comment

Nothing does more to degrade and fragment wildlife habitat than a road. Make that “roads” and there is a real problem. Read what a national forest in Oregon has come up with for closing roads it can’t keep up with maintaining anyway.

Leave a comment

Posted in habitat loss, habitat protection, habitt fragmentation, highways, roadkill, roads, U.S. Forest Service

Tagged , , ,

Getting Arctic oil drilling right

Posted on February 26, 2012 | Leave a comment

The NY Times, in this editorial, gives its blessing – mostly – to offshore oil exploration along the north shore of Alaska. And the editorial presses for safety and planning and all that jazz. But there’s no talk of conservation, of finally allowing people to live in mixed-use communities where zoning allows them to live in apartments above grocery stores, as one example. And there is no talk in the editorial of what the car has done (and continues to do) to the American landscape and our natural heritage (as in exurban sprawl).

Leave a comment

Posted in air pollution, Alaska, automobile mileage standards, automobile pollution, oil and gas industry, oil drilling, oil pumps, oil shale, oil spills, road ecology, roadkill, roads, sprawl

Tagged , , ,

In Adirondacks, fear and happiness over OK of big resort

Posted on February 9, 2012 | Leave a comment

Finally, an article about development in a forested setting that actually mentions the fragmentation of wildlife habitat by roads, driveways, etc. That’s what will happen when the Adirondack Club and Resort, just approved by the Adirondack Park Agency board, is built at Tupper Lake, a stalwart village located west of Lake Placid, the Winter Olympics town. Supporters of this “growth” development talk, of course, of the jobs it will “create,” and the village’s population growth that will ensue upon move-in. Missing, though, is talk of the impact of more humans on the natural world. Sad, very sad.

Leave a comment

Posted in Adirondack Park, Adirondacks, development, growth, habitat fragmentation, road ecology, roads, sprawl, trout, urban sprawl, wild nature, wildlife habitat, wildlife issues

Tagged , , , ,

The rainbow trout mistake

Posted on January 16, 2012 | Leave a comment

Lured by a utopian vision of nature, fish and game agencies dropped billions of trout into thousands of lakes. Now, they’re determined to undo the damage they caused.

This article from Conservation magazine spells it all out. In many cases, rainbows were dumped into water they weren’t native to in a bid to sell more fishing licenses and therefore get more dollars for the state agency’s budget. It’s a story that goes on today with many many hatcheries, including those I’m most familiar with in Pennsylvania. I pleaded again and again over the years for the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission to go out and actually save waters threatened by development, like road building. To no avail.

Leave a comment

Posted in Fish and wildlife, fish and wildlife funding, fish hatcheries, fisheries, Fishing, roads, trout, trout fishing, Trout Underground

Tagged , ,

The border fence vs. migratory wildlife

Posted on December 22, 2011 | Leave a comment

The fence, a favorite of rght-wingers in Congress, is the one that lines the order between the U.S. and Mexico. Predictably, it’s not good for wildlife, as this article explains very well.

Leave a comment

Posted in protected areas, protected land, public land, rewilding North America, roads, Sonoran Desert, sprawl, subdivisions, urban sprawl, wild nature, wildlife crime, wildlife habitat, wildlife issues, wildlilfe migration corridors

Tagged , , , , ,

More than a million acres of roadless land vulnerable, biologist warns

Posted on October 12, 2011 | Leave a comment

Teh 1.3 million acres are in the Crown of the Continent ecosystem, which includes Glacier National Park. Back East, where I sit, it is now impossible, especially in Pennsylvania and New Jersey, and probably Virginia too, for a person to get more than one mile from the nearest road. That statistic holds deep ramifications for wildlife.

Leave a comment

Posted in habitat destruction, habitat fragmentation, habitat protection, rewilding North America, road ecology, roadkill, roads

Tagged ,