Safe Passages brings together in a single volume the latest information on the emerging science of road ecology as it relates to mitigating interactions between roads and wildlife. This practical handbook of tools and examples is designed to assist individuals and organizations thinking about or working toward reducing road-wildlife impacts. The book provides:
- an overview of the importance of habitat connectivity with regard to roads
- current planning approaches and technologies for mitigating the impacts of highways on both terrestrial and aquatic species
- different facets of public participation in highway-wildlife connectivity mitigation projects
- case studies from partnerships across North America that highlight successful on-the-ground implementation of ecological and engineering solutions
- recent innovative highway-wildlife mitigation developments
Detailed case studies span a range of scales, from site-specific wildlife crossing structures, to statewide planning for habitat connectivity, to national legislation. Contributors explore the cooperative efforts that are emerging as a result of diverse organizations—including transportation agencies, land and wildlife management agencies, and nongovernmental organizations—finding common ground to tackle important road ecology issues and problems.
Safe Passages is an important new resource for local-, state-, and national-level managers and policymakers working on road-wildlife issues, and will appeal to a broad audience including scientists, agency personnel, planners, land managers, transportation consultants, students, conservation organizations, policymakers, and citizens engaged in road-wildlife mitigation projects.
Anthony P. Clevenger is a wildlife research ecologist currently contracted by Parks Canada to study road effects on wildlife populations in the Banff- Bow Valley and the surrounding national and provincial parks. In that capacity, his research has focused primarily on the factors influencing mammal passage through drainage culverts and wildlife crossing structures, developing GIS-based modeling approaches to identify mitigation placement along roads, and investigating spatial patterns and factors influencing wildlife road mortality. He has worked as a wildlife biologist for the World Wide Fund for Nature–International (Gland, Switzerland), Ministry of Environment–France (Toulouse),U.S. Forest Service, and U.S. National Park Service. Dr. Clevenger is a graduate of the University of California, Berkeley, has a master’s degree in wildlife ecology from the University of Tennessee, and earned a doctoral degree in zoology from the University of León, Spain. He has been an adjunct assistant professor at the University of Tennessee since 1989 and at the University of Calgary since 1998.
RichardT.T. Forman is the PAES Professor of Landscape Ecology at Harvard University, where he teaches ecological courses in the Graduate School of Design and in Harvard College. His research and writing include landscape and regional ecology, road ecology, land-use planning and conservation, and spatially meshing nature and people in the land mosaic. Forman served on two National Academy of Sciences committees on surface transportation and the environment and began publishing road ecology articles in 1996. His books include Land Mosaics:The Ecology of Landscapes and Regions (Cambridge University Press, 1995) and Landscape Ecology Principles for Landscape Architecture and Land-Use Planning (Island Press, 1996). He is a fellow of the AAAS; served as vice president of the Ecological Society of America and the International Association for Landscape Ecology; has received medals and honors from Italy, Australia, France, the Czech Republic, China, and the United Kingdom; was named Distinguished Landscape Ecologist (USA); and received the Lindback Foundation Award for Excellence in Teaching. He received a Haverford College B.S., a University of Pennsylvania Ph.D., and honorary degrees from Miami University, Harvard University, and Florida International University, and has taught at the University of Wisconsin, Rutgers University, and in Central and South America.