Crossings

How Road Ecology Is Shaping the Future of Our Planet

By: Ben Goldfarb

Narrated by: Malcolm Hillgartner

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 US 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.

©2023 Ben Goldfarb (P)2023 HighBridge, a division of Recorded Books

Eye-opening

Really puts into perspective the effect of human sprawling has on the ecosystems around us. Very good. Was super interesting the whole way through!

the rich history of the relationship between roads and fauna

I loved the rich immersion and broad reach of the subject matter discussed. The perfect intersection between the interests of civil engineers and ecologists.

Homer says "Doh" not "Duh" !

"Duh a deer a female deer." is just gibberish. It ruins the song and it completely ruins the joke! So either Malcom has never seen the Sound of Music or the Simpsons or Ben made the mistake and put duh instead of doh.
I'm sixty percent sure that the reader also Butchered a Yogurt Spaceballs reference in another book, and the rest of the book was phenomenal!

Definitely looking forward to another Ben Goldfarb book!

So Glad I Read This

I loved the examples and stories the author chose to highlight in this book. Each chapter was interest8ng and approachable for a layman. I also really appreciated the narration. I saw other reviewers disliked his tone and approach, but I thought it was the perfect blend of seriousness and humor, with the author's frequent tongue-in-cheek remarks shining through.

Great book, but narration doesn’t fit.

In a book with such heavy subject matter, Ben Goldfarb weaves in humor expertly. However, so much of this was lost due to listening to this audio edition. I read this book as part of a class and we got the opportunity to speak with the author and ask questions. After listening to Goldfarb himself, I feel like his voice was almost completely lost in this narration. It is too serious and intense for my taste, and does not reflect Goldfarb’s lighter, more casual, and humorous approach. It made what should have been a dark but entertaining read feel excessively challenging. This is not to say that Hillgartner is a *bad* speaker, but I do not think he captured the intended tone of the book well.

All that being said, this book is packed with interesting, urgent, and powerful information. I honestly thought I might be bored reading about “road ecology,” even as someone who travels often and loves the US’s national parks. But he caught my attention and now I just find myself noticing road ecology all around me. It’s a pretty dramatic paradigm shift.

Very engaging

I was surprised by how interesting and even entertaining this book was. I think I learned a lot but it was a pleasure to listen. The author has a great sense of humor, very understated- mostly clever turns of phrase.

Great read!

Really enjoyed this book, informative and so wholesome. Thankful for all the road ecologists out there protecting our environment!

Awesome!

Sober, realistic, sometimes painful, and yet, never hopeless. On top of that, it's masterfully written.

Something new to think about

I really enjoyed the introduction to road ecology, wildlife crossings, the challenges of roadkill data collection, and the stories roadkill analysis can tell.

I thought the book was organized thoughtfully and this made it listen more like an educational story.

I will never look at roadkill, median barriers, or culverts the same!

Great narrator and very interesting topic

I loved this book and would recommend it to anyone interested in wild things and the environment. It is well written and easy to understand the material. Loved it.