Why Are Roads Problematic?
By Buck O’Herin
Nineteen miles. That is the furthest you can get from a maintained road in the lower 48 states, a land mass covering 2,959,064 square miles. When Lewis and Clark crossed the continent in 1804-05 there were no roads between St.Louis and the Pacific Ocean. Today these 48 states have more than 4 million miles of roads. A lot has changed, a lot has been lost in 200 plus years.
In 1961, when a group of friends and I scooped up 163 bratwurst-sized, tiger salamanders that were packed into a shallow pool—all that remained of a drained marsh on the edge of a Chicago suburb, we had no context for what we witnessed. This type of habitat destruction was occurring across the continent on a scale greater than our young minds could comprehend. The impact to the marsh and those beautiful amphibians was both a figurative and literal drop in the bucket.
Development and habitat loss follow roads. The conservation and restoration effort needed to maintain our region’s ecosystems and species—that includes humans, who also depend on healthy ecosystems, is large and urgent. The health of Maine’s forests and coastal ecosystems is increasingly important as our climate changes and population demographics shift northward. At least one Maine climate scientist believes Maine’s population is going to double by 2030 due to people migrating from warmer and drier regions of the U.S.
Roads are problematic for many species. They are barriers to movement and are frequently deadly obstacles. Roads also fragment the landscape and shrink the availability of large areas of undeveloped land, something that most species need in order to feed, breed and thrive. Roads are especially lethal to amphibians (toads, frogs and salamanders) during their annual spring and fall migrations to and from areas for breeding and hibernation. However, any rainy night may call them out to feed and revel.
The next time you are driving on an early spring night and notice lots of frogs or salamanders in the road you may be near a wetland or vernal pool. Try slowing down to avoid killing these creatures that are ancient marvels of evolution but poorly adapted to deal with cars. If it is a quiet road you might be able to safely stop and move some of these creatures out of the road—preferably in the direction they are moving. These small actions help to make a difference and supporting groups that protect our environment can make even more of a difference.
