Crossings: How Road Ecology Is Shaping the Future of Our Planet

I saw a magazine blurb that sounded interesting and bought the book. I was floored by the content. Not nearly enough is said about road ecology, and I thought I was pretty well versed on environmental topics, but I barely knew the least iota on it before reading this book. Besides the great education on important issues, this book was very enjoyable to read. The author has a way with words, excellent, straightforward prose and a great sense of humor. There are laugh out loud moments, but mostly from a clever turn of phrase, never demeaning the topic nor distracting from it. There are some chapters past the middle aren't quite as stellar as the first ones; they drag a bit but just as informative, and still well written. I've been passing on copies to many of friends. There are some important books which are dreary. This one seems very well researched and is global in scope, but is also a good choice for pleasure reading.

In this beautifully written, comprehensive, and staggeringly synthetic work, author Ben Goldfarb introduces us to the myriad negative effects associated with roads, from the sonic impacts on animals adjacent to the tiniest logging roads in U.S. National Forests to the massive mortality on native marsupials in Tasmania. This book is a tour de force on the subject of road ecology and deserves to be read by the widest audience, from highway designers and engineers to Department of Transportation biologists just starting their careers to conservation biologists and interested laypersons and anyone who cares about the natural world and the impacts of humans upon it.This book is sorely needed as nothing like it currently exists and if we are to reduce the impacts due to the massive proliferation of roads on landscapes, we need to be educated about what the specialists, as well as the "citizen scientists", can tell us through their research and reports - this book does exactly that. And does it in a style that is both engaging and very often humorous. Ben Goldfarb makes accessible to all the breadth of work that is being done on this subject on every continent except Antarctica and provides his readers with a clear-eyed synthesis of what is known and what needs to be done.Very highly recommended.

Thank you, Ben Goldfarb, for expanding the horizons of this literary fiction buff into the realm of environmental non-fiction. First beavers, now roads. Who knew? Crossings opened my eyes to the unseen (to me) impact that road ecology has on our world. Yes, I live in Michigan, grew up in the Motor City and have traversed the roads that connect - and divide - the great city of Detroit. I have clutched my pearls at the gruesome sight of all the roadkill (deer, skunks, birds) lining I-75 (and other thoroughfares) but until I read Crossings, I thought of these victims as little more than unfortunate animals that failed to cross a buzzing highway populated with tractor trailers, speeding muscle cars, and people trying to get home to the suburbs after a day's work (pre- and post-pandemic anyway). Goldfarb's carefully researched and thoughtfully written book changed my POV and helped me see how our roads have far more impact beyond the apparent (and rigged) Frogger game played by unwitting wildlife and motorists. A road is never just a road, indeed. A great read.

I saw the review of this on the NPR website and decided to check it out. At first I thought it would be a complete downer. While bleak, he does have suggestions how to mitigate the problem. If you're interested in how various crossings work and how they reduce roadkill, along with death and injury of drivers then I recommend this book.

Found out about this book from the podcast Ologies. The book is so well written and has so many good facts. I learned so much!

Crossings (roads) are just another means of damaging our environment. We go about our daily excursions without realizing the carnage we leave behind. This book explores it all and gives us some solutions to the problems. Road ecology is a new science that’s just getting started. It’s findings will hopefully make crossings safer for our wildlife and even us humans. If we hope to protect the planet we need to stop building roads. We need to make those that are needed safe and smart. Great read. I give the author credit for this readable and well researched book.

First, READ THIS BOOK. The subject is hard to read about as it reveals more ways that humanity has changed the face of the earth. And, usually, not for the better. So in a topic that could be nothing but gloom and doom, Ben Goldfarb elevates the conversation. Rather he initiates the conversation we could all be having. And yes, DoT in every state and the federal transportation, you are included in “we.”Every chapter in this book, could be an entire book on its own. It is a bit of a marvel, then, that the author has distilled this information to the salient points for general consumption. He pulls the thread of it all together on the impact of roads on animals, on humans, on the environment and doesn’t hesitate to highlight where positive actions are being taken and what more can be done. And somehow in that process gives us a laugh when we need it.I had no clue when I started this book, just how many various ways the bajillion miles of roads on earth impact it. This book made me cringe, it made me chuckle and it made me cry. Yet left me feeling, not “all is lost”, but that there is hope for improvement and mitigation.

Ben Goldfarb’s Crossings is not only the most important environmental book of the decade, it is also the most entertaining. In lesser hands, a book about road ecology might be a total snooze fest, but Goldfarb elevates it through both his enthusiasm for the material and his love of the English language. What a delight it was to learn about snarges (“pilot lingo for the smeary remains of a bird”) and flivverboobs (“the epithet for an inconsiderate motorist”). The book doesn’t just succeed because it is well written or about an important environmental crisis. It succeeds because Goldfarb uses roads as a lens to teach us surprising things about both human and animal behavior.

Well-researched and compelling. A thrilling read and so important to know about this topic.

As a biology teacher, I learnt so much about road ecology. Things I knew nothing about. It's an excellent but important book that many should read.

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This is a lovely book for those of you out there that want to learn more about something that we really don't think about. The next time you are out for a "drive" you will appreciate what it means to our planet.

Crossing won't answer why the chicken crossed the road, but it will help you get it to the other side.Crossings is an amazing follow-up to the author's first book, Eager. Much like in Ben Goldfarbs previous outing, Ben is able to weave a tale that incorporates his personal experiences with those of leading scientists in the field. His ability to incorporate decades of work and the personality of some of the Western hemispheres leading road ecology scientists into a novel that can be understood from anyone from enthusiast to scientist is a feat in itself.As an ecologist myself I learned a lot about a discipline that I am trying hard not to be obsessed about.I can't wait for Ben's next book.