E32S4  On the Road with Ben Goldfarb

You probably don’t think much about them, the roads that you take to the store or work. Or the freeway that you take on vacation across state lines or into national parks or onto a dude ranches. About 40 million miles of roads encircle the earth. We tend to take roads for granted. But is that case for all creatures? While roads certainly have benefits, they also cause problems especially for wildlife and vegetation. So much so that road ecology is now an area of study with experts who are seeking innovative solutions to mitigate and alter the havoc roads can cause. Environmental journalist Ben Goldfarb traveled throughout the United States and around the world to investigate how roads have transformed our planet. He joins Russell and Alan to share some of his startling discoveries, which he relates in his new book “Crossings: How Road Ecology is Shaping the Future of Our Planet.”