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“I want everyone to be super excited about wildlife crossings, but I don’t want people to forget that a wildlife crossing is like a Band-Aid,” said Trisha White

“I want everyone to be super excited about wildlife crossings, but I don’t want people to forget that a wildlife crossing is like a Band-Aid,” said Trisha White, an environmentalist who was integral in moving wildlife crossings from the fringes to the mainstream in the United States. The structures, she emphasized, can only fix a small part of the road’s damage to wildlife habitat. “The road,” she said, “is like a wound.”

bombcar 5y ago
That’s a thing that can be forgotten when comparing roads to rail - they both cut across the countryside but the equivalent number of trains interrupt the landscape less - for a single “front” it stretches quite long. I wonder if predators will take advantage of these bridges.
- throwaway0a5e 5y ago
  >but the equivalent number of trains interrupt the landscape less It's not so cut and clear. Anywhere that isn't super flat you're going to need to cut into and build on top of the landscape a ton because of the low maximum grade inherent to steel wheels on steel rails. This comes with retaining walls, runoff control and all the other features required to keep the landscape from quickly reclaiming the rail bed. These features have impact on the surrounding ecosystems but less visibly than roadkill.
  - bombcar 5y ago
    That's a good point - it'd be interesting to see what percentage of railway is "navigable" by wildlife vs blocked - even in the mountains the railways often follow riverbeds or cuts alongside mountains.
- stuaxo 5y ago
  Outside the US railways have to be fenced along their length.
  - distances 5y ago
    At least in the Nordics highways, too, are completely fenced with the fences leading to animal crossing bridges/tunnels. Don't want a full-grown elks trying their luck and crossing a highway, that would be a recipe human fatalities too.

bombcar 5y ago

That’s a thing that can be forgotten when comparing roads to rail - they both cut across the countryside but the equivalent number of trains interrupt the landscape less - for a single “front” it stretches quite long. I wonder if predators will take advantage of these bridges.

throwaway0a5e 5y ago
>but the equivalent number of trains interrupt the landscape less It's not so cut and clear. Anywhere that isn't super flat you're going to need to cut into and build on top of the landscape a ton because of the low maximum grade inherent to steel wheels on steel rails. This comes with retaining walls, runoff control and all the other features required to keep the landscape from quickly reclaiming the rail bed. These features have impact on the surrounding ecosystems but less visibly than roadkill.
- bombcar 5y ago
  That's a good point - it'd be interesting to see what percentage of railway is "navigable" by wildlife vs blocked - even in the mountains the railways often follow riverbeds or cuts alongside mountains.
stuaxo 5y ago
Outside the US railways have to be fenced along their length.
- distances 5y ago
  At least in the Nordics highways, too, are completely fenced with the fences leading to animal crossing bridges/tunnels. Don't want a full-grown elks trying their luck and crossing a highway, that would be a recipe human fatalities too.