Editor’s Note
By Emilene Ostlind
“For many Americans, the open road best captures the essential character of the West—unfinished, open-ended, a marriage of the human psyche with the earth, sky, and highway.” —William Wyckoff, Geographer
Science of Road Ecology
Researchers are changing the ways we see, think about, and manage our roadways
By Kristen Pope
“People don’t really think about this impact that roads have because roads and cars are such an important part of our life in North America,” says Western Transportation Institute (WTI) senior research scientist Tony Clevenger.
A Last Leap Towards Flowers
By Morgan Heim
Who are these animals, their lights gone out? What journeys have fallen apart here? —Barry Lopez, Apologia
Ride for Roadkill
Montana cyclists are helping make the state’s roads safer for wildlife and people
By Birch Malotky
Crowell Herrick, 63, rides his gravel bike down Montana Highway 1, wearing a high-vis vest.
Amphibian Crossing
By Rhiannon Jakopak
Carrying salamanders across roadways helps local populations persist
On a rainy April night when temperatures peeked just above freezing, around 30 people spread out along a well-traveled street next to a city park in Laramie, Wyoming.
Crouching Scientist, Hidden Dragonfly
A researcher’s quest to protect an endangered dragonfly
By Amber Furness
I stand on a large, cement bridge on Interstate 355 over the Des Plaines River Valley in northern Illinois. Waves of air blow over me as vehicles whiz by.
Road Noise
Traffic sounds disturb wildlife far beyond the asphalt
By Kristen Pope
Leather-clad motorcyclists cruised around Devils Tower National Monument in August 2015
Repairing a Fragmented Landscape
Interstate 80 severed wildlife habitats 50 years ago. Can we reconnect them?
By Gregory Nickerson
When I drove across Wyoming’s stretch of Interstate 80 to film a wildlife documentary in fall 2019, I saw animals confronting the highway barrier again and again.
Wildlife Crossing Innovation
Research shows the promise and peril of a new material
By Kylie Mohr
Scientist Rob Ament and then-grad student Matthew Bell were on a quest.
Ernie’s Road
The engineer behind a lonely desert highway
Text and images by Claire Giordano
My mom tells stories of a magic road. It wound from a gleaming blue alpine lake to the desert below. It required no gas, didn’t wear out brakes, and had the most beautiful vistas.
Paving Paradise to Put Up Parking Lots
Can Western cities grow without displacing their neighboring natural wonders?
By Aubin Douglas
My first visit to the Great Salt Lake was a graduate course field trip to the Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge.
After the Road
How to restore sagebrush habitat on decommissioned roads
By Tessa Wittman
In the natural gas fields of western Wyoming, innumerable dirt roads cut through the sagebrush steppe, connecting gas wells and carrying heavy equipment.
Road Wager
Agencies bet that hundreds of miles of temporary new roads can help a forest
By Nathan C. Martin
The Medicine Bow National Forest is the most densely roaded forest in Wyoming. Interstate 80 borders it to the north, and winding byways bisect its major mountain ranges—the Sierra Madre and the Snowy Range.
Hikers and Wildlife Cross Paths
Researchers investigate non-motorized recreation’s ecological impacts
By Meghan Kent
Following his GPS, University of Wyoming field technician Michael Gjellum descends into a canyon between the folded foothills of Pilot Hill, keeping a careful eye out for mountain lion activity.
Reclaimed Wildness
Riding Coal Basin’s closed mining roads
By Manasseh Franklin
While quietly pedaling a narrow, paved road near Redstone, Colorado, I rounded a corner and came face-to-face with a small black bear.
Intersecting Roads
The need to value and safeguard wildlife movements
Perspective From Corinna Riginos
Roads may well be humankind’s greatest source of metaphors, inspiration for a plethora of phrases about journeys and all the bumps, bends, twists, and turns along them.