Rainforest Thread #78 -- Is April cruel?

Paved with good intentions: It's not easy being green

*********
Environment Op-Ed - Wednesday, June 13, 2007 Updated @ 11:14:19 AM

It's spring again; let the carnage begin. I'm talking about the carnage on Ontario's roads, and I don't mean human.

We hear a lot about the impacts of our cars on the environment, particularly their role in contributing to global climate change. Vehicle emissions are but one of the ecological impacts of cars and roads.

What goes through your mind when you see an animal dead on the centre line? Responses are inclined to be as diverse as the group of people asked the question. It's a shame, but animal rights advocates seem to ignore the most important animal of all, the human animal. It's a huge moral issue; animals have as much right to exist as we do. It's an aesthetic issue; it's just awful to see some poor creature killed on the road.

The Good Roads Movement began in 1880, championed by bicyclists in Rhode Island. Various groups gradually joined in, touting the benefits of improved roads for increasing the ease of moving people and their goods around the country. In the 1880s and 1890s, roads became a political issue in Ontario. It was the development of the automobile, however, that had the biggest impact on the condition and type of roads in the region. A University of Toronto study reported that the major roads of southern Ontario (both two-lane and multi-lane paved) increased from 7,133 kilometres in 1935, to 23,806 kilometres in 1965, to 35,637 kilometres in 1995 ?- a time of increasing human settlement and economic growth in southern Ontario. It is safe to say that consideration of the incidental impacts on wildlife populations was not a priority.
Little thought was given to the environment, except how to get around it.

It is difficult to find reliable numbers to put the issue in perspective. According to the Wildlife Society, more than 200 motorists are killed each year in the United States (and thousands more are injured) in animal-vehicle collisions. The Ontario Ministry of Transportation's 2004 "annual report" on road safety (the most recent available) reports an increase in the number of collisions involving wild animals: from 7,564 in 1995 to 13,707 in 2004. They reported eight fatalities and 726 injuries resulting from these collisions, along with another 13,112 instances of property damage.

The flip side of the issue is that millions of vertebrates (mammals, birds, reptiles and amphibians) are killed every year by vehicles on roads. Most are never counted, as the car or truck involved drives on its way safely. And while most people feel bad when they see "Bambi" dead on the side of the road, they barely notice Mickey, Big Bird, Yertle the Turtle, or Kermit. Sue Meech, with the Sand Pines Wildlife Center in Napanee, reports that at least 10 per cent of the injured or orphaned animals brought in to her facility are victims of roads, with another 10 per cent "unknown trauma found at roadside. Her centre took in over 1,250 mammals and birds in 2006. Fred Schueler, with the Bishops Mills Natural History Center, did a survey along Highway 15, from the Joyceville to Carleton Place one evening in September 2003; he reported a conservative estimate of 1,575 frogs killed. In one evening. As you might expect, wildlife populations reflect these losses. Researchers find direct relationships between increased road density and decreased numbers of frogs and many other species.

Roads and highways are one of the most significant threats to turtles and turtle populations. In Ontario, six of our eight species of turtles are considered to be at some level of risk (one is endangered). Turtles are long-lived animals, slow to mature and breed, so when a single female turtle is killed on the road it can cause a significant long-term impact on local populations. As well, sex ratios can become skewed since it is the females that are most vulnerable as they come out to nest and lay their eggs. World Turtle Day was celebrated on May 23rd, ironically a peak month for turtles venturing onto Ontario roads as they search for nesting grounds.

One main ecological impact is road avoidance. Studies around the world have shown that when animals hesitate to cross roads or avoid approaching them, that roads effectively subdivide populations, making them more vulnerable to extinction. Have a look at an Ontario road map, and you can begin to appreciate the scale of the problem.

Other impacts from roads include the access they give hunters (both legal and not) to wildlife populations. Slope failure and erosion result in sedimentation to fish habitat. Roads are also conduits for non-native species - a whole different way that people have impacted the ecosystem, a whole other topic. Land managers sometimes close roads to public use, at least seasonally, to protect certain species, but in North America this is generally restricted to National Parks or other protected areas. In March 2007, Taiwan closed portions of a major highway to protect the seasonal migration of a butterfly - the Purple Milkweed Butterfly (the only migratory butterfly other than our own Monarch Butterfly). In on-line chat about this news, some thought it was great, but others were outraged at the idea of closing a highway for a "bug."

In many ways it comes down to a personal conservation ethic - not something that can be mandated by government. If you're reading this, you probably care about the environment. Many Canadians put environment at the top of their list of concerns. If you can't give up your car altogether ?- and who can? How many subdivisions don't even have sidewalks. Here are three simple things you can do to reduce your car-related ecological footprint:

1. Reduce the amount of driving you do - good for your wallet, good for your waist, good for the environment.

2. Carpool - yes, it's a bit of a pain to organize.

3. Slow down. It's that simple. Leave yourself enough time. This means: reduced greenhouse gas, reduced impact to your wallet, reduced road kill, reduced chance of accident leading to damage to property or loss of life

If you hear yourself making the excuses, remember that personal ethic thing and try again. As Kermit said, "It's not easy being green."



*********** is a biologist and environmental consultant. She lives in Elginburg.