"The most insidious effect of roads is that they create access for humans to log, mine, develop, poach, go four-wheeling and otherwise harass and disturb species and their habitats."
Reed Noss, Natural Areas Journal, 1987
Where there are roads there is no wilderness. Numerous studies document how roads trigger a cascade of negative environmental impacts in natural areas.
Once built, roads tend to become permanent. In the early 1990s, more than 90% of Ontario forest access roads used in any given year were accessible to the public. In U.S. national forests, all roads must revert to vegetative cover within 10 years of the termination of the timber agreement, unless the road is considered necessary to the overall forest transportation system. No such requirement to de-commission roads applies in Ontario. The challenge is to make good decisions before building roads, and recognize that some areas should not have them.
Roads sever animal and plant habitats and populations
- Studies involving some small and medium-sized mammals have shown that they will usually not cross roads, including forest roads not open to public traffic.
- Roads result in emissions and disturbances such as noise, dust, light, exhaust, increased salinity in ditches and waterways, and chemical and mechanical vegetation control. Roadkill in Ontario is high for many species.
Roads fragment, eliminate and change habitats
- Habitats are directly lost to road construction and to the activities permitted by road access. Habitat conversion from forest 'interior' to forest 'edge' results in changes and declines in interior-dependent species.
- Fragmented forest habitats are more susceptible to nest predation and parasitism, and reduce the abundance of some migratory species, such as some declining neotropical migrants. Many animals avoid areas with high road densities.
Roads increase access
- Harvest pressures on fish and wildlife increase dramatically in newly roaded areas.
- Almost all wilderness roads are built to remove natural resources.
Roads are unnatural travel corridors and migration routes
- Carnivores such as wolves and coyotes will use roads as corridors into previously difficult-to-access areas, increasing predation.
- Non-native plants and animals use roads as corridors for dispersal, and compete with native flora and fauna.
Roads erode soils and impact waterways
- Road construction and maintenance, and subsequent erosion and gullying, flush road materials into streams and lakes, harmfully altering ecosystems and fish habitats.
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