Telling big, complicated stories in a way that still leaves you feeling hopeful.
Environmental journalist Ben Goldfarb joins us for a wide-open conversation about how roads shape wildlife, ecosystems, and the public lands we depend on. Ben breaks down the stuff most of us never think about, like how tire dust kills salmon or how road noise stresses out songbirds. He also shares what pulled him into road ecology in the first place and how he tells big, complicated stories in a way that still leaves you feeling hopeful.
We get into his two books, Eager and Crossings, and why beavers, of all creatures, might be some of the most important engineers on the landscape. From amphibian migrations to the Forest Service’s long road-building history, Ben gives us a smarter, more curious way to look at the places we love.
If you care about wild places, wildlife on the move, or the future of conservation, this one is worth your time.
Today’s highlights:
- How roads reshape ecosystems. Why almost every major environmental impact starts with road building, from fragmented habitat to changes in land use.
- Wildlife crossings and what they solve. The Highway 93 project, the role of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes, and how crossings reduce collisions and restore movement.
- The harms we rarely see. Tire chemicals killing salmon, road noise stressing birds, and the huge number of animals that die off the shoulder where no one counts them.
- Beavers as ecosystem engineers. Why wetlands shaped by beavers support salmon, amphibians, birds, and entire food webs, and how their comeback is a rare conservation success.
- The Forest Service road legacy. How the agency built massive road networks across national forests, why the roadless rule exists, and what’s at risk now.
- Policy, funding, and the future. What it takes to prioritize crossings, improve culverts, coordinate agencies, and push for federal action that actually supports habitat connectivity.
Links & Resources:
- Wildlife Crossings Pilot Program – a grant program that helps states and tribes build projects that reduce crashes with wildlife and make it easier for animals to move safely across the landscape.
- The Roadless Rule – The Roadless Rule protects nearly 60 million acres of national forest from new road construction and logging, keeping some of the most intact habitats in the country connected and undeveloped. It helps safeguard wildlife, water, and old growth by limiting the expansion of the Forest Service road network. Click to listen to The Roadless Rule Rescinded with Chris Wood
- National Culvert Removal, Replacement, and Restoration Grant Program – funds projects that improve passage for anadromous fish. These species are born in freshwater, spend most of their lives in the ocean, and return to freshwater to spawn. Salmon are the best-known example.
Connect with Ben
Ben’s Books
Connect with Today's Guest
Ben Goldfarb is an environmental journalist whose work appears in National Geographic, the Atlantic, Smithsonian Magazine, the New Yorker, and many other outlets. His reporting has been featured several times in the Best American Science & Nature Writing series.
His latest book, Crossings: How Road Ecology Is Shaping the Future of Our Planet, was named one of the best books of 2023 by the New York Times and received the Rachel Carson Award for Excellence in Environmental Writing and the Banff Book Competition’s Grand Prize. His earlier book, Eager: The Surprising, Secret Life of Beavers and Why They Matter, won the PEN/E.O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award.
Ben lives in Colorado with his wife, daughter, and their dog, Kit, which also happens to be the word for a baby beaver.
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