September 2023 MBR The Environmental Studies Shelf

The Environmental Studies Shelf

Crossings: How Road Ecology Is Shaping the Future of Our Planet
Ben Goldfarb
W. W. Norton & Company
500 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10110
www.wwnorton.com
9781324005896, $30.00, HC, 384pp

https://www.amazon.com/Crossings-Ecology-Shaping-Future-Planet/dp/1324005890

Synopsis: Some 40 million miles of roadways encircle the earth, yet we tend to regard them only as infrastructure for human convenience. While roads are so ubiquitous they're practically invisible to us, wild animals experience them as entirely alien forces of death and disruption.

With the publication of "Crossings: How Road Ecology Is Shaping the Future of Our Planet", environmental journalist Ben Goldfarb travels throughout the United States and around the world to investigate how roads have transformed our planet.

A million animals are killed by cars each day in the U.S. alone, but as the new science of road ecology shows, the harms of highways extend far beyond roadkill. Creatures from antelope to salmon are losing their ability to migrate in search of food and mates; invasive plants hitch rides in tire treads; road salt contaminates lakes and rivers; and the very noise of traffic chases songbirds from vast swaths of habitat.

Yet road ecologists are also seeking to blunt the destruction through innovative solutions. Goldfarb meets with conservationists building bridges for California's mountain lions and tunnels for English toads, engineers deconstructing the labyrinth of logging roads that web national forests, animal rehabbers caring for Tasmania's car-orphaned wallabies, and community organizers working to undo the havoc highways have wreaked upon American cities.

Today, as our planet's road network continues to grow exponentially, the science of road ecology has become increasingly vital. Written with passion and curiosity, "Crossings: How Road Ecology Is Shaping the Future of Our Planet" is a sweeping, spirited, and timely investigation into how humans have altered the natural world -- and how we can create a better future for all living beings.

Critique: Of special and particular interest to readers concerned with the biology of wildlife, ecology, and environmentalism, "Crossings: How Road Ecology Is Shaping the Future of Our Planet" is a seminal work and ground- breaking study of one of the often overlooked elements in the environmental degradation of our world that is a significant factor in the current mass extinctions and climate changes taking place. While also available in a digital book format (Kindle, $14.99), "Crossings: How Road Ecology Is Shaping the Future of Our Planet" is an emphatically recommended and critically important additions to personal, professional, community, college, and university library Environmental collections and supplemental curriculum studies lists.

Editorial Note: Ben Goldfarb (https://www.bengoldfarb.com) is the author of Eager: The Surprising, Secret Life of Beavers and Why They Matter, winner of the PEN/E.O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award. His writings have appeared in the Atlantic, National Geographic, the New York Times, and many other publications, and have been anthologized in The Best American Science and Nature Writing. He is a recipient of fellowships from the Alicia Patterson Foundation and the Whiting Foundation.

Aquatic and Wetland Plants of Northeastern North America, second edition
Garrett E. Crow, author
C. Barre Hellquist, author
University of Wisconsin Press
728 State Street, Suite 443, Madison, WI 53706-1418
www.uwpress.wisc.edu
9780299343002, $99.95, HC, 736pp

https://www.amazon.com/Aquatic-Wetland-Plants-Northeastern-America/dp/0299343006

Synopsis: Now in a newly updated and expanded second edition, "Aquatic and Wetland Plants of Northeastern North America" by the team of Garrett E. Crow (Professor of Botany at the University of New Hampshire) and C. Barre Hellquist (Professor of Biology at the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts) is arguably by far the best and most comprehensive manual and illustrated guide to native and naturalized vascular plants (ferns, conifers, and flowering plants) growing in aquatic and wetland habitats in northeastern North America, from Newfoundland west to Minnesota and south to Virginia and Missouri.

This long-awaited work completely revises and greatly expands Norman Fassett's 1940 classic "A Manual of Aquatic Plants", yet retains the features that made Fassett's book so useful.

"Aquatic and Wetland Plants of Northeastern North America" features: Coverage of 1139 plant species, 1186 taxa, 295 genera, 109 families; More than 600 pages of illustrations, and illustrations for more than 90% of the taxa; Keys for each species include references to corresponding illustrations; Habitat information, geographical ranges, and synonomy; A specific chapter on nuisance aquatic weeds; Glossaries of botanical and habitat terms; A full index.

Critique: This large format hardcover edition (8.5 x 1.9 x 11 inches, 5.27 pounds) of "Aquatic and Wetland Plants of Northeastern North America" will have a very special and enduring value for wetland ecologists, botanists, resource managers, public naturalists, environmentalists, and environmental activists concerned with the preservation of wetland areas, which are increasingly threatened, will welcome this clear, workable, and comprehensive guide. Impressively comprehensive, exceptionally well written, profusely illustrated throughout with b/w line drawn illustrations, and a thoroughly 'user friendly' reference in both organization and presentation, "Aquatic and Wetland Plants of Northeastern North America" is an essential and unreservedly recommended addition to personal, professional, community, college, and university library Plant Biology & Botany collections and supplemental Aquatic & Wetlands curriculum studies lists.

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