Living in the Sprawl - bioGraphic As housing developments devour open space in the western United States, can local governments stave off habitat loss?

"Across the West, farsighted local governments have begun preserving & connecting habitats through unsexy regulatory tools such as zoning, land-use codes, & comprehensive plans."

For @biographic.bsky.social, I wrote about planning (don't yawn!) for conservation.

www.biographic.com/living-in-th...

when you need a consulting ichthyologist

and thanks to @cottomanempire.bsky.social for being an exceptionally voluble source despite being interviewed by the baby on his interlocutor's lap

thanks to @judeisabella.bsky.social @toughcitywriter.bsky.social @cestmoilanglois.bsky.social for the great edits, and for letting me use an Arcade Fire lyric as the headline.

Living in the Sprawl - bioGraphic As housing developments devour open space in the western United States, can local governments stave off habitat loss?

"Across the West, farsighted local governments have begun preserving & connecting habitats through unsexy regulatory tools such as zoning, land-use codes, & comprehensive plans."

For @biographic.bsky.social, I wrote about planning (don't yawn!) for conservation.

www.biographic.com/living-in-th...

Signed a book for my best bud.

Idaho Lawmakers Pass Resolution Supporting Wildlife Crossings and Habitat Connectivity In 2025, Idaho was the nation’s second-fastest growing state by population percentage. More people mean more drivers on the road, which, in a state rich in iconic wildlife such as mule deer, elk, and moose, also means a greater risk of collisions between vehicles and wildlife as these animals migrate between their habitats.

A conservative Idaho legislature just voted unanimously to protect wildlife corridors. Why? Because deer-car collisions cost the state $150M/year. When protecting nature saves money, politics stops mattering.🦌 #WildlifeCrossings #EcoEconomy
www.pew.org/en/resea...

www.eastidahonews.co...

or heard of a shark

when the NYT has never been on a fishing boat

certainly nobody has ever used such poetic prose to describe the experience of encasing one’s genitals in chewing gum!

Osprey got sloppy

Almost 60 percent of the lifetime diets of taimen in Russia's Tugur River is *adult chum salmon*. Imagine what a bad-ass freshwater fish you have to be to just inhale salmon like they're mayflies.

conbio.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

OPINION: The Roadless Rule doesn't stop firefighting – Here's proof from the field Many Montanans have heard claims that the Roadless Rule makes it harder to fight wildfires. I spent four decades managing our national forests — including the Custer-Gallatin and Helena-Lewis and

"The Roadless Rule doesn’t prevent fire management—it encourages managers to think carefully... Roadless areas are important backcountry wildlands w/ significant ecological, recreational, & wildlife habitat value."

Great op-ed by a former MT forest supervisor.

www.lewistownnews.com/commentary/o...

I don't share many interests with the members of Trump's cabinet... but we'll always have this.

www.nytimes.com/2026/04/14/b...

NYC fam! Hope to catch you at this event at the CCNY architecture school next week. #roadecology

ssa.ccny.cuny.edu/events/sprin...

India is inaugurating its first “red road” to save wildlife, and the trick is not fences or speed cameras, but a surface that forces drivers to slow down almost without realizing it. India tests a red road that subtly slows drivers to protect wildlife, pairing smart design with crossings and fencing for safer highways

Neat story on #roadecology innovation, with an important takeaway: Road design itself, not posted speed limits or signage, is the only truly effective way to get drivers to slow down for wildlife.

www.ecoticias.com/en/india-is-...

Thanks so much for this smart and thorough thread!

Great thread on CROSSINGS, and it’s always fascinating to see what people take from this book; I appreciate that Lucia pulled out some of the most important concepts. (And her point about not reading the roadkill chapters while eating lunch is fair play 😂 🤢.) #roadecology

Don't overlook:
- Crossings by @bengoldfarb.bsky.social
- Fighting Traffic by @norton.bsky.social
- Killed by a Traffic Engineer by @wesmars.bsky.social

yaleclimateconnections.org/2026/04/the-...

Mets got shut out btw

Freshwater Fish Migrations Are Disappearing Across the Planet, Finds U.N. Report The assessment identified over 300 species of fish that urgently need international conservation effort

A Convention on Migratory Species report found that freshwater fish migrations are disappearing. These fish are vital to ecosystems worldwide, serving as a source of food and income to millions and maintaining the ecological balance of waters where they live.

www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/f...

And yet, despite these failures, something mystifying was happening: deerkills were plummeting. Over two years in the late 1960s, a horrific 286 deer had perished on Bellis’s segment of I-80. In a similar period spanning 1970 and 1971, though, only 22 died. Over the two years after that, only 2 deer died. The crisis had dissipated as suddenly as it began. What explained the miraculous fix? Plenty of deer still roamed the shoulders. Whitetails, though, had all but ceased crossing the highway, repelled by traffic volumes that had “drastically increased” since I-80 opened. As the interstate caught on, denser flows of cars—fast, loud, predatory cars—were deterring deer from wandering between their roadside pastures. Roadkill declined not because the highway was safer but because it had become so heart-stoppingly dangerous that animals rarely ventured onto the asphalt. “The traffic itself forms a moving fence that inhibits deer from moving into traffic lanes,” Bellis deduced.

"Roadkill declined not because the highway was safer but because it had become so heart-stoppingly dangerous that animals rarely ventured onto the asphalt."

Not just animals. City streets without people walking, biking, etc., are an indictment of unsafe engineering and driving.

from Crossings

Excited to do a bit of intellectual photosynthesis with new botanical books by a couple of the best writers in our field, @robertmoor.com and @dghaskell.bsky.social. 🌲 🌼 🌱

needs the N

Money quote:

props for including NENE I guess

Spelling Bee’s nature blindness has finally gone too fuckin’ far.

We are literally cooked.

Someone tweaked the algorithms on Chimp Twitter.