Roads and Wildlife

The First Mile

Maine Audubon began to pay attention to how roads affect wildlife eight years ago when staff wildlife biologist Barbara Charry started researching sprawl for Beginning with Habitat, the nationally acclaimed program Maine Audubon co-founded to help local planners conserve wildlife in their communities.

“The more I learned about the impact of roads on wildlife, the more I realized it was something we had to address,” said Charry.

Thanks to Charry’s diligence, in 2004 Maine Audubon organized and hosted Maine’s first conference on roads and wildlife, attracting more than 100 planning, transportation, and wildlife professionals from the region and beyond.

“It was an unprecedented gathering,” said Charry. “It was the first time Maine’s planning, transportation, and wildlife experts got together and talked about how planning could reduce roads’ effect on wildlife.”

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