Bridges for the Voiceless: How Wildlife Crossings Are Reconnecting a Fractured Earth

Conservation Feature · Biodiversity & Infrastructure

Photo Source: Vermont conservation case study

Bridges for the Voiceless: How Wildlife Crossings Are Reconnecting a Fractured Earth

Each spring, as dusk falls and the forest floor thaws in Vermont, the earth seems to stir. Salamanders and frogs, glistening relics of a world before ours, emerge from underneath leaves and damp forest, to perform an age-old rite, crossing from upland woods to wetland breeding grounds. However, where there were once forest paths and mossy trails, now lie motorways, roads, tire tracks, and painful death.

For creatures no bigger than a child’s thumb, these roads are gauntlets. And every year, countless amphibians are crushed beneath the wheels of fast cars. To change this, a quiet revolution has begun, one that exchanges concrete for tunnels and bridges of compassion to turn thousands of roadkill zones into safe passages for life to cross.