Park Protection and Public Roads

Landscape fragmentation is increasingly subdividing natural areas into semi-isolated remnants. Although such subdivision has benefits for some species, it often reduces the ability of an area to protect species that are sensitive to disturbance or prone to local extinction. Within protected areas, such as parks, landscape fragmentation results from road development. Roads both subdivide continuous habitat and act as corridors for the entry of materials, edge-adapted species, and disturbances into natural areas. We review the general effects of landscape fragmentation on sensitive species and the ecological effects of roads. We then combine this information with a pilot analysis of the extent to which our largest national parks are fragmented by roads. Our results indicate that substantial areas of our national parks are close enough to paved roads that they may be impacted by road effects. We consider the implications of this for park planning processes.

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