Florida continues to grow and as a result more and more roads are planned and other are widened to accommodate the increasing traffic loads.  Rare in this state are the quite country roads linking communities where traffic is slight and the danger to wildlife low.

New and expanded corridors seem to be the solutions of choice at state, regional and local levels.  The net effect of this road matrix of ever increasing density is a greater fractionalizing of our wildlife habitat into smaller and smaller pieces.  Each habitat piece is affected more and more by a variety of stressor (e.g., the immediate road crossing dangers, additional light, noise, human presence, proximity of pets, surface water flow disruptions, etc.).  In contrast to this slicing and dicing of our remaining natural and rural areas is an increasing knowledge about how to lessen the impacts of these transportation corridors and their related development impacts and how we can maintain wildlife permeability across these mounting barriers.

The knowledge on how to maintain wildlife permeability across these new and expanding corridors is improving.  Nevertheless, beyond the improving technical knowledge base, what we lack are good assessments at the state, regional and local levels of existing or planned road facilities on wildlife and what new features, enhancements or mitigative actions ought to be put into place.  Due to the incredible rate of past growth in Florida and the forecasted growth, it seems rational and prudent that we stop and take the time and effort do the proper analyses of our wildlife and what will be needed to keep our common species common and rare species sustained in the face of more roads. This of course will take funding at multiple governmental levels.  The State of Florida should strive to lead this effort by proceeding with such analyses on all existing and planned roads within its purview inclusive of toll roads permitted under Florida law. Local governments should be encouraged to perform similar analysis for their roads.