There is a variety of definitions of this term, but for most in the field, the following captures what we do: Road ecology is the scientific study of the impacts of roads, road systems, and traffic on: 1) air, water, and soil pollution; 2) barrier and mortality impacts to wildlife (plants and animals) movement; 3) traffic noise and light emissions to nearby human and wildlife habitats; 4) changes to natural geomorphic and hydrologic attributes and processes; 5) invasion of non-native and damaging species and extraction activities; and 6) other modifications of ecosystem attributes and processes. A larger field called “transportation ecology” (which is dominated by road ecology) has more recently developed, recognizing impacts of other forms of transportation. A still larger field investigating natural system impacts of all linear infrastructure is also emerging, borrowing many features of road ecology.

Road (and transportation) ecology is an offshoot of ecology in general and overlaps with certain aspects of transportation science and engineering. So, formally speaking, it is a science, just like other sciences. Ecology is the scientific study of how organisms interact with other organisms and their environment. It often includes the study of impacts of human activity, because almost all ecosystems are impacted in some way by human endeavors. The term “road ecology” is often broadened much further than other sub-fields, such as community ecology, population ecology, and behavioral ecology. This broadening has included adjacent monitoring and mitigation practices that are not ecology or science per se, but may contribute useful information.

Ecology is a type of science and is practiced by scientists, which raises the questions: “what is science?” and “what is a scientist?” The term “science” is usually defined as either the body of knowledge collected using theory and the scientific method, or the process of collecting this knowledge using formal investigation of systems or objects, based in theory, and using testable hypotheses, formal methods for data collection, and formal methods of analysis. So, a scientist is someone who practices science. Although academically-trained scientists in graduate programs will be familiar with this type of definition, most people practicing data collection and managing systems may not be as familiar with these formal definitions. This has resulted in the terms “science”, “scientist”, “ecology” and “road ecology” being stretched to include activities that have never been considered science or ecology, but may be useful for carrying out science. An example most people are familiar with is camera trapping. By itself, it is a very useful source of data which can be brought to bear in formal scientific studies, but is not itself a science. So, someone collecting camera trap data is not a scientist because they use camera traps (though they may also be a practicing scientist). This may seem unnecessarily restrictive, but in a time of attacks on science, defending good scientific process and practice is critical.

A road ecologist is thus a scientist who studies how roads, road systems and traffic impact natural systems and processes using approaches from ecological science. For anyone attending the primary road/transportation ecology conferences (ICOET and IENE), you will realize that many projects presented are not scientific, but they may provide other very useful information about policy, mitigation and management practices, interaction with the public and so on. So, the “big tent” of road ecology includes scientists (road ecologists), engineers, policy-makers, advocates, monitoring experts, management practitioners, and others interested in the impact of roads. This big tent approach is very inclusive, but it should be based on the root definitions of science, ecology, scientist, and ecologist in order to maintain and improve its standing.