Roads are one of the least understood sources of impacts on wild places and wild species. And as a society, we have rarely made a comprehensive and proactive effort to balance the need for roads with the need to maintain our shrinking areas of intact forest habitat. With Roads: More than lines on a map, CPAWS Wildlands League hopes to address this ‘gap’ and to provide the public and decision makers with key information on the problem of roads and possible solutions. We also hope this project will spark a broader discussion of a responsible approach to roads and the preservation of roadless areas in Canada.

Roads: More than lines on a map is the latest publication of CPAWS Wildlands League. Without the generous contribution and support of the George Cedric Metcalf Foundation and the Canadian Boreal Initiative, this project would not have been possible.

Read the backgrounder on this project.

Roads: More than lines on a map is comprised of three products:

a public information document (2.55 MB) that lays out the challenges of roads and several key recommendations for actions. To our knowledge this is the first time such a publication has been produced for nation-wide distribution. To request a hard copy of this document, please contact the office. Hard copies are $15 each.

a Canada-wide roads map on proposed road development in the intact boreal forest. This is also the first time such a map has been produced illustrating the growing push by government and industry to open areas of one of the world’s largest intact forests to further development through the construction of roads. The references used to create this map can be downloaded here.

five case studies from across Canada highlighting different aspects of roads issues. These five case studies show that no region of Canada is immune from the problem of roads but they also show that solutions are within our grasp if we want them. The regions covered are: Yukon, NWT, Alberta, Manitoba and Newfoundland Labrador

For more information about this project or to tell us what you think, please email us.