Ben Goldfarb - 2017
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Ben Goldfarb is an award-winning environmental journalist whose writing has appeared in High Country News, Orion Magazine, Science, Mother Jones, The Guardian, and many other publications. In 2016, he served as editor of “Small Towns, Big Change,” a collaboration between seven newsrooms, including the Taos News, to report on solutions to social and environmental challenges in northern New Mexico. His Lecture was drawn from his book on beaver restoration, Eager: The Surprising, Secret Life of Beavers and Why They Matter (Chelsea Green Publishing), winner of the PEN/E.O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award. LECTURE TITLE: "Restoring Beavers, Healing Landscapes" LECTURE FLYER: 2017 Resident Ben Goldfarb |
"Some 40 million miles of roadways encircle the earth, yet we tend to regard them only as infrastructure for human convenience. While roads are so ubiquitous they’re practically invisible to us, wild animals experience them as alien forces of death and disruption. A million animals are killed by American cars each day; creatures from antelope to salmon are losing their ability to migrate; and the noise of traffic deters songbirds from feeding. Yet road ecologists are also seeking to blunt the destruction through innovative solutions. Over many years, I met with the conservationists building bridges for mountain lions and tunnels for toads, the engineers deconstructing the logging roads that web national forests, and the community organizers undoing the havoc highways have wreaked upon American cities. Crossings is the culmination of a decade-long investigation into how humans have altered the natural world—and how we can create a better future for all beings."
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