Road Ecology Center

As long linear ecosystems, rivers and streams are particularly vulnerable to fragmentation. There is growing concern about the role of road crossings – and especially culverts – in altering habitats and disrupting river and stream continuity. Most of the culverts currently in place were designed with the principal objective of moving water across a road alignment. Little consideration was given to ecosystem processes such as the natural hydrology, sediment transport, fish and wildlife passage, or the movement of woody debris. It is not surprising then that many culverts significantly disrupt the movement of aquatic organisms. Survival of individual animals, facilitation of reproduction, and the maintenance of population continuity are important functions of movement at a population level. Dispersal of individuals provides a mechanism for regulating population density. These dispersing individuals maintain gene flow among populations and may supplement populations where recruitment is unable to keep pace with the loss of individuals. For many small species (especially invertebrates), dispersal of individuals provides a mechanism for colonizing habitat, allowing local populations to come and go as habitat is created or eliminated, while maintaining viable regional populations. Much attention has been focused on passage for migratory fish, especially in the northwestern U.S. In some cases, considerable resources have been invested in projects addressing fish passage only to find that accommodations made for adults did not address the needs of juvenile fish. Long-term conservation of fish resources will depend not only on passage for both adult and juvenile fish but also on maintenance of healthy stream and river ecosystems. Essential to this approach is a focus on habitat quality and strategies for aquatic organism passage based on communities rather than individual species. Without an ecosystem-based approach to river and stream crossings we will be at risk of facilitating passage for particular fish species while at the same time undermining the ecological integrity of the ecosystems on which these fish depend. Stream simulation is an approach to culvert design that both avoids flow constriction during normal conditions and creates a stream channel within culverts that resists scouring during flood events. Designing culverts to avoid channel constriction and to maintain appropriate channel conditions within the structure is a relatively simple and effective approach for accommodating the normal movements of aquatic organisms and preserving (or restoring) many ecosystem processes that maintain habitats and aquatic animal populations. Road networks and river systems share several things in common. Both are long, linear features of the landscape. Transporting materials (and organisms) is fundamental to how they function. Connectivity is key to the continued functioning of both systems. Ultimately, our goal should be to create a transportation infrastructure that does not fragment or undermine the essential ecological infrastructure of the land.