Forest Fragmentation is an enemy.

I could go on for hours, and probably should, about forest fragmentation and the growing trend of coping with such issues. This is ridiculous. In order to have wildlife they have to breed. When forests are fragmented, there are issues with the viability of wildlife. Wildlife bridges have become an answer to allow transit of wildlife from one side of an obstruction to another. This type of intervention should be rare rather than common.

Forest fragmentation must be kept in check to ensure forest health.

October 13, 2014
By Michael Snyder

Due to concerns (click here) over habitat fragmentation, wildlife crossings such as this one are starting to become increasingly common.
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Forest fragmentation (click here) is the breaking of large, contiguous, forested areas into smaller pieces of forest; typically these pieces are separated by roads, agriculture, utility corridors, subdivisions, or other human development. It usually occurs incrementally, beginning with cleared patches here and there – think Swiss cheese – within an otherwise unbroken expanse of tree cover.

Over time, those non-forest patches tend to multiply and expand until eventually the forest is reduced to scattered, disconnected forest islands. The surrounding non-forest lands and land uses seriously threaten the health, function, and value of the remaining forest.

Any large-scale canopy disturbance affects a forest, but it is important to distinguish between a forest fragmented by human infrastructure development and a forest of mixed ages and varied canopy closure that results from good forest management. The former is typically much more damaging to forest health and habitat quality, usually with permanent negative effects, whereas the latter may cause only temporary change in the forest.

The effects of fragmentation are well documented in all forested regions of the planet. In general, by reducing forest health and degrading habitat, fragmentation leads to loss of biodiversity, increases in invasive plants, pests, and pathogens, and reduction in water quality. These wide-ranging effects all stem from two basic problems: fragmentation increases isolation between forest communities and it increases so-called edge effects....