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The Center for Humans and Nature asks: To build or not to build a road . . . how do we honor the landscape?

By Way of Thoughtful Decision-Making, Ingrid Leman Stefanovic

By Reconciling Mobility: Redesigning the Roads, Reweaving Landscape, Nina-Marie Lister

By Keeping Values in Mind, Christopher J. Preston

By Planning Roads at an Ecosystem Scale and Integrating Sustainable Features, Carson Poe and Julianne Schwarzer

By Knowing When Not to Build a Road, Dana Beach

By Creating a Meaningful Sense of Place, Meg Walker

By Enhancing Green Infrastructure, Dennis Dreher

Download the Center’s publication on the road question, with seven essays reflecting different perspectives and disciplines.

The Center for Humans and Nature asks fundamental questions. The Center engages big thinkers and asks questions that strike at the heart of the socio-ecological crises we are facing. The challenges associated with the proposed Route 53 extension northwest of Chicago raise fundamental questions about the humans and nature relationship.

While Route 53 is the impetus—and provides context—for the question the Center is asking, this series of essays is relevant to a broad audience, within and beyond the Chicago region. Importantly, the Center is not offering a position on Route 53, but a space that aims to transcend the divides—between biodi­versity and human well-being, conservation and economic plenitude, and theory and action—that so often frustrate the process of thoughtful decision-making. This collection of essays spotlights diverse responses from individuals and organizations, allowing readers to come to their own informed conclusions.

Visit the Illinois Tollway Authority website to learn more about Route 53.

Check back with the Center’s new website in the spring of 2012, when we will post additional essays on this question—and other big questions—as well as article-length pieces from our Senior Scholars. Video talks on the question by our Senior Scholars will be added to the Cen­ter’s website in the fall following our first Senior Scholar Conference, done in collaboration with the American Museum of Natural History in New York City.



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