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Carol D. Cutshall

Carol D. Cutshall is director of the Bureau of Environment at the Wisconsin Department of Transportation. She has responsibility for approving environmental impact statements prepared by the department. Her staff provides technical assistance in the areas of history, archaeology, air and noise analysis, endangered species, water quality, wetlands, and land-use and socioeconomic factors. The department’s cleanup program for petroleum-contaminated sites and its wetland mitigation banking program are also located in her office. Cutshall has overall responsibility for developing the department’s environmental policies and administrative rules. She is very active in the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials’ Standing Committee on the Environment. In addition, she serves as chairman of the Transportation Research Board’s Committee on Environmental Analysis in Transportation. She holds a master’s degree in urban and regional planning from the University of Wisconsin–Madison.

Road Ecology

Science and Solutions

A central goal of transportation is the delivery of safe and efficient services with minimal environmental impact. In practice, though, human mobility has flourished while nature has suffered. Awareness of the environmental impacts of roads is increasing, yet information remains scarce for those interested in studying, understanding, or minimizing the ecological effects of roads and vehicles.

Road Ecology addresses that shortcoming by elevating previously localized and fragmented knowledge into a broad and inclusive framework for understanding and developing solutions.