Hillary Rosner is an award-winning science journalist whose work has appeared in The New York Times, National Geographic, Wired, The Atlantic, High Country News, The Washington Post, bioGraphic, and dozens of other publications. She is the assistant director of the Center for Environmental Journalism at the University of Colorado Boulder. Rosner grew up in New York City but has called Colorado home for more than 20 years.
SunLit: Tell us this book’s backstory – what’s it about and what inspired you to write it?
Hillary Rosner: “Roam: Wild Animals and the Race to Repair Our Fractured World” is a journey through our human-engineered planet, to learn about the ways in which all the infrastructure we’ve built to make our lives easier has the opposite effect on most other species that also live here. It looks at the ways in which our cities, roads, fences, industrial-scale farms, and even greenhouse gas emissions serve as barriers to animal movement.
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And it asks the question, How can we knit the planet back together so that other species can thrive in our midst? It’s about solutions, and people around the world working to reconnect the planet — which is ultimately a hopeful endeavor.
I had been thinking about the idea of wildlife corridors ever since a coyote turned up in Central Park when I was still living in New York City, back in 1999. I’d been thinking about the notion of connectivity, which is the main theme of the book, for years and writing stories about it. Then I read a study published in 2018 that found that all over the world, in landscapes impacted by humans, wild animals were moving less. And that really spurred me to want to explore these ideas in a book.
SunLit: Place the excerpt you selected in context. How does it fit into the book as a whole and why did you select it?
“ROAM: Wild Animals and the Race to Repair Our Fractured World”
Where to find it:
- Prospector: Search the combined catalogs of 23 Colorado libraries
- Libby: E-books and audio books
- NewPages Guide: List of Colorado independent bookstores
- Bookshop.org: Searchable database of bookstores nationwide
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Rosner: I chose an excerpt from the beginning of chapter 3, which is set in Costa Rica and explores the idea of “climate connectivity” — that as the climate changes, animals will need to move to access new habitat that contains what they need. But in between their current home and their desired future home, there might be landscapes that they simply can’t cross due to the way humans have altered the planet.
I tried to look at lots of different forms of connectivity in the book, so this is just one. But it takes place in a country that most of us think of as a conservation success story, and I hope it illustrates the challenges that even a country like Costa Rica faces in trying to give wildlife room to roam in a world whose surface has been completely reshaped by and for people.
SunLit: What influences and/or experiences informed the project before you sat down to write?
Rosner: The book draws on reporting from six countries and many parts of the U.S., as well as on my experience writing about conservation and biodiversity over two decades. So there was a lot to process!
SunLit: What did the process of writing this book add to your knowledge and understanding of your craft and/or the subject matter?
Rosner: The concept of connectivity is defined as “the unimpeded movement of species and the flow of natural processes that sustain life on Earth.” When I started working on the book, I was thinking pretty literally about the idea. I was considering things like linear connectivity, which is just the basic idea of a creature that needs to get from point A to point B, and also ecological connectivity, which is the idea that we need to have whole, intact ecosystems, because when you start to remove the pieces of an ecosystem, it unravels.
But my notion of connectivity really broadened in scope. I started thinking about hidden forms — how water that flows underground in wetlands helps connect habitats, for instance. And how our treatment of one another — and forces like racial injustice and historical inequality — actually impact our infrastructure, which in turn impacts how nonhuman creatures move through our human-dominated landscapes. It’s all connected!
SunLit: What were the biggest challenges you faced in writing this book?
Rosner: Connectivity is such a massive topic, and you could pretty much find a great story to tell about it from anywhere in the world. So finding the right stories to report on was definitely a challenge. I had ideas I wanted to convey, so I tried to find stories that centered those ideas — while also involving compelling characters (human and otherwise) in interesting places.
SunLit: What do you want readers to take from this book?
Rosner: We are all familiar with the phrase “bird’s-eye view.” But how often do we really try to see the world from the point of view of a bird, or any other creature? My hope for this book is that people will shift their thinking a bit and try to imagine what the planet today looks like from the perspective of a specific animal that needs to get from point A to point B in its daily or seasonal life cycle.
What kind of landscape must it navigate? What dangers have we thrown up in its path? And are there better decisions we humans could make that would render the world a little bit easier for the rest of Earth’s species? Because we are just one among many, many species that live on this planet. And I don’t think any of us want to see a world where we are the only species left.
A few more quick items
Currently on your nightstand for recreational reading: I just finished “The God of the Woods” by Liz Moore, which I absolutely loved. Currently reading my friend Peter Brannen’s new book, “The Story of CO2 is the Story of Everything.” And with my son I’m reading “The Sherlock Society: Hurricane Heist” by our favorite middle-grade author, James Ponzi.
First book you remember really making an impression on you as a kid: “The Forgotten Door” by Alexander Key. It’s about a kid from another planet who falls through a doorway and lands on Earth. On his planet people can communicate with animals and treat them with respect and kindness. He is stunned by what he witnesses on our planet. I read it in fourth grade and it articulated what I already felt. It shaped my whole future.
Best writing advice you’ve ever received: Stop procrastinating
Favorite fictional literary character: George (Georgina) from Enid Blyton’s “The Famous Five” books
Literary guilty pleasure (title or genre): Mysteries by Lucy Foley
Digital, print or audio – favorite medium to consume literature: Print, absolutely
One book you’ve read multiple times: “Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing”
Other than writing utensils, one thing you must have within reach when you write: Coffee or chocolate
Best antidote for writer’s block: A hike
Most valuable beta reader: My friends Florence and Hannah