Roam: Wild Animals and the Race to Repair Our Fractured World

by Hillary Rosner

What if saving our home planet starts with giving other species space to roam? How can we re-shape our human-built landscapes to serve both people and wildlife?

These are the questions that Hillary Rosner attempts to answer in Roam, an urgent quest to figure out how to stitch our fragmented planet back together. It’s about the people trying to reconstruct landscapes where animals can once again move freely, as they did for millennia. It’s about reconnecting Earth so that wild species and natural systems have room to adapt and thrive. It's about seeing wildlife as the guides we need to lead us to adapt to climate change.

Humans have always altered the landscapes around us; in some ways it’s part of what defines us as a species. But since the middle of the last century, we’ve changed the Earth on an overwhelming scale. Our infrastructure, our hunger for resources, our methods of farming and traveling and living—all these have rendered our planet inhospitable for the other species that live here. As a result, all over the globe, animals are stranded—by roads, fences, drainage systems, industrial farms, cities. They simply cannot move around to access their daily needs. Yet as climate change reshapes the planet in its own ways, many creatures will, increasingly, have to move in order to survive.

This book illustrates a massive and underreported how a completely human-centered view of the world has impacted the ability of other species to move around.

But it’s also about solutions and How we can forge new links between landscapes that have become isolated pieces. How we can stitch ecosystems back together, so that the processes still work, and the systems can evolve as they need to. How we can build a world in which humans recognize their interconnectedness with the rest of the planet, and view other species with empathy and compassion.

Hardcover

Published October 28, 2025

Reviews

[Adam · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book could not have been published at a more critical time and as an issue that’s near and dear to my heart and my work, I found it insightful, informative, and well thought out.

The reality of the world we navigate and the routes we use to achieve that navigation are, whether we think about it or not, a boon to us while simultaneously being a detriment to nearly ever other species on the planet. Across a landscape that’s both increasingly fragmented and decreasingly suitable for wildlife, Roam is as much an eye-opening tome of information as it is a call to action.

Rosner approaches the issue of fragmentation and connectivity not from a single direction but from multiple view points across myriad different landscapes of varying ecological character and ancillary stakeholders, all impacted in various ways by the problems our wildlife and wild places face today.

Roam does a good job at exploring the issues of habitat connectivity inclusive of the human dimensions folded into solving those problems, and tackles issues that may not be as obvious as, say, a mountain lion has trouble crossing a highway. For example chapters address avian corridors and aquatic connectivity, issue that may not readily spring to mind since we may not see breaks in aquatic ecosystems as easily as we do a freeway bisecting a migration corridor and the fact that birds, you know, fly.

Overall I would absolutely recommend this book. As a wildlife professional who navigates issues related to habitat connectivity or dealing directly with fragmentation, Roam offered fresh perspectives and new things to consider. I think for the casual reader interested in how we impact wildlife movement and the ways in which that’s being mitigated, this book would be one to include at the top of the list of related works that illustrate the immediacy of the issue and the scope of the wildlife impacted.

[Dalyn Miller · Rating 5 out of 5]

In Roam: Wild Animals and the Race to Repair Our Fractured World, Hillary Rosner delivers a timely, thought provoking exploration of one of the most overlooked consequences of modern development: the systematic fragmentation of the natural world. With clarity and urgency, Rosner reframes conservation around a deceptively simple idea that survival, for both wildlife and ecosystems, depends on freedom of movement.

Rather than focusing solely on species loss, Roam examines how roads, fences, cities, industrial agriculture, and infrastructure have stranded animals within shrinking islands of habitat. Rosner shows how this immobility becomes even more dangerous as climate change forces species to migrate in search of food, water, and survivable temperatures. The book persuasively argues that without reconnecting landscapes, many conservation efforts are doomed to fall short.

What makes Roam especially compelling is its solutions oriented approach. Rosner highlights scientists, conservationists, planners, and communities working to restore wildlife corridors and reimagine human-built environments so they serve both people and nature. These efforts often innovative, sometimes controversial demonstrate that coexistence is possible when ecosystems are treated as living systems rather than obstacles to progress.

Written with journalistic rigor and ecological empathy, Roam challenges readers to reconsider humanity’s role not as the planet’s manager, but as one species among many. It is an essential read for anyone concerned with biodiversity, climate adaptation, and the future of life on Earth.

[Michael Doane · Rating 5 out of 5]

Roam is an urgent, compassionate, and deeply illuminating exploration of what it means to share a planet and what must change if we hope to survive together.

Hillary Rosner examines one of the most underreported consequences of human development: the fragmentation of the natural world. Roads, fences, cities, industrial agriculture, and infrastructure have carved the planet into isolated pieces, leaving countless species unable to move, adapt, or survive. Rosner makes this crisis tangible by focusing on mobility not just habitat loss, but the loss of connection.

What makes Roam especially powerful is its balance of science, storytelling, and hope. Rosner introduces readers to researchers, conservationists, and communities working to reconnect landscapes through wildlife corridors, redesigned infrastructure, and reimagined land use. These stories ground the science in human effort and ingenuity, showing that repair is not only possible, but already underway.

Rather than centering humans as separate from nature, Roam reframes wildlife as teachers guides showing us how ecosystems function and how resilience depends on movement, diversity, and connection. The writing is clear, empathetic, and quietly persuasive, encouraging readers to see the planet not as a resource to be managed, but as a shared system that must be allowed to breathe.

Roam is both a wake-up call and a blueprint for coexistence. It’s essential reading for anyone concerned about climate change, conservation, and the future of life on Earth.

[Emi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Publishing date: 14.10.2025 (DD/MM/YYYY)
Thank you to NetGalley and Patagonia for the ARC. My opinions are my own.

Roam has a great premise I would love to learn more about, and I did, but I didn't get the satisfaction I usually get from learning about a subject like this.

In Roam you get:
- Insight into how human infrastructure impacts animals
- How roaming habits have changed and intersect with humans
- What we are currently trying to do to combat said changing habits
- How climate change has impacted both human and animal roaming

I have a few annoyances and gripes with this book. Mainly just two.

The images in the book are mostly stock photos with the watermarks. I understand that getting professional photos isn't cheap or easy, but at least paying to get a watermark free photo could have been done. It just feels a little cheap this way.

I wish the book showed some of the infrastructure we have built and planned to allow animals to roam with humans. Tunnels, natural bridges, etc. Showcasing them a little more.

But overall, this was a fine book. I learnt a little more about an interesting subject, and that's an accomplishment in itself. I just believe the book needs a little more time in the oven. 3 stars