What is an edge habitat, and how does habitat fragmentation affect biodiversity in these areas? Learn about the critters and wildlife that live in between these zones, how they have adapted, and the limitations they face.
The coyote darted out, trying to make it across the road that divided two viable edge habitats. The car in front of me, for whatever reason, never slowed down, and it certainly didn’t stop after it hit the coyote, an animal the size of a medium domestic dog.
While the other driver kept on their way, I stopped. The coyote, a female, was still alive, but she was in very bad shape, and there was nothing I could do for her. All I could do was stay with her until she died. I spoke to her the entire time, and I sang her a death song. I asked the Creator to help her as she crossed over and to forgive me for not doing more. When she died, I removed her body from the road and placed her in the field near where she crossed. I then burned sage and tobacco and said a prayer for her.
The image of her eyes as she died made me both mad and sad. I was sad that her life was over and that there was no way for me to help her. I was mad that humans develop everything and put roads everywhere. I was mad that uncaring people caused this incident in the first place. Her death also made me look more thoughtfully at this edge habitat we’ve created.

Among Native peoples, we have a saying and belief that all beings are related. We believe with all of our hearts that two-legged ones (humans) don’t own the earth, air, or water. We believe that we share this world with the four-legged ones, the winged ones, and those that swim. Everything we do affects all. I lost a “sister” when that female coyote died, but it wasn’t only me who lost. All of us lost something when this needless death happened.
“Living on the edge” might bring up images of people risking their lives on adrenaline-fed adventures: someone scaling Devils Tower in Wyoming without ropes, or white-water rafting a section of really dangerous water. For the sake of this article, “living on the edge” refers to the edge habitat that humans have created in those park-like areas located in business complexes or those brushy areas along the sides of roads. We’ll talk about these altered habitats and the wildlife that call them home. With the way we manipulate our world, these areas may represent the last refuges for wild things, both plants and animals.
What is an Edge Habitat?
Traditionally, “edge habitat” was the name given to areas that marked the boundaries between two or more ecological zones. A good example of a traditional edge habitat is where a forest meets a meadow or perhaps where a tree line meets the alpine zone on a mountain. Plants and animals have adapted over thousands of years to life in these habitats. Some plants and animals live and thrive in the edge areas, while others are only using the edges as crossing points from one zone to another. Edge habitats are the true meaning of diversity.

In one area where I hike, deer often spend the day in the forest edge, where they use the trees as cover before moving into the meadow at dawn and dusk. Smaller animals also use the habitat selectively. Cottontail rabbits are almost always found in the meadow side of the edge, while snowshoe hares are found in the forest side; both are adapted to the individual areas.
Modern Edge Habitat
Our view of edge habitats has changed over time. Edge habitat is disappearing with deforestation and development. Business complexes, shopping malls, four-lane highways, and large industrial farms are eating up wildlife habitat. At one time, small family farms dotted the landscape. Many of these farms allowed for wild areas. They kept the edges alive because they knew everything worked together. With the transition to large corporate farms, that all changed. These behemoths seem to have the need to plant, heavily fertilize, and spread poisons on every square inch in their effort to increase yield and thus increase profits. So, what’s left for the bees and butterflies? What’s left for the rabbits, woodchucks, foxes, and hawks? Not much.
In his book Crossings: How Road Ecology Is Shaping the Future of Our Planet, Ben Goldfarb takes a hard look at the edge habitats we’ve left, namely the roadside ditches and highway medians. Could these be the last bastions for wildlife? It’s a sad and disheartening concept to think about, but think about it we must.
Consider the conditions of these man-made edges. How much fertilizer and pesticides get washed into them every year? How many soda cans, plastic bottles, and other assorted trash gets tossed into them? How about the chemicals coming off of the roads? It’s a wonder anything can survive, yet it does. Despite what we throw at it, the edge still holds on – but for how long?
How Does Habitat Fragmentation Affect Biodiversity?
Ecologists, at all levels, have been studying these “new” edge habitats for years, and some of their findings are startling. As with all edge habitats, these areas support both animals that migrate through and animals found only there. Monarchs, for example, have been pushed to the edges. The caterpillars of endangered monarchs rely on milkweed to survive. Housing developments with their mowed lawns and industrial farms with their monocultures are pushing milkweed populations to these new edges. And yet, where the milkweed is, so, too, are the butterflies.
Some animals refuse to cross roads or enter areas developed by humans. In some cases, roads, parking lots, or suburban developments run right through a habitat, essentially making two edge habitats. If animals and plants can’t or aren’t willing to cross the divide, they’re no longer inter-breeding, and over time, these areas become “islands” that narrow the gene pool on both sides. When you lose genetic diversity, the population also loses some of its potential to adapt and survive in damaged habitats. There are ongoing studies in the hills of California, where two different populations of mountain lions, separated by housing developments and freeways, are facing this very problem.

What about the animals that will cross these “barriers,” often at their own risk? How many deer are killed by vehicles? What about turtles, frogs, and salamanders that move during the breeding season? Then there are the raccoons, skunks, rabbits, armadillos, and a host of others that end up as roadside fatalities. Even birds and butterflies aren’t safe from the dangers that roadside edge habitats create.
While on a recent trip to Montana, I found myself putting my body between a mule deer attempting to cross a road and a tractor trailer truck barreling down the road well over the speed limit. I was photographing the deer when I saw the potential accident about to happen. I threw my camera in the rental car and ran to get between the truck and the deer. Despite me standing in the 2-foot-wide breakdown lane, the truck never slowed down. With my back to the truck, I waved my arms at the deer, trying to keep it from crossing. The wind from the speeding truck nearly blew me over; it missed me by inches. The deer was saved, but I was really lucky I wasn’t killed. This is the danger of our man-made edge habitat.
What’s Along the Edge?
These man-made edges, at first glance, seem to be made up of “worthless” weeds, grasses, and shrubs, but they’re in fact diverse ecological systems. In many places, these edges can be the last refuge for native grasses and flowers, providing food and shelter for a host of different creatures.
Bees and other pollinators make use of the flowers, and foxes hunt rabbits in the brushy undergrowth. In areas where there’s water, muskrats can be seen collecting marsh grasses, and both great green and blue herons are often seen hunting small fish and frogs.

While highways and main roads are far too dangerous to walk along, I often find myself walking backcountry roads, both paved and dirt, exploring this world alongside the road. I often find signs of deer when I explore the hedges of willows and dogwood that have taken hold. Heck, I’ve even seen the deer themselves.
Sometimes, I wonder what this area would be like if there weren’t miles of overfertilized cornfields on one side and a road on the other. What kind of life would thrive here if there were no road pollutants and pesticides from the cornfields constantly bombarding them? The edge habitats that carry on allow me, and others, to get a glimpse of what was, and what could be again.
What Can We Do?
It’s said every journey begins with a single step, and this journey is no different. On your own, you aren’t going to stop the industrial giants. You aren’t going to stop town or state governments from destroying valuable habitats and allowing another Starbucks. What you can do is speak with your actions, your wallet, and your vote.
Organize roadside cleanups. Petition your state and local public works departments to stop mowing down the grasses and brush or cutting the trees growing alongside the roads or in the highway medians. Vote out those who vote with their wallets instead for what’s best for the people they’re supposed to work for. Lastly, as money is what drives this problem, speak with your wallet. Purchase your produce from local, small, sustainable farms that allow space for diverse habitats alongside their crops. If we all did these things, perhaps they’d get the message. Perhaps one less deer, coyote, armadillo, or monarch butterfly will have to die.
Our view of the environment is problematic. Until we stop looking at the environment as a commodity and stop altering it to suit our supposed needs, then we’re doomed to play the hand we’ve dealt ourselves. This hand affects not just us but also the wildlife who’ve thrived here long before us. I think about this as I watch the roadside edge and the life it holds.
Originally published as “Living on the Edge” in the November/December 2024 issue of GRIT magazine and regularly vetted for accuracy.
Dana has been writing about the outdoors, sustainability, and Native culture for 35 years. His work appears in numerous publications, including Mother Earth News, Countryside & Small Stock Journal, and Backwoods Survival Guide.