I’ve taken the challenge of describing my research in the 1000 most-used words in the English language. Here goes…
I am asking: what does mining do to the land and living things in the Great Woods, far away from the city?
Then, I looked at what mining builds and found that it builds lots of roads and the like.
Second, I asked, how do roads change how the animals that eat other animals move? I found that the animals that eat other animals like using roads. A lot! There are a lot more animals that eat other animals on roads than across the rest of the land. This means lots of dead smaller animals that live near the roads. It would also mean less smaller animals if they become scared of roads and run away, or if they can’t cross the road to find other small animals to make babies. Roads also bring lots of other animals that shouldn’t be there (and also some that should).
Sustaining Ecology 