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Rights-of-way is the term used to describe the lands immediately adjacent to, under, or above energy and transportation infrastructure. They include roadsides and corridors for railroads, electric transmission and distribution lines, and gas and petroleum pipelines. Rights-of-way serve a primarily operational purpose to support the safe and reliable transportation of people, energy, and other materials. The lands are either owned or under easement and are typically managed by professional vegetation managers or private landowners. However, beyond facilitating the movement of goods and services, rights-of-way can also provide valuable habitat for diverse wildlife.

Rights-of-way connect the world around us, including creating pathways and havens for wildlife. As habitat resources around the world continue to diminish with increasing land development and intensifying land management practices, rights-of-way often contain greater plant diversity compared to adjacent or surrounding landscapes. In this way, rights-of-way can help to provide the food and shelter that so many of our beloved birds, butterflies, and other wildlife so desperately need.  Rights-of-way offer a unique opportunity to advance habitat conservation by creating a broad network of linear tracts that intersect a variety of landscapes, connect remnant habitats to other favorable environments, and are generally safe from major disturbances or future development.