The Regional Municipality of York Region covers a large and diverse area (approx. 2000km2), that is almost half the size of Rhode Island. This area transitions from very urban in the south to very rural and natural in the north. It also has unique and sensitive natural features in the middle where the Oak Ridges Moraine transects. These sensitive features are increasingly challenged due to urban expansion. The York Region road network itself encompasses over 4300 kilometers of road (not including local roads). Due to urban growth pressure, there was increasing need to have proactive planning to ensure sensitive wildlife and natural features are not negatively influenced or affected. York Region went through a learning evolution to tackle this challenge while acknowledging that urban growth was going to take place and people need to be able to travel from place to place. This evolution went from reactive solutions to try and mitigate challenges as they materialized to where we are today with Road Ecology being an active stakeholder in all plans from initiation of the project to the very end of construction and beyond. To accomplish this goal the Region’s Transportation Department had to have a paradigm shift in how we approached all our future projects. This first entailed going back in history and dissecting all our past failures and successes. The next step was presenting our findings to the leadership and demonstrating that road ecology can be not only maintained but improved without limiting urban growth. Once leadership was convinced, the paradigm shift took place which led to improved policy and planning, successful pilot projects, and common practice where road ecology carried the same voice as all other stakeholders such as utilities, road maintenance etc. Accomplishing this transformation on a consistent basis involved a change of understanding on how we looked at adjacent sensitive habitat and species. These features were no longer a “nice to have” but were now considered an ASSET, much like a bridge or culvert would be considered an asset. Now this asset had a value that required protection and ongoing monitoring of its health. Now this asset needed to be considered much earlier in the planning process so that it could be incorporated into the plan with the same weight as any other transportation asset. This is how York Region created a road map to consistently protect and enhance the sensitive areas adjacent to their roads without limiting inevitable requirements for public safety and movement. None of this would be possible without “the science first” collaboration and partnerships like the one York Region has with the Toronto Region Conservation Authority.