Road ecology is a new interdisciplinary study of how roads influence hydrology, geomorphology, and ecosystem processes. Cumulatively, the presence of roads and the human access facilitated by roads leads to ecological effects measurable at several spatial scales. Roads can alter hydrologic patterns, cause stream sedimentation, and affect wildlife behavior and population dynamics; this is of particular concern for roads that cut through habitats of high ecological integrity. Road removal has been used with increasing frequency to mitigate these impacts and to restore public and private lands, and will be the topic of this session. Road removal is defined as “the physical treatment of roadbeds and road systems to restore the form and integrity of associated hillslopes, channels, and landscapes and their related hydrologic, geomorphic, and ecological processes and connections.” The session will synthesize the current state of knowledge of road removal as a form of ecological restoration across landscape, watershed, and site-level spatial scales and propose directions for future interdisciplinary research. At the landscape scale road removal may restore population connections and evolutionary processes. At the watershed scale, we will examine restoration of aquatic habitat and ecological processes and cumulative impacts of roads on geomorphic processes. At the site scale, papers will explore road removal as a tool for restoring ecological connectivity and wildlife and plant interactions. Finally, presentations will present schemes for prioritizing areas for road removal utilizing different methodologies and over varying spatial scales.