Humans use highways; wildlife needs Wildways. The Wildlands Network has identified four regions where we focus on reconnecting the continent’s wild places.

The Pacific Wildway running from Baja to Alaska

The Boreal Wildway running west-east from Alaska to the Canadian Maritimes across the forest roof of North America

The Eastern Wildway extends northward from the Everglades along the Appalachians to the Arctic

The Western Wildway spans the continent from Mexico, through the Rockies, to Alaska. This Western Wildway, called the Spine of the Continent, is our showcase initiative, underway now for nearly a decade.   

WESTERN WILDWAY

The Wildlands Network (WN) works with partners throughout the western U.S., Canada, and northern Mexico on a number of conservation campaigns, projects, and initiatives:

The Spine of the Continent INITIATIVE – Along the entirety of the Rocky Mountains and associated ranges we are re-constructing one of the world’s largest and North America’s longest wildlife corridor – the 5,000-mile Spine of the Continent Wildway. There are hundreds of organizations working on nature protection and restoration along the Spine of the Continent Wildway, many of them specializing in regional efforts. Over the past decade, Wildlands Network has spread our vision of a tri-national wildway across the continent and has been building a formal network of organizations interested in partnering with us to accomplish our conservation goals. Spanning states, provinces and national borders, we have helped our partners conduct scientific analyses to determine the most ecologically important and vulnerable landscapes, and to identify the key connectivity projects necessary to close the gaps between protected areas within the Spine of the Continent Wildway. The results of these efforts are our trademark Wildlands Network Designs, which serve as regional conservation planning maps.    

Coordinated and administered by the Wildlands Network, the Spine of the Continent Initiative is being implemented on the ground by an international steering committee consisting of 10 of western North America’s most respected conservation organizations, including Round River Conservation Studies (British Columbia, Canada); American Wildlands (Montana); Heart of the West Coalition (Utah, Wyoming, Colorado); Colorado Safe Passage Coalition (Colorado, New Mexico): Western Environmental Law Center (Western U.S.); Grand Canyon Wildlands Council (Arizona, Utah); New Mexico Priority Wildlife Linkages Coalition (New Mexico); Defenders of Wildlife (U.S.-Mexico Borderlands); Wildlands Network (Arizona, New Mexico); and Naturalia (Sonora-Chihuahua, Mexico).  Together with their own coalition partners, these steering committee members represent 21 conservation organizations working to reconnect the Spine of the Continent. 

The Spine of the Continent Initiative recently received the endorsement of many more significant collaborators during Wildlands Network’s “Western Conservation Summit,” attended by more than 40 national and international conservation organizations, regional business enterprises, conservation funders, and private landowners with holdings within the Spine of the Continent.  During the Summit, participants received a video-taped message directly from famed conservation biologist, E.O. Wilson, in which he promoted the Spine of the Continent Initiative as “one of the most important conservation efforts of our time.”

Southwest Conservation Initiatives

While Wildlands Network acts as convener and coordinator of the Spine of the Continent Initiative, its Southwest Field Office is also supporting implementation of several other conservation initiatives in Arizona, New Mexico (U.S.) and in Sonora, and Chihuahua (Mexico):

Highway Safe Passage

Wildlands Network is a founding member and continuing participant in the Arizona Wildlife Linkage Working Group, which developed the first comprehensive state-wide wildlife linkage map showing key highway/wildlife intersections in need of wildlife crossing structures.  We will also consult with the New Mexico Priority Wildlife Linkages Coalition in designing a similar state-wide linkage map.

Cross-Border Corridor Protection

Wildlands Network has been a leader in the effort to raise awareness of wildlife corridors fragmentation resulting from the construction of security infrastructure along the U.S.-Mexico border in Arizona and New Mexico. Wildlands Network and its partners have organized and convened several Border Ecological Symposiums that have brought together a broad range of stakeholders.  Together, we have also acted as a founding sponsor of the Without Walls coalition, developed detailed recommendations for placement of security infrastructure, identified cross-border wildlife corridors, and promoted legislation to halt federal exemptions to environmental laws that have allowed wall construction to proceed without public input or review under the National Environmental Policy Act.

Private Lands Protection

WN is continuing its efforts to provide private landowners owning properties within the Sky Islands and New Mexico Highlands regions with income-producing alternatives and opportunities that allow landowners to protect the ecological values of their properties.  Private Lands Conservation Workshops that bring together landowners with agencies, land trusts, governments, and other sources of assistance, along with informational publications and coalition-building among private lands advocacy organizations are a few of the components of this initiative.

Sky Islands Connectivity

The iconic “Sky Islands” mountain ranges in southeastern Arizona, southwestern New Mexico, and northern Mexico are essential as the southern connection for the Spine of the Continent Initiative. Without continuous wildlife linkages between the southern Rocky Mountains and the Sky Islands, one of the most critical components in the Spine of the Continent will be lost.  Wildlands Network is focused on this connection, particularly the wildlife conduits-- the  Peloncillo and Chiricahua mountain ranges. We also are working with numerous partners to raise awareness of the area’s ecological value with local residents, elected officials, planners, and agencies.  Of primary concern are threats to connectivity posed by loss of roadless areas, overgrazing, border security infrastructure, subdivisions, and “green” energy corridors.

Species Protection

While protecting habitats and the wildlife corridors that connect them is a primary goal of the Wildlands Network, several endangered species in Sky Islands region are faced with unparalleled threats to survival.  Wildlands Network has dedicated many resources over the past decade to ensuring that these native species will persist into the distant future.  We helped our partner, Naturalia, secure seven square miles of private lands in Sonora for a first-of-its-kind jaguar reserve, mapping cross-border jaguar corridors, protecting thousands of acres for Thick-billed Parrot habitat in Chihuahua via an innovative conservation lease, and advocating for critical habitat designation for the reintroduced Mexican gray wolf in New Mexico and for the jaguar in Arizona.

Public Advocacy and Communications

Wildlands Network places top priority on inspiring the public toward advocacy for protecting wildlife connectivity over large landscapes as the means to averting the impending loss of countless native species. We present at numerous events, conferences, workshops, and other gatherings, and conduct media interviews and tours as a key tactic in this communications effort.

For more information on our Western Wildway programs, contact us at info@wildlandsproject.org.

EASTERN WILDWAY

For years, conservationists have envisioned a network of lands in Eastern North America connecting the Acadian forests of Maritime Canada to the Everglades in Florida.  In the 1920s, Benton MacKaye envisioned an expansive Appalachian Trail composed of a network of “braided” trails running the length of the Appalachian spine.  Maps of an eastern corridor drawn in the early 1990s captured the imaginations of a young generation of conservationists and influenced conservation planning at the state, provincial and regional levels for the next 15 years. Since then, “landscape connectivity” – a connected system of conservation lands – has become widely recognized as essential for long-term ecological viability and wildlife survival, and with this recognition has come renewed interest in making a continental corridor from Québec to Florida, an Eastern “Wildway,” a reality.

The Eastern Wildway has some of North America’s most beloved national parks, preserves, forests, scenic rivers and wild places. From the wilderness of Québec, the Adirondacks, and the Shenandoah, to the wilds of the Great Smoky Mountains and Everglades National Park, this continental corridor traverses a wide array of ecoregions including: the Northern and Central Appalachians, the High Allegheny Plateau, the Southern Blue Ridge and Tropical Florida. Its mountains and valleys, forests and farmlands span climates from arctic to tropical. The species diversity is accordingly great, from predators such as wolf, marten and cougar, to prey such as moose and deer. Many plants, birds, fish, and butterflies are endemic -- found nowhere else in the world --particularly in the southeastern United States.

First the bad news: While advanced conservation planning, data analysis, and mapping has occurred throughout the Eastern Wildway, these efforts have not kept pace with the conservation challenges. The mountain chains in the East are within such close proximity to mega-population centers that development has come to places once thought remote. Montreal, Québec City, Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Washington, DC, and Atlanta are all within a few hours drive of the center of the Wildway. Complicating matters, as rural economies continue to stagnate, private landowners are selling large land parcels. The economy is shifting as hundreds of pastoral agricultural holdings and timberlands come on the market. Many people flocking to the mountains, build second homes, retirement communities and the roads to get there, thereby destroying the very natural environment they seek.

Many wildlife species of the Eastern Wildway are in jeopardy, as roads and development, poor farming and logging practices, fire suppression, exotic species, resource extraction and a lack of significant conservation land protections takes its toll. Many predators have disappeared from the landscape. Populations of species such as black bear and beaver have dwindled. Wolf and cougar are all but gone. Lack of adequate habitat and diminished prey challenge recovery efforts. In the Southern Appalachians alone, over 190 aquatic species and 50 species of plants and animals are formally listed as either endangered or threatened with extinction.

As concern about habitat fragmentation grew in proportion to increasing population pressures, Wildlands Network Designs and other biodiversity conservation tools, such as ecoregional plans, were created. Still, no singular framework emerged to link these plans and these places to one another to establish a system of interconnected lands—until today.

Now the good news:The Wildlands Network is now spearheading an initiative to connect habitat along the length of eastern North America, from the Everglades of Florida, through the forests of Alabama, along the Appalachian Mountains, to the boreal forests and Maritime Provinces of Canada. This continental-scale wildlife corridor skirts around towns and communities and connects working landscapes and private conservation lands to large public parks and preserves.

Over the course of the next three years, a plan to create this 2,500-mile corridor, the Eastern Wildway, will be developed and resources to implement the plan identified. Priority lands will be targeted; landscape linkages will be pinpointed; the corridor will be mapped in detail through a scientific process; and a coalition of regional partners working on the ground will be formed.

As part of this process, the Wildlands Network will engage a broader network of conservationists, including the top non-profit organizations and foundations concerned with Eastern biodiversity and the ramifications of climate change.  This network will work together to incorporate landscape connectivity into their programs and priorities. Ultimately, it will take collective action at all scales to bring this bold vision to fruition, from creating new conservation lands, reforming policies, and providing incentives for private land stewardship, to working with transportation agencies on wildlife bridges, incorporating smart growth into local plans, and passing new legislation to face contemporary challenges.

Ambitious? Absolutely. Necessary? No question! For more information on our Eastern Wildway Program, contact us at info@wildlandsproject.org.

PACIFIC WILDWAY

From Baja, Mexico to Prince William Sound, Alaska runs one of the longest and most stunning series of mountain ranges in the world. With a few exceptions, this set of mountains is an unbroken chain draped with diverse plant life and roamed by the most charismatic wildlife North America boasts. To the west of this chain, running parallel to the Sierra-Cascades, are several coastal mountain complexes rising from the beaches of the Pacific ocean. In northern British Columbia, the Rocky Mountains and the Coast Ranges then adjoin to create one of the most rugged and extensive expanses of true wilderness remaining on the planet.

The lowlands adjacent to, and in between these ranges, have historically produced tremendous forests, provided legendary salmon watersheds and more recently have attracted an exploding human population. The fertile valleys and coastal fringes south of the Canadian border are all but completely converted to nearly exclusive human uses. More than a century of aggressive logging, conversion of lands for agriculture, and construction of roads and settlements has severely degraded the natural environment of the Pacific region and posed many challenges for those of us concerned with conserving the great natural heritage that remains here.

All is not lost, however. A large portion of the Pacific landscape is held in public hands, much of it in national parks, forests, and wilderness areas. Left as is, these preserves will become further isolated from each other as more roads and cities ring the preserves. But there has been a growing acceptance and understanding of the need to connect our protected areas so as to create contiguous networks of natural areas. Such as system or network of conservation lands does not preclude human presence; rather, it requires careful planning to accommodate the needs of all parties.

Over the past decade, much important work has been done by conservation organizations, scientists and land management agencies to lay the foundational components for a connected wildlands network stretching from Baja California north along the U.S. West Coast through Canada and Alaska. However, few if any efforts have been made to coordinate and implement a fully connected, international wildlands network on the ground.

Wildlands Network’s vision for North America calls for the creation of four such conservation networks or “Wildways” – along the East coast, across the boreal forest of the far north, along the Rocky mountains, and up and down the Pacific. We are currently working on the Eastern and the Rocky mountain (Spine of the Continent) Wildways. The Pacific Wildway is next.

As a result of the Spine of the Continent Initiative in the Rockies, Wildlands Network has gained much valuable experience that will provide insight for how to catalyze collaborative conservation planning along the Pacific. The timing is ripe, the opportunities plenty, and with your support we hope to generate the resources necessary to begin this important work. For more information on our Eastern Wildway Program, contact us at info@wildlandsproject.org.

BOREAL WILDWAY

The Canadian Boreal Initiative (CBI) is working with a wide range of conservation organizations, First Nations tribes, industry, and other interested parties to link science, policy and conservation activities in Canada's boreal forest.

This spectacular forest ecosystem, filled with lakes and wetlands moderates Canada’s climate, produces oxygen and purifies the water we drink. It is the source of life to aboriginal peoples and home to thousands of species of animals, birds, plants and insects. Consider the following facts about the boreal forest: It is home to more than 90 percent of the country's remaining large intact forestlands and more than four million people. With a small hub in Ottawa, the CBI also partners with non-governmental organizations, First Nations and others across the country in on-the-ground boreal conservation work.

The Wildlands Network served as the scientific inspiration for this connectivity program and will continue to contribute to conservation planning in that area.