A first-of-its-kind, state-wide wildlife linkage map, partly informed by the existing GIS work and focal species research contained in the Sky Islands Wildlands Network Conservation Plan, will be the focus of an upcoming publication dedicated to protecting wildlife corridors fragmented by highways.

The Wildlands Project is a charter member of the Arizona Wildlife Linkages Workgroup (AWLW), which is producing the document and which includes representatives of the Arizona Game and Fish Department and Arizona Department of Transportation, among many other land management agencies in Arizona.

The map and report, to be released in early 2006, are designed to assist highway planners and engineers in incorporating wildlife crossing structures in all future highway maintenance and construction projects--a breakthrough that provides real, on-the-ground solutions to one of the biggest problems facing wildlands network implementation.

Using the map, highway planners will be able to access a toolbox for protecting wildlife linkages used by a wide range of focal species and to determine what types of crossing structures will provide them safe passage, including large-scale vegetated overpasses and underpasses.