If Continental Conservation is to become a reality, preservation of wildlands must occur on a vast scale. The Wildlands Project's vision to achieve that goal focuses on the protection of large swaths of wildlands running from Atlantic to Pacific and Canada to Mexico. These continental wildlife corridors, often referred to by conservationists as "wildlife megalinkages," are what we believe must be protected to preserve North America's spectacular native wildlife.

A pipe dream? To the contrary, a dedicated group of wildlands conservationists in the western U.S. recently agreed to collaborate on a first-of-itskind campaign to protect one of those megalinkages- the Rocky Mountain "Spine of the Continent" from Canada to Mexico. Saving and connecting critical wildlife habitats-where native species find sanctuary-is key to the success of several adjacent wildlands network conservation plans now being individually implemented along the chain of mountains, valleys, and deserts stretching from the Canadian Yukon to the Mexican Sierra Madre.

Now, to further boost those efforts, the Wildlands Project is organizing an umbrella campaign to highlight the ecological importance of the entire Spine of the Continent and bring additional resources and national exposure to our partner organizations working on the ground to implement wildlands networks along this vast, international megalinkage.

This exciting collaboration is a clear sign that 2006 will, in fact, be a year of major positive changes in the way that nature protection is pursued in the U.S., Canada, and Mexico.

Of course, much preservation work has already been done by numerous individuals, groups, and scientists in this region, making protection of the Spine of the Continent a very real model for future conservation successes throughout the country. The Wildlands Project's vision for an ecologically healthy North America is playing a key role in this effort.

In the Spine of the Continent region, the vision has been accepted by core regional groups from north to south. The science is being done and implementation has begun in local communities. What's needed now are connections, literally and figuratively: connections of protected areas to one another, connections among individual groups, and connections to a much larger audience.

Toward that end, a campaign strategy workshop sponsored by the Wildlands Project was recently convened in Salt Lake City this Spring. A steering group made up of organizations already at work implementing wildlands network conservation plans along the Spine of the Continent reached consensus that the time is right to launch a multifaceted campaign designed around new messaging techniques, collaborative fund-raising, and an overall strategy to raise awareness of the life-sustaining connection between nature and people.

The Steering group, made up of the Wildlands Project, Tijeras Canyon Safe Passage Coalition (NM), Grand Canyon Wildlands Council (AZ), Wild Utah Project (UT/WY), Southern Rockies Ecosystem Project (CO), Yellowstone to Yukon Conservation Initiative (U.S./Canada), and Naturalia A.C. (Mexico), made plans to begin fundraising and to reconvene on a regular basis to move the projected three-year campaign forward. Other supporters of the campaign concept include American Wildlands (Northern U.S. Rockies), and Sky Island Alliance (AZ).

Assisting in this effort to protect an entire megalinkage are a host of communications, fundraising, and conservation strategy professionals representing a number of other organizations. Their common ground is a commitment to continental conservation and agreement that time is of the essence if critical ecological protections are to be put in place before essential wildlife linkages and habitat are lost to development in the Rocky Mountain ecoregion.

According to Wildlands Project co-founder and respected conservation biologist Michael Soulé, the idea behind the Spine of the Continent campaign is revolutionary because it embraces all the components needed to truly protect wildlands systems. "Our hope is to create a national awareness of the importance of connected wildlands," he says, "and to use that awareness to successfully move conservation initiatives forward-through public, private, state, and federal actions.

Soulé points out that creating wildlands networks involves much more than simply protecting wilderness, although designating and expanding such habitats provides the basic foundation for preserving nature in the long run. But he also notes that without reconnecting wildlife linkages between wilderness areas, and encouraging other efforts to restore natural sustainability to surrounding "compatible- use areas," the real goal of protecting nature into the distant future may not be realized.

Wildlands Project Executive Director Margo McKnight believes the current political environment does not need to be a hindrance to conservation work. "We intend to show through this campaign that protecting nature is not a partisan effort, but an effort in which everyone has a stake. The Spine of the Continent is the perfect place and this is the perfect time to begin."

Interest in a large-landscape-scale conservation campaign is growing because ecologically important landscapes are being rapidly fragmented and sealed off from one another by new and existing highways, rampant subdivision of rural lands, and an unprecedented increase in energy exploration and development.

These activities are preventing the movement of animals within and between their historic ranges. Without this ability to move-to find mates, food, and new territories-native species like brown and black bears, mountain lions, lynx, and even sage grouse cannot maintain the genetic strength necessary to sustain healthy existences.

And as critical habitats begin to lose their most important animals, those that regulate natural functions on the landscape through their predator/prey relationships, the effects can ripple far and wide.

Not only can such habitat disruption ultimately lead to eventual extinction of species themselves, it also can impact the health and quality of life of the people who live nearby. Changes in the ratios of different animals in a habitat, changes in the types of predominating vegetation, and changes in many other "ecosystem services" (such as clean water and clean air) can result.

If connected and protected, these areas could comprise North America's first continental-scale conservation success-as we see it, a critical and necessary element to stop the advancing extinction crisis. The time is now to begin a campaign aimed at reversing this trend toward an impoverished natural heritage for the tri-national Rocky Mountain region, also known as the Spine of the Continent. Says Wildlands Project Southwest Director, Kim Vacariu, "We know that time is of the essence if we are to protect many high priority habitats in the Spine of the Continent region. This campaign is a response to a an urgent need for conservation action."

For more information on the Wildlands Project's Spine of the Continent campaign, contact our Southwest Field Office at 575-557-0155 or kim@wildlandsproject.org.