Find Corridor-Focused Organizations
Find Corridor-Focused Organizations
Algonquin to Adirondack Conservation Association
As an alliance of government agencies, conservation organizations, and citizens, the Algonquin to Adirondacks Conservation Association (A2A) focuses its efforts on the region connecting Adirondacks State Park, New York, to Algonquin Park, Ontario.
Some of the highland and valley habitats in the organization’s focal area are connected while others are fragmented. A2A’s goal is to restore, enhance, and maintain ecological connectivity in this cross-border region, with special emphasis on the inclusion of human land uses. They seek to achieve these goals by conducting, supporting, and recommending research while working with policy- and decision-makers alike.
Freedom to Roam
Freedom to Roam is an initiative of the World Wildlife Fund that works with businesses, government leaders, public and private land managers, hunters, anglers, farmers and ranchers to ensure wildlife connectivity is a part of all land and wildlife management decisions.
One of the first landscapes where Freedom to Roam is focusing its efforts is in the Northern Great Plains of the United States.
The Northern Great Plains is the backyard for the iconic pronghorn antelope, 220 butterfly species, the American bison and golden eagles. In 2011, the region witnessed the longest documented land migration North America’s history. But the region is also undergoing extraordinary natural gas exploration, development and habitat shifts due to climate change. Without intact corridors, wildlife won’t be able to adapt to survive a rapidly changing landscape.
South Coast Wildlands
SC Wildlands (SCW) is a non-profit organization focused on landscape connectivity in the southwestern US. SCW works collaboratively with biologists, wildlife agencies, land managers and planners, and other conservation organizations to develop and implement regional conservation strategies that support landscape connectivity. The organization offers GIS modeling and mapping services as well as software and database design.
Vital Ground
Founded in 1990, Vital Ground is a land trust focused on permanently protecting grizzly bear habitat, with a special emphasis on linkage zones between core habitats. Vital Ground works cooperatively with landowners, local communities, and state and federal agencies from Alaska to Yellowstone.
As of 2010, Vital Ground has helped protect and enhance nearly 600,000 acres of crucial wildlife habitat in Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, Alaska, and British Columbia. Vital Ground's current programs include three initiatives to protect crucial habitat in the Swan Valley and Cabinet-Yaak areas of Montana, and Selkirk Mountains of northern Idaho.
Western Governors’ Association
The Western Governor’s Association (WGA) is a non-partisan organization of the governors of 22 western states. The WGA serves as a political forum for governors to discuss pressing policy and governance issues in the West, with the purpose of creating a unified, more powerful political voice for western concerns in the federal system. Among the many topics addressed at the annual WGA meetings are issues relating to natural resources and the environment. In light of increasing scientific findings, the WGA began discussing wildlife corridors in 2006.
Why does it matter?
In early 2007, 22 western state leaders unanimously acknowledged the importance of wildlife corridors and launched the Wildlife Corridors Initiative to figure out how to identify key wildlife corridors in the West and to make recommendations for needed policy options and tools to help preserve those corridors.
The following year, the WGA published its findings in the 2008 Wildlife Corridors Report, which recommended that each state compile and assess all their applicable data and aggregate it in a database with other states. The report also recommended the development of standardized data collection for the missing corridor data.
In 2009, the WGA drafted a Memorandum of Understanding with the Departments of the Interior, Agriculture, and Energy to coordinate the identification and uniform mapping of wildlife corridors in the West. The parties agreed that all stakeholders would benefit from improved state-federal-tribal collaboration and agreed to pursue the development of a state-based decision support system (DDS) in dealing with corridors in the face of myriad land use projects.
To tackle the formation of the DDS, the WGA formed the Western Governor’s Wildlife Council, a subcommittee focused on establishing the DDS in each state; setting up policies and mechanisms that require state and tribal agencies to consider wildlife corridors; establishing a pilot project to serve as a model; and looking for money from Congress and other sources. This work continues in the current work plan through June of 2011.
Additional Resources
2008 Wildlife Corridors Report
Yellowstone to Yukon Conservation Initiative
Established in 1997, the Yellowstone to Yukon Conservation Initiative (Y2Y) focuses its conservation efforts exclusively on the 2,000-mile long region that connects Yellowstone National Park to the Yukon. Y2Y places emphasis on issues of development, resource extraction, negative human-wildlife interactions, climate change, and transportation as they affect overall connectivity and habitat quality throughout the entire region.
Y2Y supports on the ground conservation efforts by awarding grants and by facilitating collaboration among US and Canadian agencies, landowners, and conservation organizations. Y2Y has been recognized by the IUCN-World Conservation Union as one of the planet’s leading mountain conservation initiatives.