Corridor Conservation in the Wild West
- Pinedale Pronghorn Photo
- The WCS Teton Field Office is working to create a permanently protected migration corridor for the pronghorn, our continent’s fastest land animal. This ambitious project would conserve the most extensive trail of its kind in the Western Hemisphere.
- ©William Karesh
Food, water, shelter, and the freedom to roam—these are the fundamental needs of wildlife. Pronghorn and elk migrate between summer and winter ranges; grizzly bears travel from berry patches in valleys to white bark pine groves atop mountains; young wolverines set out from their maternal home range to find a territory of their own. WCS-North America’s Corridor Conservation Initiative aims to protect this basic need for wildlife by securing and interlinking crucial habitats. The initiative coordinates field-based research, outreach, and policy.
Challenges
Expanding human developments—rural residential sprawl, fences, roads, and energy extraction—chop up the open spaces of the West into smaller and smaller fragments. Wildlife populations are losing ground, and we are losing wildlife. If we are to ensure that our protected areas do not become islands of habitat, wildlife conservation strategy must encompass efforts to conserve and restore corridors connecting these areas. The importance of connectivity between core wildlife areas is especially important in a rapidly changing world as many wild animal populations are forced to move across the landscape in search of optimal climate and habitat conditions.
Goals
- Identify and assess threats—including climate change—to crucial wildlife corridors.
- Influence federal, state, and county policies and legislation to ensure support for wildlife corridor conservation.
- Work with government transportation agencies to ensure safe passage of wildlife across busy highways, railroads, and other transportation infrastructure.
- Assist private landowners in conserving wildlife corridors across their properties.
- Develop a series of recommendations to the Western Governors’ Association to identify and protect wildlife corridors across the 19 Western states.
What WCS is Doing
Our Corridor Conservation Initiative works with businesses, the outdoors industry, and the conservation community to broaden business and grassroots support and increase public backing for wildlife corridor conservation across North America. WCS is also working with wildlife agencies and decision makers to encourage practices and policies that give wildlife the freedom to roam. This collaborative effort helps guide the development and implementation of sound, sensible policies and practices that balance the critical needs of wildlife with those of people.
The WCS Teton Field Office is working to create a permanently protected migration corridor for the pronghorn, our continent’s fastest land animal. This ambitious project would conserve the most extensive trail of its kind in the Western Hemisphere, and one that has been in use since the end of the last Ice Age.
From the Newsroom
What will it take to conserve the Path of the Pronghorn, a trail that our continent’s fastest land animal has used since the end of the last Ice Age? In a landscape as famous for its mountains as for its oil fields, WCS scientist Dr. Joel Berger is determined to find out.