Large Landscape News

Collaborative Planning for Ecological Connectivity in Québec

Across deciduous and evergreen forests, lakes, streams and wetlands, working farms and timber lands, Québec, Canada is enormously rich in ecological diversity. However, pressures from people—residential and commercial development, climate change, and pollution—increasingly threaten the biodiversity that depends on intact habitats. Black bears and eastern wolves need wide swaths of land in their home ranges to find food and mates, wood turtles rely on unfragmented corridors to safely reach water sources, and migratory birds need stepping stones of habitat for their seasonal movements.

Orcas At The Kenai Fjords National Park In Alaska. Credit Nps Jim Pfeiffenberger

Blue Corridors: Habitat Connectivity for Marine Species

Oceans cover roughly 71% of Earth’s surface, yet much still remains to be discovered about their vast depths. As scientists learn more about the ocean’s diverse and complex ecosystems, they are shattering preconceived notions and showcasing the interconnectedness of land and sea. Terrestrial wildlife needs habitat connectivity for survival, often relying on ecological corridors between parks and other protected areas. Thanks to research in recent years, it is becoming increasingly clear that habitat connectivity is just as important in the marine environment.

Culvert 1 Sarah Pearce Looking Through Beaver Creek Culvert Surveying A Pool Located Downstream Cole Oshiroleavitt

Going with the Flow: Ensuring Safe Passage for Fish

Each year many fish species, like salmon, make the arduous journey upstream to the headwaters of rivers to spawn, laying thousands of eggs to ensure the continuation of their species. However, not all fish are successful. Some encounter dams too high to jump over, or culverts too shallow to swim through. Others may find that the water temperature at their favorite historical spawning ground is too warm or predators are too easily able to eat them or their eggs.

Reserve rangers and collaborators from the Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan environmental ministries and the Uzbekistan Academy of Sciences discuss data entry using the SMART system - CLLC/Gabe Oppler

Transboundary Conservation: Building Partnerships for Shared Landscapes

When lynx, elephants, markhors, bears or elk move in search of water or food, they don’t stop to show their passports at the border or pause to consider which areas are protected; wildlife goes where it needs to survive. In this special feature article for the 2024 Annual Report, interviews with Center staff illuminate the challenges and opportunities associated with several of our current efforts to reconnect landscapes that straddle international borders.

A view of the Cali River from the public “Green Zone” and the Iglesia La Ermita Church constructed from 1930-1948 in the background - CLLC/Aaron Laur

Highlights from the 2024 UN Biodiversity Conference

The recent UN Biodiversity Conference was held under the theme “Peace with Nature.” This 16th Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD/CoP-16) attracted an unprecedented 23,000+ delegates attending official negotiations and side events inside the security perimeter of the “Blue Zone,” while the public “Green Zone” drew approximately 40,000 visitors each day. The Center for Large Landscape Conservation was honored to send four staff members to participate at the conference in Cali, Colombia to continue advancing efforts for connectivity conservation around the world.

Zebra and giraffe in northern Tanzania - Adobe Stock

Connecting an Iconic Landscape in the Transboundary Region of Kenya and Tanzania

Thirty years ago, the Disney movie the Lion King was released, telling the story of Simba, a young lion prince, who, after the murder of his father Mufasa, flees his kingdom only to learn the true meaning of responsibility and bravery. Other memorable characters are the warthog Pumbaa, the red-billed hornbill Zazu, the mandrill Rafiki, and the meerkat Timon—all species that play a role in the richly biodiverse ecosystems of east Africa. Partly because of this movie, and zoo visits, children and adults around the world are familiar with the wildlife of the iconic landscapes of east Africa.

The Center and the Montana Dept. of Transportation Leverage Community Support for a Wildlife Crossing

In early September, the Montana Department of Transportation (MDT) applied to the federal Wildlife Crossings Pilot Program for a discretionary grant to help fund a $26-million project that includes a new wildlife overpass, upgrades to an existing underpass, and a bridge retrofit to allow wildlife to pass safely over and beneath US Highway 191 in Southwest Montana. Through the Montana Wildlife and Transportation Partnership, MDT teamed with the Bozeman-based, nonprofit Center for Large Landscape Conservation to move the grant application forward. US-191 parallels the Gallatin River, cutting through critical habitat for resident, wide-ranging, and migratory species in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem.

Catalyst Fund: Supporting Collaboration in Landscape Conservation

Last month the Network for Landscape Conservation announced the latest round of Catalyst Fund grant awards, with 15 Landscape Partnerships receiving support to accelerate their efforts to protect the ecological, cultural, and community values of the landscapes they call home. Even as unprecedented levels of public funds have been directed towards the restoration, stewardship, and conservation of our lands and waters in recent years, the influx of project delivery funding has only served to underscore a gap that needs to be filled: the on-the-ground capacity to get the work done. The Catalyst Fund aims to build capacity and help local Landscape Partnerships contribute toward achieving national conservation goals.

Euromab2024 Deutsche Unesco Kommission Stefanie Wetzel

Reflections on EuroMAB: Stimulating Connectivity Conservation in Biosphere Regions Worldwide

Many of us are familiar with Biosphere 2, the research facility created in Arizona to demonstrate the viability of closed ecological systems to support and maintain human life in outer space. However, biosphere regions are model landscapes for sustainable development through collaboration and engagement. They are places designated for their unique beauty and biodiversity, and also recognized for their value to the communities of people living there, making them ideal models for large landscape conservation. The Center for Large Landscape Conservation’s Senior Conservation Scientist Dr. Annika Keeley recently had the opportunity to attend and present at EuroMAB—an international gathering of biosphere region leaders—to discuss the critical role connectivity conservation plays in these extraordinary places.

Sonoran Pronghorn: Reconnecting Habitat for the Endangered “Desert Ghost”

What does wildlife know of human-made borders? Often, not much; animals generally navigate landscapes without regard for county, state, or country lines—unless impacted by factors such as hunting pressure or habitat loss. Human-made lines on a map don’t necessarily affect wildlife. But what about roads and fences—physical barriers that interrupt their paths? In the case of the endangered Sonoran pronghorn, these barriers are stark realities that threaten their long-term survival.