Resources

This document is a compendium of key connectivity policies drawn from reviews previously published by the Center, as well as more recent connectivity policies promulgated in the years 2020-2021.

This memorandum identifies federal agency budget requests for Fiscal Year 2023 congressional appropriations for collaborative landscape conservation and habitat connectivity efforts.

The ongoing U.S. Forest Service recognition of the importance of ecological connectivity and migration corridors is aligned with Biden-Harris administration priorities, like the America the Beautiful Initiative and partnerships with States, Tribes, local communities, and willing private landowners to improve and enhance wildlife habitats, connectivity, migratory corridors, and biodiversity. Through this agency memo, National Forest System units and Regions are asked to consider the impacts of USFS actions on ecological connectivity and wildlife corridors and seek opportunities to enhance and integrate corridors/connectivity in national forest system management and collaborations.

The goal for this manual is to provide practical information for the implementation of mitigation measures that aim to: 1. Improve human safety through reducing collisions with large animals, including wild mammal species, feral species, and free-roaming livestock species, and 2. Improve or maintain habitat connectivity for terrestrial wildlife species through safe crossing opportunities.

This report, released by federal agencies, introduces a spatially explicit model that assesses sagebrush ecological integrity to plan a strategic, threat-based landscape conservation design. The report indicates a staggering 1.3 million acres of sagebrush rangeland are being lost annually. While climate change poses a threat, the diverse group of experts concluded that invasive grasses and wildfires significantly contributed to the loss of sagebrush rangeland.

This publication contains priority recommendations for effectively and respectfully conserving the terrestrial boundary between the US and Canada based on a series of four virtual Dialogue events held in 2021 with representatives from institutions and communities working near or across the boundary. The three transboundary conservation recommendations include: committing to a formal ethical agreement to transboundary conservation; empowering an equitable and sustainable standing advisory entity; and funding transboundary.

This report contains the collaborative, strategic vision for safeguarding and conserving the Appalachian Landscape, a globally significant region that faces pressing threats from climate change and increasing human development. As a result of a Climate Advisory Group (CAG) in 2021, conservation and environmental experts gathered to assess the Landscape’s current conservation status and establish realistic actions for expanding the region’s protections; building climate resilience; ensuring ecological integrity; and supporting affected communities—especially those communities economically dependent on the Landscape.

An overview of Colorado’s Senate Bill 22-151, which will create the Colorado Wildlife Safe Passages Fund to invest $5 million in measures to reduce wildlife-vehicle collisions and reconnect habitat fragmented by roads. This includes projects identified in Colorado Department of Transportation’s 10-year pipeline of 25 projects with wildlife infrastructure components, as well as projects identified by the Colorado Wildlife & Transportation Alliance, state agencies, and county or tribal governments. The fund would also provide a much-needed source of matching funds to leverage myriad federal grant opportunities available in the new infrastructure law.

Landscape-level conservation that maintains biodiversity and livelihoods for local people requires long-term collaborations across local communities, scientists, practitioners and decision-makers. The Network for Conserving Central India (NCCI) provides a platform for such collaborations in a globally important tiger conservation region within a complex social-ecological system. Using the NCCI as an example, the study identifies indicators to track progress in collaborative landscape-level networks.