Abstract
FOR THE LAST ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY YEARS the Yellowstone to Yukon region of western North America has been at the forefront of conservation. For this reason it remains home to many free-flowing rivers, wild animals, beautiful national parks, and wilderness solitude. It also is home for many humans. If every region in the world were to have benefited from the same conservation actions as this rugged mountainous region there would be no global extinction crisis. Today the Yellowstone to Yukon Conservation Initiative (Y2Y) seeks to build on that legacy and carry it forward as an example of a sane relationship between humans and the rest of life. The shared vision of those leading this initiative, citizens of both Canada and the United States, is to create an interconnected system of wild lands and waters stretching from Yellowstone to Yukon, harmonizing the needs of people with those of nature. It has become a symbol of hope around the world.
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Notes
- 1.
G. Catlin, 1844 Letters and Notes in the Manners, Customs, and Conditions of the North American Indians (1844), 2 Vols. (London; repr., New York: Dover, 1973) 1: pp. 261-62.
- 2.
H. Locke, “Civil Society and Protected Areas: Lessons from Canada,” The George Wright Forum 26, no. 2 (2009).
- 3.
See the website for Highway Wilding, Wildlife Monitoring and Research Collaborative in the Canadian Rocky Mountains, http://highwaywilding.org/.
- 4.
H. Locke and W. Francis, “Strategic Acquisition and Management of Small Parcels of Private Lands in Key Areas to Address Habitat Fragmentation at the Scale of the Yellowstone to Yukon Region,” Ecological Restoration 30, no. 4 (December 2012): 293-95.
- 5.
Nature Editorial, “Think Big,” Nature 469, no. 131 (Jan. 2011), doi:10.1038/469131a.
- 6.
For further reading, see also: C. Chester, Conservation across Borders: Biodiversity in an Interdependent World (Washington, D.C.: Island Press, 2006); N. E. Heller and E. Zavaleta, “Biodiversity Management in the Face of Climate Change: A Review of 22 years of Recommendations,” Biological Conservation 142 (2009): 14-32; J. A. Hodgson, C. D. Thomas, B. A. Wintle, and A. Moilanen, “Climate Change, Connectivity and Conservation Decision Making: Back to Basics,” Journal of Applied Ecology 46, no. 5 (2009): 964-69, doi:10.1111/j.1365-2664.2009.01695.x; W. Konstant, H. Locke, and J. Hanna, “Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park: The First of Its Kind” in Transboundary Conservation: A New Vision for Protected Areas, ed. R. A. Mettermeier et al. (Mexico: Cemex-Agrupacion Sierra Madre-Conservation International, 2005); H. Locke, “Preserving the Wild Heart of North America: The Wildlands Project and the Yellowstone to Yukon Biodiversity Strategy” Borealis 15 (1994): 18; H. Locke, “The Need and Opportunity for Landscape Scale Conservation in the Yellowstone to Yukon Region: A Vision for the 21st Century” in Greater Yellowstone Public Lands: A Century of Discovery, Hard Lessons, and Bright Prospects, Proceedings of the 8th Biennial Scientific Conference on the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, ed. A. Wondrak-Biel (Wyoming: Yellowstone Center for Resources, Yellowstone National Park, 2006), pp. 99-108, http://www.nps.gov/yell/naturescience/8thconferenceproceedings.htm; H. Locke, “Civil Society and Protected Areas: Lessons from Canada,” The George Wright Forum 26, no. 2, (2009); H. Locke, “Transboundary Cooperation to Achieve Wilderness Protection and Large Landscape Conservation,” Park Science 28, no. 3 (Winter 2011-2012); H. Locke, ed., Yellowstone to Yukon: The Journey of Wildlife and Art (Golden, CO: Fulcrum Press, 2012); H. Locke and M. McKinney, “Flathead Valley Flashpoint,” Water without Borders: Canada, the U.S. and Transboundary Water, ed. E. S. Norman, A. Cohen, and K. Bakker (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2013); National Park Service, “A Call to Action: Preparing for a Second Century of Stewardship and Engagement” (Washington, D.C.: National Park Service, 2011), http://www.nps.gov/CallToAction; W. Newmark, “A Land Bridge Island Perspective on Mammalian Extinctions in Western North American National Parks,” Nature 325 (1987): 430-32; Parks Canada Agency, Unimpaired for Future Generations? Protecting Ecological Integrity with Canada’s National Parks, 2 Vols. (Ottawa, Ontario, Canada: Report of the Panel on the Ecological Integrity of Canada’s National Parks, 2000); K. Salazar, T. J. Vilsak, L. P. Jackson, and N. H. Sutley “America’s Great Outdoors: A Promise to Future Generations” (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 2011), http://americasgreatoutdoors.gov/ report; M. Soulé and J. Terborgh, Continental Conservation: Scientific Foundations of Regional Reserve Networks (Washington, D.C.: The Wildlands Project and Island Press, 1999); G. Worboys, W L. Francis, and M. Lockwood, eds., Connectivity Conservation Management: A Global Guide (London: Earthscan, 2010).
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Locke, H., Heuer, K. (2015). Yellowstone to Yukon: Global Conservation Innovations Through the Years. In: Wuerthner, G., Crist, E., Butler, T. (eds) Protecting the Wild. Island Press, Washington, DC. https://doi.org/10.5822/978-1-61091-551-9_14
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