Wavepacket Blog

Wavepacket Blog
displaying only one specific post

Sun Apr 27 17:06:56 2008
Yellowstone to Yukon
The Y2Y 2007 Annual Report.

American Black Bear
Image courtesy of US Fish and Wildlife Service (wiki)

I just received the 2007 Annual Report from the Yellowstone to Yukon Conservation Initiative, also known as Y2Y.

If you aren't familiar with Y2Y, check out their site. Skip their vision statement since it is somewhat fuzzy and vague, although it does at least mention "habitat connectivity."

Instead, take a look at their scientific rationale and read the story of Pluie, a grey wolf that was tagged so they could track her movements throughout the greater Y2Y area. Or see my old Y2Y blog entry.

The basic idea is connectivity: the idea that existing parks and habitats should be well-connected so that megafauna can roam freely across their historic ranges. Although there are several large parks in Canada and the United States in this area, many animals (bears, wolves, fish, birds) need even larger habitats. Rather than block off a huge area into a megapark, which is unrealistic, the idea is to focus on good-sized parks with corridors that connect them for wildlife to move through.

[Aside: check out the distincion between r- and K-selectivity. I hadn't seen that before!]

So what happened in 2007?

For one thing, they have widened their strategy somewhat. To help prioritize efforts, they have split their investigations into three areas focused on key animals:

Bears. This effort focuses on the needs of large animals such as bear, wolves, and elk. Grizzly bears are used as the benchmark species since it is believed if the Grizzly can expand to something like its original habitat, then other large animals can as well. This was the original vision of Y2Y, and the most mature.
Birds. This effort focuses on 20 focal species.
Fish. This effort is still getting started, but focuses on focal species and key watersheds in an effort to keep native species healthy.

Based on those three strategies, they identify the highest-priority areas to focus on. (Check out the map in that link!)

I'm a bit worried that the strategy has broadened so much. There is a danger that trying to do everything results in doing nothing. But it looks like their change to three conservation strategies just boils down to using a more sophisticated method of picking high-priority areas, which is fine.

They also list how they spent close to $500K in grants in 2007. Most of the money, $250K, went towards the purchase of an 87 acre parcel of private land in southeast BC, on behalf of the Nature Trust of British Columbia. Surprising that they had to spend so much for that! But this is exactly the sort of purchase that Y2Y is focused on. Hopefully we'll see more of these in the coming years.

I think Y2Y represents one of the better approaches to saving large ecosystems in the Northwest! Definitely check it out and consider making a donation. I donate every year.

Comments

Related:
  environment

Unrelated:
  books
  economics
  energy
  geopolitics
  lists
  mathematics
  predictions
  science

Links: