From Yellowstone National Park to the Yukon Territory, the Rocky Mountains are one of the world's most loved and celebrated mountain ranges. Both the U.S. and Canadian national park systems were born there. Conservationists from both nations have come together to protect this unique mountain ecosystem, its wildlife and the quality of life of its people.
About the Region
The Yellowstone to Yukon (Y2Y) ecoregion is part of the western mountain system of North America. From west central Wyoming, Y2Y stretches northwest for 1,990 miles to the Peel River in the northern Yukon, only 37 miles south of the Arctic Circle.
The region ranges from 125 to 500 miles wide, encompassing the rolling grasslands of the eastern foothills and the cedar-hemlock forests and salmon-filled rivers of the western inland-coastal watersheds.
The Yellowstone to Yukon Conservation Initiative is a network of over 250 U.S. and Canadian organizations, institutions, foundations, and conservation-minded individuals. They recognize the value of working together to restore and maintain the unique natural heritage of the Yellowstone to Yukon ecoregion and the quality of life it offers. The Wilderness Society has been a member and leader of Y2Y since its inception.
Science and Stewardship for People and Places
Combining science and stewardship, Y2Y participants are working to define and designate a life-sustaining network of wildlife cores, movement corridors and transition areas that are home to some of the world's most spectacular wilderness, a rich diversity of wild habitats and creatures, and a wide variety of human communities and cultures. Achieving the Y2Y vision will set an example for the world of how interdependent natural and human communities can thrive together.
The Initiative dates to late 1993, when a group of scientists and conservationists met near Calgary, Alberta, to explore the possibility of applying the principles of conservation biology to the Rocky Mountains of Canada and the northern U.S. The discussion continued over the next three years, with an ever-expanding group of participants. In 1996, the group became a cooperative network and hired a coordinator. A small office opened in Canmore, Alberta, in January 1997.
Today, ecologists, conservationists and others are working together to promote the Yellowstone to Yukon vision. They work to energize, and inspire the efforts of individuals, grassroots organizations and communities who support the mission and to provide tools to advance it.
By creating new tools to support conservation work, by fostering the exchange of ideas, and by coordinating action among its network participants, Y2Y opens new possibilities for ensuring the continued presence of North American wildlife and wildlands and thriving sustainable communities.
Why Y2Y?
The sweep of country between Yellowstone and the Yukon Territory constitutes a significant part of our continent's remaining natural heritage, supporting, among other things, the planet's largest concentration of land-dwelling carnivores. It represents the last best chance on Earth to maintain a fully functioning mountain ecosystem, one with clean rivers teeming with trout and salmon, clear skies full of raptors, mountain highlands sporting abundant wild sheep and goats, and healthy forests plentiful with deer, bear, moose, wolf and caribou.
Most importantly, if we approach the task with wisdom and prudence, this region offers us the chance to build and protect vital communities, sustainable economies, and a unique quality of life.
A Last Bastion
In its rugged terrain and remote valleys, the Y2Y ecoregion remains the geography of hope for a number of species: grizzly and black bears, bull trout and golden eagles, caribou and gray wolves, lynx and wolverine. It is also a place for people. Building on North America's history of conservation, we still have time to restore and maintain for our children the natural treasures of the Yellowstone to Yukon region. We can protect our wilderness icons, even as we assure ourselves that Nature's systems-keys to our own long-term health, economic sustainability, and community vitality-function as they are meant to function.
Two centuries after Alexander MacKenzie and Lewis and Clark pushed west across the North American continent, it falls to us to answer this question: Given what we know today, what must we do to keep species in addition to ourselves part of our future? The answer will go far in defining who we are as we head into the next century. Our answer, in this place, is the Yellowstone to Yukon Conservation Initiative. The initiative links conservation science and conservation advocacy in a new, comprehensive approach to maintaining vibrant, sustainable communities while protecting the wild heart of North America.
Y2Y: A Positive Vision
We are fully aware that the area between Yellowstone National Park and the Yukon Territory constitutes the world's best, perhaps last, chance to retain a fully functioning mountain ecosystem. We envision a day:
- when a life-sustaining web of protected wildlife cores and safe corridors for wildlife movement between them has been defined and designated for the Yellowstone to Yukon region;
- when that life-sustaining web is embraced as a source of pride for all those who live within it, and is acknowledged as a living testimony to a society wise enough to recognize the need for such a web, farsighted enough to create it, and prudent enough to maintain it;
- when all natural and human communities in the Yellowstone to Yukon region co-exist in a healthy ecosystem of clean air and water, abiding beauty, and abundant wildlife and wilderness;
- when all residents of the Yellowstone to Yukon region take it for granted that their long-term personal, spiritual, and economic well-being is inextricably connected to the well-being of natural systems;
- when land-use decisions in the region are based first and foremost on ecological principles; and,
- when natural resources in the region are managed with the goals of ecosystem integrity and long-term economic prosperity in mind.
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