YELLOWSTONE TO YUKON CONSERVATION INITIATIVE

We employ seven key strategies to to reach our conservation goals:<br/><br/>- Protected Areas: We IDENTIFY core habitat under risk of development and find ways to PROTECT it.<br/><br/>- Private Land: We work with willing property owners to SECURE land and maintain key connections.<br/><br/>- Policy: We act as a VOICE for the Yellowstone to Yukon region in decision-making processes that affect our goals.<br/><br/>- Transportation: We FACILITATE human travel and wildlife movement to allow for the safety of each.<br/><br/>- Co-existence: We work with the community to provide people with the TOOLS and KNOW-HOW to share space with wildlife.<br/><br/>- Smart Development: We SUPPORT development that is consistent with our vision and we SPEAK OUT when it brings more damage than benefit.<br/><br/>- Promoting the Vision: We SPREAD OUR VISION for a connected Yellowstone to Yukon landscape via our ever-growing networks.

One of our greatest strengths is our ability to form and lead powerful collaboratives that avoid duplicating skills and use resources efficiently. There are few comparable efforts operating at the scale of Y2Y, and there are even fewer that engage in such widespread collaboration. Everything Y2Y does, we do with our partners. Whether it's other conservation groups, local landowners, businesses, government agencies, funders and donors, Native American and First Nations communities, scientists, or otherwise, these partners are the force behind our momentum. Y2Y's role is to bring the partners, the matter and energy, together to achieve as a network what none of us can accomplish alone: a conservation initiative that sees the world as nature sees it. We knit together the landscape from one jurisdiction to the next.<br/><br/>Within the Y2Y Team, Y2Y's Board of Directors contributes to our strategic planning and fiduciary oversight from a rich combined experience in the fields of law, science, government, fundraising, finance and the arts. Our team's staff and strategic advisors are responsible for some of the most important conservation achievements of our time. Our network of funders, donors and other supporters believe in the Yellowstone to Yukon vision, and know that we have the creativity, determination and collective experience to break new trails in conservation.

Y2Y's strategic plan sets out to resolve current threats to the region and to prepare for those risks that science shows us have yet to arise. Some of our programs are completed in one year; others last decades, but persistence gets us to where we need to be. The following milestones will be used in the coming years to measure the progress we are making:<br/><br/>We Will:<br/><br/>- Improved federal, state, provincial and territorial policies in the United States and Canada that will advance well into the future the conservation of biodiversity at a large-landscape scale.<br/><br/>- Implement wildlife crossing measures to make key highways like Montana's Highway 2, Alberta's Highway 3, and BC's Highway 97 are wildlife friendly.<br/><br/>- Secure wildlife movement routes that cross undeveloped private lands in Montana and BC.<br/><br/>- Coordinate efforts to restore connectivity across the High Divide to help wildlife move between Yellowstone National Park, Idaho's Salmon-Selway-Bitterroot and Montana/BC's Crown of the Continent.<br/><br/>- Establish the Yukon's Peel Watershed as a protected area.<br/><br/>-Identify and secure protected areas and linkage zones in the Peace River Break to ensure wildlife are able to move between the Canadian Rocky Mountain Parks and the Muskwa-Kechika area in BC.<br/><br/>- Manage headwaters in Alberta and B.C. to provide clean and abundant waters, flood and drought control, and adequate wildlife habitat.<br/><br/>- Ensure Canada's mountain national parks are managed primarily as safe havens for wildlife.<br/><br/>- Establish Alberta's Castle watershed as a park.<br/><br/>- Protect B.C.'s Flathead with a national park and Wildlife Management Area.

Our track record is strong. Since 1993 Y2Y, together with our partners, has:<br/><br/>Secured Core Habitat<br/>- Facilitated the conservation of 17,660 ac (7,150 ha) in B.C.'s Flathead and Elk River Valleys.<br/>- Established two new national park reserves, Nahanni (2009) and Naats'ihch'oh (2013), that together are equivalent in size to four Yellowstone National Parks.<br/>- Collaboratively purchased 460,000 ac (186,15 ha) of private lands, which secures key wildlife movement routes.<br/>- Established the Muskwa-Kechika Management Area, a 16-million-acre complex of protected lands and special management zones.<br/><br/>Helped Make Roads Safer<br/>- Inspired the addition of wildlife overpasses on Highway 1 through Banff National Park. These structures have decreased wildlife-vehicle collisions by 90 per cent, and to date have detected more than 140,000 animal crossings.<br/>- Advocated for Montana Department of Transportation to require wildlife-friendly fencing along state highways in places recommended by state biologists.<br/>- Today more than 600 mi. (1,000 km) of highway across Alberta, Idaho, Montana and Wyoming are in the process of becoming wildlife friendly.<br/><br/>Helped People and Wildlife Live in Harmony<br/>- Helped fund more than 40 projects that help people coexist with wildlife.<br/>- Influenced Policy for Conservation Action Contributed to efforts that led to the Alberta government listing the province's grizzly bear population as “Threatened", opening the door to greater protection.<br/><br/>Invested in the Conservation Community<br/>- Helped bring more than $45 million of new conservation funding into the region.<br/><br/>Advanced Science<br/>- Authored or commissioned more than 30 technical research studies that provide the scientific rationale to guide conservation work in the region.<br/><br/>Inspired Millions to Care for Keeping Nature Healthy<br/>- In 1998, sponsored then wildlife biologist Karsten Heuer, who hiked the Yellowstone to Yukon region. His book has enamored, inspired and educated thousands of readers.<br/>- Inspired countless print, art and film projects that highlight the beauty of the Yellowstone to Yukon region and its need for protection.<br/>Y2Y media exposure has reached more than 60 million people and underscored the value of the Yellowstone to Yukon vision.