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Western Wildway Resources

Along the Spine of the Continent in western North America, we and our partners are working to reconnect a vast network of protected, connected land: the 5,000-mile Western Wildway. We’ve created the following resources as part of this ambitious initiative.

Mexican Wolf Comments to USFWS from Wildlands Network

Wildlands Network responds to the USFWS’s draft plan for Mexican wolf recovery: Our immediate concern is the draft plan falls far short of the mark needed for recovery of these critically endangered wolves, and that these shortcomings are driven by politics rather than the science of wolf recovery. If implemented, it would allow fewer than half the number of wolves in the wild that most of the previous recovery team scientists say are needed in the U.S. for recovery—with another small isolated population in Mexico—at which time the states would assume full management responsibility for Lobo survival. The prospect of premature downlisting and delisting, exacerbated by the relevant states’ record opposing wolf recovery discussed below, affords a recipe for extinction—not recovery— for one of the most critically endangered wild mammals in North America.

Group Sign-On Letter: Oppose H.R. 3219 Security Minibus – Vote No on Border Wall

Wildlands Network signed on to this letter to the U.S. House of Representatives, urging them to vote no on funding for the continued construction of the border wall. Not only is the wall an ineffective tool at managing border migration, it will also irreparably harm biodiversity in the Rio Grande Valley. Nearly 90 environmental, faith, immigration, and civil rights organizations signed on to the letter opposing the border wall.

Potential Jaguar Habitat and Structural Connectivity in and Surrounding the Northwestern Recovery Unit

The goal of this work was to map habitat and connectivity for jaguars (Panthera onca) in southern Arizona and the Northwestern Recovery Unit (NRU) study area. To do this, we followed the general approach outlined by Sanderson and Fisher (2011; 2013) but updated it using finer-grained spatial data and a gradient-based (rather than binary habitat/non-habitat) model using the same observational data on jaguars.

Wildlands Network Comments on the Jaguar Draft Recovery Plan

These comments were written in response to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s jaguar draft recovery plan, for which the notice of availability and request for comments was published in the Federal Register on December 20, 2016. As a continental conservation organization, Wildlands Network has an interest in the recovery of jaguars and the protection of jaguar habitat in both the United States and Mexico.

Borderlands Connectivity Report

In recent years, Mexican agencies, non-profit groups, and academia have all made efforts to better address connectivity needs in the borderlands region of Sonora and northeastern Chihuahua. Some actions have focused on identifying impacts of U.S. border infrastructure, others have advanced protected area regulations, while still others seek to reduce habitat fragmentation generated by roads with a focus on Highway 2.

This report is our first effort to put some of the information resulting from regulatory actions, wildlife-friendly infrastructure, and research activities, into a series of maps that allows us to identify areas of the highest immediate concern for connectivity along the U.S. border with Sonora and northwestern Chihuahua. Geographically explicit data are not as readily available as literature, so this effort cannot contain all existing research, nor does it cover all fauna impacted by the border wall. Rather, the report focuses on a few wide-ranging species for which data could be readily collected.

Public Lands Planning Details

To complement Wildlands Network’s Public Lands Planning Atlas, this spreadsheet provides further detail on active connectivity land use planning opportunities with the U.S. Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management, National Park Service, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Jaguar Draft Recovery Plan

The jaguar is listed as endangered throughout its range under the Endangered Species Act of 1973 (ESA), as amended (16 U.S.C. 1531 et seq.). Historically, the jaguar inhabited 21 countries throughout the Americas, from the U.S. south into Argentina. Currently, jaguars are found in 19 countries: Argentina, Belize, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, French Guiana, Guatemala, Guyana, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Suriname, United States (U.S.), and Venezuela. The species is believed to be extirpated from El Salvador and Uruguay. The goal of this revised recovery plan is to recover and delist the jaguar, with downlisting from endangered to threatened status as an intermediate goal.

Greater Grand Canyon Heritage National Monument Fact Sheet

Made up of public lands surrounding Grand Canyon, the proposed Greater Grand Canyon Heritage National Monument is a magnificent landscape held dear by Native American Tribes, Arizonans, and Americans across the country. The area’s rugged cliffs, pine forests, deep canyons and grasslands protect and provide clean drinking water for this parched region and for millions of people downstream who depend on the Colorado River.

Western Wildway Public Lands Planning Atlas

  • Published: June 2016

This interactive map identifies public lands planning areas with opportunities for advancing the protection of wildlife corridors along the U.S. portion of the 6,000-mile Western Wildway.

Proposed Zion Black-Mountain and Bull Valley-Mountain Home Wildlife Corridor ACECs

The Federal Land Policy and Management Act of 1976 (FLPMA) directs BLM to “give priority to the designation and protection of areas of critical environmental concern (ACECs)” that require “special management attention…to protect and prevent irreparable damage to important historic, cultural, or scenic values, fish and wildlife resources or other natural systems or processes,” or to protect people from natural hazards.

TrekWest Trail Map

Wildlands Network’s TrekWest 2013 campaign is an epic, human-powered bike/hike/paddle expedition by outdoor adventurer John Davis, along a 7,000-mile international route through North America’s most iconic western wildlands.