Y2Y started as a loose collection of organizations, collaborating to protect habitat along the spine of the Rocky Mountains. From our humble roots, we’ve built a movement that unifies voices and people who support large-scale land conservation. Y2Y’s work addresses needs for wildlife and people, giving animals freedom to roam, and protecting habitat for grizzly bears, caribou, wolverines, wolves, and more. To protect a region this vast, we need an equally vast, diverse, and dynamic movement. We are the only organization dedicated to securing the long-term ecological health of this entire region.
Caribou in Tonquin Valley, Jasper National Park. Photo: Alex Popov
why Y2Y?
Large-scale land conservation acts as an antidote to climate change and biodiversity loss by connecting and conserving large landscapes. Y2Y’s unique approach reverses habitat loss, prevents habitat fragmentation, and restores natural resilience to climate change. These nature-based strategies are at the scale and pace needed to help people and wildlife adapt to these challenges.
Many studies show animals and plants are changing their habitats and behaviors due to the warming climate caused by human activity. Beyond just creating parks, Y2Y also connects landscapes, waters, forests, and habitats together. This big picture vision is the best way to protect wildlife from the effects of climate change and give them the space they need to move to new places for shelter, families, and food.
This is why Y2Y is coming together with a massive coalition of diverse communities to ensure creative and critical solutions that bring sustainable change for this unique region of North America.
Photo: Alex Popov
how we work
We advance our work using best available information and ensuring a supporting policy framework, from global to national and regional to local. With the support of science and Indigenous knowledge, we collaborate with and empower communities and decision-makers to create impact across the Yellowstone to Yukon region.
At the center of this work is the recognition that all our efforts take place on Indigenous lands and, therefore, we must engage respectfully with Indigenous governments, people, and organizations.
We are committed to uplifting their efforts and perspectives on habitat restoration, landscape protection and connection, and community stewardship.
our mission
Connecting and protecting habitat from Yellowstone to the Yukon so people and nature can thrive.
our vision
An interconnected system of wild lands and waters stretching from Yellowstone to the Yukon, harmonizing the needs of people with those of nature.
history
Since 1993, we’ve been committed to a big, bold idea. From our humble roots, we’ve built a movement that unifies voices and people who support large-scale land conservation. To protect a region this vast, we need an equally vast, diverse, and dynamic movement.
The strength of the Yellowstone to Yukon vision lies in its ability to inspire but, more importantly, in its power to connect and empower a network of people dedicated to creating conservation outcomes that stitch it together.
Conservationists and hunting (Kelly Zenkewich)
policies & principles
Read the guiding principles and statements that Y2Y uses to plan and prioritize our work and to guide the evolution of the organization.
