Hot projects

Y2Y works with many partners on projects throughout the Yellowstone to Yukon region. 

Thanks to these partnerships and our network of collaborators, we are able to work in coalitions, lead projects or provide support in the following ways on various projects:  

  • Deliver credible, accessible science and knowledge through creating, commissioning, synthesizing and communicating it; 
  • Strengthen partners and networks by providing capacity support that includes building relationships and solutions, funding, convening, and providing strategic support; 
  • Inspire and mobilize influencers, including individuals and communities, to take action on conservation issues, through sharing the Y2Y vision, organizing, advocating, and creating replicable models;  
  • Work in a targeted way across four scales: local, regional, national and global, addressing both bottom-up and top-down levers to advance conservation. 

PROJECTS AT A GLANCE

Together with our partners, we’re engaged in the following projects to help connect and protect habitat from Yellowstone to Yukon. This selection represents a sample of the various current and past projects.

Canada:

Making Highway 1 Safer for Wildlife and People

Y2Y is advocating to the Alberta government for a wildlife overpass and fencing east of Canmore as a first step in reducing wildlife-vehicle collisions in the Bow Valley east of Banff National Park.

Planning for a Wild Future: Bow Valley Cumulative Effects

Y2Y and ALCES Landscape and Land-Use modeled scenarios for grizzly bear movement in Alberta’s Bow Valley in 2021 to help understand how decisions regarding development, people and recreation impact grizzly bears in this busy landscape.

Safeguarding headwaters in Alberta

Y2Y collaborates with partners to ensure that decisions on development, recreation and land-use planning prioritize the protection of the headwaters regions in Alberta.

Protect the Peel

Y2Y is working with its partners to protect 80 per cent of the Yukon’s Peel Watershed and secure this critical core habitat.

Wild Harts

Located in the wild north of British Columbia, Y2Y aims to ensure that the astonishing landscapes and rich biodiversity of the Hart ranges are part of our collective future.

Keeping Wolverines Connected

Y2Y supports research to strengthen North America’s trans-boundary wolverine population, and is informing management policies to help them thrive.

Making Highway 3 Wildlife-Friendly

Running parallel to the Canada-U.S. border across the southern portion of Alberta and British Columbia, Highway 3 is a major barrier to wildlife movement. Y2Y is working with its partners to promote wildlife over- and underpasses to make the highway safer for wildlife and people.

Upper Columbia

By protecting the headwaters of the trans-boundary Columbia River, Y2Y aims to improve wildlife and climate change resiliency.

Studying Recreation in the Y2Y Region

As trails get busier, it is important to make sure people can get outside and have fun while sharing space with wildlife — and other people. Y2Y is conducting research to better understand recreation in nature.

United States:

Reconnecting Grizzly Bears Across the U.S. Northern Rockies

Learn how Y2Y is working to recover grizzly populations and improve wildlife corridors in northwest Montana and north Idaho.

Safer Roads for Idaho

Y2Y is working to increase safety for people and wildlife on Idaho’s highways and roadways, especially those in and around the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem.

Cabinet-Purcell Collaborative

As part of a trans-border network, Y2Y is working to recover grizzly bear populations and improve wildlife habitat connectivity in the vital Cabinet-Purcell mountain corridor.

Safe Passage for Wildlife Across Montana’s Roads

Y2Y seeks to improve highway safety while protecting one of Montana’s most valued elements: the incredible wildlife we share space with.

Bees to Bears

Y2Y is transforming and restoring wetland habitat in north Idaho to help climate sensitive wildlife adapt and thrive into the future.

Header photo: Kelly Zenkewich