The Grand Canyon Wildlands Network is a hopeful vision of a new relationship between people and the natural world. This relationship relies on a new way of seeing the biologically and culturally rich region surrounding the Grand Canyon. We have used maps for centuries
but new technologies such as Geographic Information Systems (used for computer mapping) and satellite images change our perspective to encompass whole landscapes.
The wildlands network design creates a template from this new viewpoint, to tell us which lands wild nature needs to flourish. The network shows the configuration of these lands in core habitats and the landscape passageways that are
the connections between habitats. Knowing where wildlife travels, we can locate and design human developments to allow animals to move through the landscape.
Previous efforts in conservation have been largely defensive. We expend enormous energy saying no to biologically destructive proposals. And thus keep ourselves trapped in the same shortsighted timeframes of those who would exploit nature and hasten species loss. Where we have chosen to look forward and protect lands as parks or wildernesses, these areas have been too small and isolated to hold onto their native biodiversity. Wolves, muskrats, and sagegrouse, among others have already vanished from even Grand Canyon National Park.
With the Grand Canyon Wildlands Network, we present proactive, positive, scientifically-credible and practical steps for redesigning how we live alongside nature. There are lands that need protections, habitats and natural processes to be restored, and activities that land stewards of all sorts can undertake to help our wild neighbors survive. The diverse and collaborative efforts we envision can help sustain nature for centuries to come.
As a means to the end of rewilding and restoring North America, the Wildlands Project has consistently invoked the concept of a continental-scale network of core conservation areas connected by broad habitat linkages. The continental-scale network, in turn, is composed of a linked system of regional-scale networks. Protecting and restoring populations of large carnivores and other potentially ecologically important or wide-ranging species has been a dominant theme of all Wildlands Project plans. Grand Canyon Wildlands CouncilÂ’s central goal is to complete the design of the Grand Canyon Wildlands Network, one of the regional networks in the Grand Canyon ecoregion (extending from the Mogollon Rim to the high plateaus of Utah, and from Grand Wash to the headwaters of the Little Colorado River).
Grand Canyon Wildlands Council has started with existing land ownership and status to identify the core areas, such as parks and wilderness areas, in a working Grand Canyon Wildlands Network. We added proposed wilderness lands we surveyed, along with other ecologically important lands proposed for special agency designations. We also added possible movement corridors for wide-ranging species like pronghorn antelope, where these species have been observed—these need to be verified scientifically.
For the next stages of design, we created a model of the full range of habitats for the Grand Canyon ecoregion. We used U.S. Geological Survey satellite data combined with vegetation mapping from Grand Canyon National Park and the San Francisco Peaks. The rare habitats like alpine tundra, riparian areas, and springs were added to the working map. At the same time, our scientists compiled a list of focal species, including important biological information about them. Together, the habitat map and focal species information will be used to select additional land areas in need of protection and actions to take on behalf of native wildlife and plants. We will continue to report on our progress.
In the Grand Canyon ecoregion many opportunities to implement the Grand Canyon Wildlands Network have already arisen during the design phase. We worked hard to support the designation of the two new national monuments on the Arizona Strip because these areas were prominent in the working Grand Canyon Wildlands Network. We also wanted to make real change on the ground through our riparian restoration work and springs studies, having already found that these habitats were some of the most highly altered, rarest, and most ecologically important in this region. We have relied on the hard work of many volunteers and professionals to carry out these projects and we extend our great appreciation to all those who have contributed thus far.
We will be adding information about our projects so please check back or contact us if you have questions... puma@grandcanyonwildlands.org.
For more information on the Grand Canyon Wildlands Network:
Grand Canyon Wildlands Council: www.grandcanyonwildlands.org
Private Landowner Participation
Private landowners within Wildlands Network planning areas are encouraged to participate in voluntary actions to protect wildlife linkages and native species. Such voluntary actions may include taking advantage of federal and state programs that pay landowners for conservation of their lands; voluntary sale or donation of conservation easements to land trusts or conservancies; changes in management to protect ecological property values; or through voluntary sale or donation of land to conservation buyers. |
