Reacting to the rapid extinction of plants and animals worldwide, a prominent group of conservation biologists and wilderness advocates founded the Wildlands Project in 1991. 

They recognized that the traditional system of protecting wildlife and wildlands was no longer working.  Protecting land was critically important, but it had the effect of creating islands of habitat surrounded by a sea of development. Without linking together existing parks, wilderness areas, and wildlife refuges, the long-term survival of many species was increasingly threatened. 

Rather than focus on simply protecting more land, the Wildlands Project called on conservationists to think about innovative ways in which existing islands of protected habitat could be connected by wildlands networks--mosaics of public and private land linked together so that wildlife have the room they need to find food, woo a mate, and raise a family. 

The result was thinking about conservation in a whole new way.  From this mindset evolved our one hundred year vision: to create a continental-scale network of connected wildlands, linking together wildlands from Mexico to the Yukon, from Florida to Newfoundland, from Baja California to the Brooks Range and the Bering Sea.  Connections between the North Woods, the Great Plains and great northern boreal forest must also be re-created.

People called the vision delusional, a hallucination of romantics.  More than a decade later, however, the basic concepts first proposed by the Wildlands Project are now mainstream. The idea of reconnecting and restoring wildlands on a continental scale has been widely adopted by conservation groups both large and small. Today, the Wildlands Project's vision can be seen working across North America and around the globe. Dozens of partner groups are actively turning the Wildlands Project's vision into reality in places as varied as Australia, South Africa, and Siberia.

To date,  here in North America, the Wildlands Project and its partners have completed five Wildlands Network Designs or WNDs, and a sixth WND will be completed for the greater northern Appalachian region in 2005.  These landscape-scale conservation plans use cutting-edge science to establish conservation priorities for very large regions. Dozens of partner groups, many of whom you can learn about elsewhere on this website, are now actively working to turn these hopeful visions of "what could be" into reality on the ground.  Many others are using our basic approach to develop their own Wildlands Networks on a variety of scales.

We hope you use this website to learn about some of the many projects currently underway across North America.  Most importantly, we hope that the maps, programs, and resources on this website inspire you to do what you can to protect our rich natural heritage for future generations--both human and wild.