Activities
The Center for Large Landscape Conservation is currently engaged in a variety of initiatives to conserve wildlife.
Climate Change and Adaptation: Science Collaborative for Climate Adaptation (SCCA)
The mission of SCCA is to develop and implement climate change adaptation strategies. The founding members are: the Center for Large Landscape Conservation, Conservation International, the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis, The Nature Conservancy, and the Wildlife Conservation Society. SCCA seeks to generate the best possible scientific understanding of the biological impacts of climate change, and to work with local land managers to conserve nature in the face of climate change.
Wildlife Corridor Policy: The Western Governors Association's Wildlife Corridor Initiative
In 2007, the Western Governors' Association (WGA) passed a resolution to protect wildlife corridors and crucial habitat in all 19 western states. The Center for Large Landscape Conservation (CLLC) is a key participant in the implementation of the WGA's Wildlife Corridor Initiative. This collaborative effort seeks to develop a policy framework for conserving wildlife habitat and migration areas throughout the western United States. Currently, CLLC is working closely with Montana Fish Wildlife and Parks as they seek to revise their Comprehensive Fish and Wildlife Conservation Strategy to incorporate wildlife corridor and crucial habitat planning in response to the Western Governors' recommendations.
Ecological Connectivity: Freedom to Roam
Freedom to Roam is a conservation campaign with the goal of building public understanding and support for wildlife conservation and wildlife corridor protection. Patagonia, Inc., along with the National Geographic Society and other companies, are joining conservationists and local communities to support a new public awareness effort about the need to conserve landscape connections and wildlife corridors.
Climate Change, Wildlife Corridors and Health Consequences Initiative
This two-year initiative is a collaborative between the Center for Large Landscape Conservation, the Consortium for Conservation Medicine, the Center for Infectious Disease Dynamics at Pennsylvania State University, and Princeton University. Three members of the Center for Large Landscape Conservation, Raina Plowright (as a David H. Smith Conservation Research Fellow), Leslie Bienen and Gary Tabor, are co-investigators who will examine relationships between climate change, connectivity, and wildlife health in the Northern Rockies of the US. This project has both a policy and an original-research focus, and will build on available data on three disease/host systems: pasteurella pneumonia in big horn sheep; whirling disease in trout; and bluetongue virus in pronghorn antelope. The Western Governors Association's corridors initiative has identified these focal species as important species for considering issues of climate change and migration in Western states. CLLC staff will use these three systems to build a base of understanding from which to formulate climate-change adaptation policies. Their goal is to provide a scientific basis to craft policies that will help facilitate wildlife preservation strategies such as corridor preservation and assisted migration, while not exacerbating disease threats to wildlife.