Combining science and stewardship, Y2Y seeks to ensure that the world-renowned wilderness, wildlife, native plants and natural processes of the Yellowstone to Yukon region continue to function as an interconnected web of life, capable of supporting all of its natural and human communities, for now and for future generations.

Mountain ecosystems around the world are places of great beauty as well as deep cultural and natural significance. The Alps, Andes, Himalayas, and other mountain ranges connected to them have a long history of human occupation.  Unfortunately, many aspects of this long occupation have compromised the ability of the ranges to support natural systems, and have fundamentally altered significant expanses of the landscape. As a result, many species of large mammals have either disappeared completely or are at risk of going extinct, and opportunities to experience solitude in a natural mountain environment are increasingly rare.

In contrast, because of historical settlement patterns and challenging geography, the Rocky Mountains of North America have thus far escaped the intense development that has fragmented and transformed the globe’s other major mountain systems. From Yellowstone National Park to the Yukon’s Mackenzie Mountains, the Rockies maintain their full complement of native large mammal species, including grizzly bears, wolves, caribou, sheep, moose, deer, and elk. Bison have been eliminated from many of their original ranges, but some free-roaming herds persist within Yellowstone and in northern British Columbia. And, the region’s human residents and visitors are still able to engage in recreation, fishing, hunting, and traveling in the backcountry.

Of all the world’s mountainous regions, the Yellowstone to Yukon landscape provides the best opportunity to preserve an intact, ecologically healthy mountain system where both human and wildlife communities can thrive and prosper.  Y2Y was the first group to apply large-landscape conservation principles to a mountain environment. Scientists and conservationists gathered in 1993 to discuss a conservation vision stretching from Wyoming to the Yukon, with a public launch of the Initiative in 1997. Since then, Y2Y has inspired similar large-scale mountain conservation efforts around the world, including the Alps to Atherton Initiative in Australia, Spain’s Cantabric to Pyrenees to Alps Great Mountain Corridor, the Sacred Himalayan Landscape, Espace Mont Blanc in the Alps, and Project Páramo in the Andes.

To learn more about Y2Y's mission and our partnership, click on any of the topics below.

As unlikely as it may seem, it was a well-travelled wolf that gave scientists the idea for Y2Y. Pluie, a five-year-old female gray wolf, was tracked using a radio-collar and satellite transmitter in Alberta’s Peter Lougheed Provincial Park beginning in June of 1991. For two years, Pluie’s signal was carefully observed as she roamed a startling 100,000 square kilometers (40,000 square miles). She traveled through Banff National Park, into British Columbia, across the US/Canada border and through Glacier National Park to Montana, through Idaho and then into Washington state before working her way north again to British Columbia. In 1993, near Fernie, BC Pluie’s collar transmitted its last signal - the collar’s battery was later recovered with a bullet hole in it.

Two years later, Pluie was discovered still wearing her collar (without its battery) near Invermere, BC after a hunter legally killed her and her mate, along with their three pups. Pluie’s journey illustrated clearly that large carnivores still roam the mountain ecosystems. To support and protect these animals, we need effective conservation that can preserve and restore an intact landscape and manage modern threats such as roads, railways, development, and loss of habitat.

One of Y2Y's top priorities is to ensure that the Yellowstone to Yukon region retains enough connected, well-managed and high-quality wildlife habitat so that animals can safely roam between protected areas (such as national parks) as they travel in search of food and mates.

In the early 1990's it became clear to scientists and conservationists that the protected areas within the Yellowstone to Yukon region were either too small for wide-ranging animals, or they were in the wrong location. More importantly, protected areas were becoming more like islands surrounded by oceans of developed and degraded lands.

‘Islandization' can have a profoundly negative affect on wildlife. Islands become disconnected from other prime habitats, and without wildlife corridors to connect these habitats, the isolated plants and animals within an island may end up extinct.Wildlife need to draw from a broad genepool to be safe from the genetic problems that can accompany breeding with relatives. Isolatedpopulations are also vulnerable to disease, overhunting or natural events like floods or fires.This isparticularly true as climate change alters the location and configuration of habitats in the region.Wildlife will have to migrate northward and to higher elevations to keep pace with the changing habitats that support them. Y2Y's mission is to ensure that the wildlife and wild places of the Yellowstone to Yukon region remain healthy and connected for generations to come.

Connectivity isn't just about wildlife and landscape – it's about people too. Encouraging human communities to thrive while wisely stewarding the natural abundance of the Yellowstone to Yukon region is the vision – and challenge – of Y2Y. Native communities have lived here and relied upon the abundance of the land from time immemorial. Today, this landscape remains vital to all who live in and around the region. Humans and their activities do at times threaten connectivity in the region, but humans are also the solution for restoring or maintaining landscape connections. Y2Y strives to promote best practices for use of the landscape so wildlife and people can successfully coexist in this region together.

Wilderness. Without it there is no Y2Y or Wildland Trekking Company. It’s what we are all passionate about, and why we're partnering together. Wilderness is what draws us to these magical landscapes, and supports the myriad of plants and animals that live here. As much as wilderness is a physical landscape, it is also a concept – conjuring images of freedom, space, and adventure, and stirring the human soul.

But what is wilderness? Different people define it in different ways. Some define wilderness as a place where people live off the land in harmony with nature, some imagine it as an area undisturbed by humans. Others view wilderness as a place where animals travel freely – an area that takes several days of hiking or canoeing to get to, where the trees are older than anyone can remember...where mystery and imagination still lie over the next mountain pass or across the next meadow.

From our perspective, wilderness is all of these things. We embrace all aspects of wilderness: people, plants, animals, water, air, space, and story. By adopting a holistic approach to conservation, we accept that all these aspects must prosper to realize the potential of the wilderness.

For all its strength, the Y2Y wilderness is being undermined by forces from many sides. Rapid development fragments the landscape, roads slice across ecosystems separating wildlife populations, resource extraction destroys habitats, and climate change is tranforming natural patterns and processes on which people, plants, and wildlife rely. Because the environmental challenges in the region are complicated and interconnected, Y2Y strives to address issues from a multi-dimensional perspective. They support public education measures that give residents and visitors the tools and knowledge they need to live more sustainably with animals and nature. They also support habitat restoration initiatives which rebuild areas previously impacted.

By working with a variety of stakeholders, they examine wilderness issues from a biological, social, and economic perspective. In acknowledging these three very different aspects of the Y2Y region, they are able to work toward reaching a balance through which people, wild animals, and plants thrive in the vast Y2Y landscape.

The Yellowstone to Yukon region is home to the world's first national park, Yellowstone, which was established by the US government in 1872, as well as Canada's first national park, Banff, established in 1883. The region also contains the world's first International Peace Park, which connects Waterton Lakes National Park (Alberta, Canada) with Glacier National Park (Montana, U.S.). The Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1995. Every year, millions of people travel to these breathtaking parks to drink in the awe-inspiring scenery and hopefully spot some wildlife. People hike, backpack, ski, climb, canoe, fish, or take part in a host of other outdoor pursuits. They were all attracted to these parks by the spectacular and rugged landscapes.

Y2Y's vision is that the entire Yellowstone to Yukon region will be stewarded so that this world-renowned ecosystem and its inhabitants (wild and human) remain healthy and connected for generations to come. This does not require the entire region to be declared a park, only that wild animals are free to travel safely through the lands adjacent to and between parks. However, there are areas that are so critical to the health of the wildlife that they need to receive the highest standards of protection, and some of these remain vulnerably unprotected right now. For example, many scientists and conservationists believe Waterton-Glacier Peace Park is missing a small but vitally important segment - the Flathead Valley. Adding the Flathead – one of the most biologically diverse landscapes in North America – to Waterton Lakes National Park is an ongoing goal of several of Y2Y's partner organizations.

In addition to establishing new protected areas where warranted, the existing parks need to be managed so that wildlife conservation goals are reached. For instance, transportation routes like the Trans-Canada Highway, which bisects Banff National Park, lead to wildlife-vehicle collisions, endangering both the wild animals and humans. Y2Y and its partners have helped to reduce these collisions through the construction of crossing structures for wildlife. However, much more work needs to be done.

Since the beginning of Y2Y over 10 years ago, the number of protected areas in the region has increased significantly. Where justified by the needs of wildlife, Y2Y will continue to strive (along with their partners) to protect more land, while they simultaneously offer educational programs, work with landowners to save small pieces of private land, and create integrated land-use management systems for public lands. This collaborative work with a variety of interested parties will help ensure that the Y2Y region will be inspiring visitors for centuries to come.