Connections

"Tough love saves bears" in the Cabinet-Purcell Mountain Corridor

“Tough love” for bears is a lesson that Defenders of Wildlife program associate Russ Talmo knows well. It’s one he applies every time he helps homeowners in Montana install electric fencing around grizzly bear attractants like garbage, gardens, beehives and livestock.

Russ has been working with Defenders’ fencing program, which helps and incentivizes residents to use the fencing to deter bears, since 2012. In that time, he’s seen the program grow exponentially and scores of conflicts with bears have likely been avoided.

This is just one of many partners and projects Y2Y is working with thanks to your support in the Cabinet-Purcell mountain corridor (CPMC). This area covers more than 43,750 square miles (11,312 square kilometres) from Golden, British Columbia, south to Missoula, Montana, and encompasses the Purcell, Cabinet, Selkirk and Bitterroot mountain ranges.

It includes several wet-belt forests and the headwaters of many important salmon and trout rivers, which supply drinking and irrigation water for millions of people downstream. It's also one of two areas in the Y2Y region where grizzlies can move between the U.S. and Canada — critical to their genetic health and longevity.

Like many other areas of the world, wildlife of all sizes and shapes in this region face threats from climate change and a growing human footprint. In order to address some of these challenges Y2Y created the CPMC collaborative, an international network of conservation groups that work together to maintain and improve connectivity in this special place.

Organizations, including Defenders of Wildlife, have worked with Y2Y for some time to decrease human conflict with, and improve connectivity for, grizzlies and other wildlife. Managing these situations proactively is part of solving coexistence problems and promoting tolerance between wildlife and humans.

"If you can manage these types of conflicts, it promotes tolerance for wildlife. That's a coexistence perspective. It says we can both be here, and both share the same landscape," says Russ.

Your donation allows us to create lasting partnerships with such organizations, and help local projects like these become a web of interconnected initiatives that together protect and connect the whole Yellowstone to Yukon ecosystem.

Learn more about the work you support in the CMPC

Q. What do electric fences, toads crossing the road, and the restoration of wetlands that support pale jumping slugs and other vulnerable species have in common?

A. They’re all featured in a Y2Y video series about the CPMC that highlights coexistence, connectivity, and some of the solutions to climate change.

You can help create Alberta's next park

Time is running out to help create Alberta's next wildland provincial park.

Located on the eastern slopes of the Rockies between Jasper and Banff national parks, Alberta's Bighorn backcountry contains critical habitat for several vulnerable species, including grizzlies, bighorn sheep and bull trout. It's also where the headwaters of the North Saskatchewan River flow — providing essential drinking water to more than a million Albertans. And now this area needs you.

Take a few minutes to your support for the Bighorn backcountry. Designating this area as a wildland park would protect a sensitive ecosystem, but still allow for recreation opportunities such as camping, hiking, horseback riding and hunting.

If you live in Canada, help us create Alberta's next wildland park by signing our petition to protect it now.

Join us for Beyond the Mind in Banff

The natural world has the power to bring peace and wisdom, and restore the human spirit. On Wednesday, July 17, experience how meditation and nature play into our well-being at this one-of-a-kind event featuring music, guided meditation, Sanskrit chanting and more.

Global humanitarian peace ambassador and meditation master Sri Sri Ravi Shankar will lead this special event, set in the heart of the Yellowstone to Yukon corridor — one of the world’s last intact mountain ecosystems — to help you experience the power of nature and the mind. This event is part of the Y2Y + Whyte Speaker Series, in collaboration with The Art of Living.

Tickets are $75, purchase yours now. Tickets sales support Y2Y's work.

About Sri Sri Ravi Shankar
Through his life and work as a committed humanitarian and ambassador of peace and human values, Sri Sri Ravi Shankar has inspired million around the world with a vision of a stress-free, violence-free world. These practices have proven to be effective globally and at all levels of society.

You inspire us. Yes, you!

Conservation wins are often the result of very long, hard-fought campaigns.

Your stories about why you support us and care about the Yellowstone to Yukon landscape play a key role in motivating and inspiring our Y2Y staff and volunteers to do what we do. We love to share some of these “sunshine moments” at staff and board meetings.

Recently we received fan-mail from Janet in British Columbia:

"After learning about Y2Y at an art gallery exhibit in my town, I immediately thought, 'what a fantastic idea' — of course it makes complete sense, is absolutely necessary if we want to preserve healthy populations of larger, wider ranging animals, and the sooner we get on it the better before development makes it impossible. I have followed Y2Y since then ... and try to support Y2Y as best I can."

Janet, not only does your financial contribution help, we want you to know your sentiments are cherished by us all.

Thank you, and thanks to each and every one of you who supports our work. It really does make a difference.

Donations of time, sharing our stories with your social networks and your advocacy all power this big vision of connected and protected lands from Yellowstone to Yukon. We're grateful for your support.

Learn more about the impact your contributions make on-the-ground in our updates from the field and donate at y2y.net/donate.

Catch an art exhibit featuring Y2Y's work now

Right now, some of Y2Y's work is on exhibit at the National Museum of Wildlife Art in Jackson, WY.

Invisible Boundaries: Exploring Yellowstone’s Great Animal Migrations, created by the Buffalo Bill Center of the West highlights the complexities of wildlife migration and land conservation in and around the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem through maps and beautiful artwork.

Catch it now through Aug. 19, 2018!

Image credits — Black bear: Ross Donihue / Infographic: Kelly Zenkewich / Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Courtesy of Art of Living / Elk migration: Joe Riis, courtesy Buffalo Bill Center of the West