The Rocky Mountains—the Spine of the Continent—stretch from Mexico to Canada and are one of the most ecologically and culturally unique places on Earth. An astonishing diversity of habitats are found here as well as the headwaters of half of North America’s major river systems (The Columbia, Rio Grande, Colorado, and Missouri). Home to an incredible diversity of native mammals—bison, grizzly bears, caribou, wolves, lynx, jaguar, pronghorn, beaver, otters, and wolverines—the region encompasses an equally rich human and cultural landscape, with stewardship defined by a complex tapestry of land ownership and rights: Indigenous, public, private, and communal.THE CHALLENGENot surprisingly, the Rockies’ wild heart is also a clarion call to those seeking to live closer to nature. Development is filling in valley bottoms, fragmenting critical habitat, and severing ecological connectivity. Extractive industries, biodiversity, climate crises, and recreation extend the human footprint further into areas set aside for wildness. The net result: rapid and expansive dewilding of the Rockies’ unique biocultural system.THE SOLUTIONNew conservation models are needed--ones that at their heart are about sparking a new relationship with nature and dissolving the barriers that divide us from the natural world, each other, and ourselves. WCS Rockies tackles these challenges head on through our science, policy, civic engagement, communications, and partnership to ultimately Rewild the Rockies. We focus these efforts in three of the most ecologically and culturally important landscapes in North America 1) Northern Rockies (the transboundary Crown of the Continent and regions of critical connectivity in the High Divide), 2) Southern Rockies (Northern New Mexico, Southern Colorado, and the Colorado Plateau) , and 3) Southwest Borderlands (the U.S.-Mexico transboundary area).
The Rocky Mountains—the Spine of the Continent—stretch from Mexico to Canada and are one of the most ecologically and culturally unique places on Earth. An astonishing diversity of habitats are found here as well as the headwaters of half of North America’s major river systems (The Columbia, Rio Grande, Colorado, and Missouri). Home to an incredible diversity of native mammals—bison, grizzly bears, caribou, wolves, lynx, jaguar, pronghorn, beaver, otters, and wolverines—the region encompasses an equally rich human and cultural landscape, with stewardship defined by a complex tapestry of land ownership and rights: Indigenous, public, private, and communal.
THE CHALLENGE
Not surprisingly, the Rockies’ wild heart is also a clarion call to those seeking to live closer to nature. Development is filling in valley bottoms, fragmenting critical habitat, and severing ecological connectivity. Extractive industries, biodiversity, climate crises, and recreation extend the human footprint further into areas set aside for wildness. The net result: rapid and expansive dewilding of the Rockies’ unique biocultural system.
THE SOLUTION
New conservation models are needed--ones that at their heart are about sparking a new relationship with nature and dissolving the barriers that divide us from the natural world, each other, and ourselves. WCS Rockies tackles these challenges head on through our science, policy, civic engagement, communications, and partnership to ultimately Rewild the Rockies.