Road to 30: Wildlife Corridors
This story map is the fifth installation of our ongoing “Road to 30” series exploring the vision of protecting 30 percent of our land and water by 2030. Here we will look at what wildlife corridors are, and how they and the proposed Wildlife Corridors Conservation Act can play an important role in reaching 30 percent protected land while also protecting critical ecosystem functioning and wildlife movement, maintaining large mammal migration pathways and hunting opportunities, and supporting America’s economic recovery.
…or read a summary below.
Across America, natural areas that we rely on for clean air and water, biodiversity, outdoor recreation, and local economies are disappearing. From habitat fragmentation to the widespread impacts of climate change, lands and waters throughout the country are being lost to development and degradation every day. To combat this crisis, scientists are urging that we conserve 30 percent of America’s lands and waters by 2030 — a goal that can help save nature, strengthen local economies, and improve public health.
There is not just one path to conservation. Finding diverse and innovative ways to protect landscapes that support local communities and preserve the land’s specific values will be critical in achieving the “30x30” goal. Currently, about 12 percent of American lands are protected. While we still have a ways to go, strong leadership and grassroots momentum are bringing us closer to the goal. Here, we explore just one conservation pathway: wildlife corridors and the Wildlife Corridors Conservation Act.
What are wildlife corridors?
Animals of all types, from robins to trout and salamanders to grizzly bears, need to move to complete their life cycles and find resources. The routes that wildlife use to move across the landscape between significant habitat areas are called wildlife corridors. They can be protected in the form of conservation designations on public lands, private land easements, policy changes, and potentially a National Wildlife Corridor System.
Habitat loss and fragmentation are two of the greatest threats to biodiversity, especially to large species that need lots of space. Wildlife corridors reduce the negative effects of these threats by increasing habitat connectivity while protecting natural habitat.
Animals can more easily survive when they are able to move across a landscape: necessary resources and mates are more readily available, and they can escape natural disasters. Corridors also improve seed dispersal and allow plant communities to rebound following events like wildfires.
In a connected landscape, biodiversity is also more resilient in the face of climate change. As animal and plant ranges shift in a changing climate, species and populations will need to be able to relocate over the span of years and decades. Those unable to move may die out.
As we work toward protecting 30 percent of America by 2030, intentional wildlife corridor protection is critical to creating links in functional, integrated conservation networks. They must be paired with large chunks of well-protected habitat like that in state and national parks, National Conservation Areas, wildlife refuges, and tribal management areas, which must become the nodes of conservation networks that reach across America.
Wildlife corridors in practice
Wildlife corridors can vary immensely in appearance and scale, but all are important to creating conservation networks and protecting natural areas. Examples include local corridors (such as riparian corridors), regional corridors (such as migration corridors), flyways, rivers, and urban greenways. Learn more about different corridor types in the storymap.
Roads, fences, and human development are the most common barriers to wildlife movement along land corridors. Although roads cover only about 1% of the country, scientists estimate that up to 20% of the U.S. landscape is directly impacted by roads and vehicles. Such disruption of natural flows has a price.
In the United States, collisions between motorists and large wildlife have an annual societal cost of more than $8 billion, and result in more than 200 human fatalities and over 26,000 injuries every year. However, research has found that wildlife crossing structures combined with adequate wildlife fencing to guide animals to crossing sites can reduce collisions by up to 97 percent.
Wildlife crossing structures are just one example of the many solutions to wildlife corridor problems. Solutions can support local economies by providing jobs, preventing property damage, and saving money in the long-run, while also preventing the death of humans and animals.
Migration corridors
Migration is a key behavioral adaptation that allows Western big game animals to thrive. In most cases, animals such as elk, pronghorn, deer, moose, and bighorn sheep migrate between low-elevation winter ranges and high-elevation summer ranges to find food throughout the year. The routes along which such animals migrate are a specific type of wildlife corridor called migration corridors.
Protecting migration corridors is essential to maintaining healthy game populations for hunting in the face of climate change and development. These corridors have gained attention following Secretarial Order 3362 in 2018, which specifically directs the Interior Department to work with Western states and private landowners to enhance and improve the quality of big game winter range and migration corridor habitat.
Learn more about migration corridors in our storymap through the lens of the Red Desert to Hoback (RDH) mule deer migration corridor in Wyoming. The corridor is one of the most famous and well-documented migration corridors in the country. It is the second longest land migration in North America, and is designated as vital habitat by the state of Wyoming. You will learn about how migration corridors are documented and discovered, what bottlenecks and stopovers are, and the kinds of challenges that migrating animals face.
The Wildlife Corridors Conservation Act
A bold new vision of landscape designation and protection is underway in Congress, one guided by the need for a resilient conservation network: the Wildlife Corridors Conservation Act (WCCA). The bill is co-led by New Mexico Senator Tom Udall, and could play a key role in helping reach the goal of protecting 30 percent of America by 2030.
The WCCA, which recently passed the House floor as part of the Moving Forward Act stimulus package, would establish a National Wildlife Corridors System and support programs. The system would be composed of federal lands and waters designated as National Wildlife Corridors, creating a federal framework to protect wildlife corridors and take a major step toward protecting 30 percent of America.
The Moving Forward Act also includes $300 million in dedicated funding for wildlife-vehicle collision reduction projects that improve wildlife corridors, such as road crossings. These shovel-ready projects across the country would be eligible for this funding and could help jump-start the post-pandemic recovery by stimulating the economy and supporting rural jobs.
In the push to protect 30 percent of America by 2030, wildlife corridors can be protected through conservation designations, easements, policy, and potentially a National Wildlife Corridors System. They are essential to creating a functional conservation network that emphasizes wildlife conservation and resiliency.
LEARN MORE THROUGH THE INTERACTIVE STORYMAP!
For more information, visit westernpriorities.org. To learn more about the 30x30 goal and to participate in discussions about this bold vision, visit RoadTo30.org. Sign up for Look West to get daily public lands and energy news sent to your inbox, or subscribe to Go West, Young Podcast.”
Read the rest of the Road to 30 storymap series here:
