The Wildlands Project, an eight-year-old Tucson-based group, aims to revolutionize wilderness protection in North America by linking wild areas from coast to coast. Launched by Michael Soule, considered by some the father of conservation biology, and Dave Foreman, co-founder of Earth First!, the group envisions 25 networks that would, among other things, connect Yellowstone to the Yukon and the British Columbia rainforests to the Rockies. Project leaders believe that current wildlife preserves are too small and scattered to allow natural processes, such as the roaming of animals. They plan to stitch together natural corridors by connecting public lands and reserves on private land that would be purchased from willing sellers or protected through conservation easements.
