The Big Picture
Michael Whitfield still hikes the same wetlands and uplands he explored with his grandfather more than 50 years ago. His heritage is typical in the Northern Rockies, where ranchers tend to work the same lands their ancestors once settled.
“It’s a way of life for folks here, and we want to retain it,” he says.
“My great grandparents came to the Teton Valley to ranch and farm and raise their families in a beautiful place with available open land. The first of them arrived in the 1880s as the valley was being settled.”
As coordinator of the Heart of the Rockies Initiative, a partnership of 24 national, statewide and local land trusts, Michael has dedicated his career to saving what he calls “the lower 48’s wildest and most ecologically intact landscape, a place of unequaled beauty and a rich western heritage.”
The Heart of the Rockies partnership identifies the highest priority landscapes and goes after them as quickly and efficiently as possible—a tactic known as strategic conservation. According to Kevin Case, Northeast director of the Land Trust Alliance, any land trust can do strategic conservation. “It’s about setting priorities and looking for lands that are most important to that mission.”
To help other land trusts implement big-picture plans, the Alliance developed a strategic conservation guidebook. It’s been piloted by groups of land trusts nationwide.
The big picture for Heart of the Rockies includes the protection of ranchland and habitat and migration corridors for grizzly bears, antelope, elk and other large animals.
Increasingly they are also looking to lands that may become critical as climate change progresses. “We are working with many partners to identify the places in which the signature wildlife of our region will find their stronghold habitats and the ecological linkages that will keep this landscape functional and connected in the face of climate change,” says Michael. “We are building resiliency into our conservation planning, with recognition that habitat change is underway.”
The Heart of the Rockies partnership has protected nearly one million acres since its inception in 2002. In the greater Yellowstone National Park area, it has doubled the annual rate of acres conserved.
And funding has increased too. Michael thinks that’s because large-scale conservation appeals to donors who feel their contributions make a significant difference on the entire landscape. Seeing what has been protected to date, his ancestors might agree.