Center for Large Landscape Conservation

06/12/2026

Many years of research have shown that properly-sited wildlife crossings combined with fencing reduce wildlife-vehicle collisions, keeping animals and people safer. Crossings are one part of a larger effort to reconnect ecological corridors worldwide and these structures often pay for themselves by reducing collisions that cost the U.S. economy more than $10 billion each year.

As journalist Ben Goldfarb explains, major highways in the U.S. were built decades ago, before we understood the effects of traffic on wildlife movement and retroactive solutions must be implemented. By contrast, countries building new highways today can design better infrastructure from the beginning. Our Senior Conservation Advisor Rob Ament, who has been working to advance wildlife crossings worldwide for many years, is quoted in the piece.

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One of the busiest highways in the western U.S. is I-25, a concrete artery that runs north to south across the state of Colorado, funneling roughly 100,000 cars per day through the fast-growing exurbs south of the capital, Denver. While I-25 facilitates human journeys, it disastrously truncates the....

06/11/2026

A new wildlife overpass spanning a major highway south of Sydney, Australia, is reconnecting habitat between two national parks. The retrofitted bridge provides safe passage for many species including ground-dwelling animals like wombats and echidnas as well as arboreal species like sugar gliders. Reconnecting fragmented habitat is important to the survival of these species by ensuring genetic diversity and access to food and other resources.

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SYDNEY, Australia. At dusk on the edge of the bush in Australia’s Heathcote National Park, a spotted-tailed quoll lowers its tawny head to the ground, pink nose twitching. The dense forest, the scent of damp earth and eucalyptus leaf litter gives way, abruptly, to heat and a chemical tang. Ahead: ...

06/10/2026

Congratulations to our colleagues in Kyrgyzstan who are leading examples of how countries can establish corridors and implement commitments to achieve the "well-connected" element of the 30x30 Target. They are connecting key protected areas that now form a continuous ecological network covering more than 1.2 million hectares.

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Snow leopards haunt the rocky ridgelines of Central Asia, vanishing into terrain so rugged that researchers rarely catch more than a brief glimpse on camera traps. Locals call them “ghosts of the mountains.” Their elusive nature, paired with the remote landscapes the cats inhabit, make them noto...

06/09/2026

Last month, a new bill was introduced to the Senate that could convert US-287 into an official federal highway called the Trump Interstate. The proposed I-47 runs 1,791 miles from Montana to Texas, slicing through the heart of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem and bisecting important migration routes. As politicians debate this piece of legislation, scientists ask what this highway would do to the surrounding ecosystem. One impact according to CLLC's Liz Fairbank, who was interviewed for this piece, would be the road becoming an even more significant barrier for essential wildlife movement due to heavier traffic. Another outcome would likely be an increase in wildlife-vehicle collisions on stretches of US-287 where wildlife-vehicle collisions per-year, per-mile were in the top 10th percentile across the West, according to a study CLLC conducted with the Western Transportation Institute in 2023.

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In face of rapid development in GYE, new congressional bill would turn a 1,800-mile highway into expanded federal interstate. It runs through Greater Yellowstone.

06/09/2026

According to State Farm data, 1.7 million auto insurance claims filed in the U.S. from July 1, 2024 to June 30, 2025 were wildlife-vehicle collisions. Colorado, Oregon, Utah and Virginia are all working to protect drivers and wildlife by enacting new laws to help reduce wildlife-vehicle collisions. Each state is creating its own revenue sources, whether from taxes, voluntary fees or new funds designated by lawmakers to pay for wildlife crossings and corridor conservation.

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Drivers in Colorado, Oregon, Utah and Virginia will be safer due to new laws enacted to create more wildlife road crossing, reducing animal collisions with vehicles.

06/08/2026

Grizzly bears in Yellowstone National Park face a major issue: a lack of genetic diversity. I-90 separates the two sizeable grizzly populations left in the lower 48—one in Yellowstone and the other in Glacier National Park. A recent effort by Montana biologists paid off when a young male was brought from Glacier to Yellowstone and successfully mated. The ramifications of this success, however, might be decreased grizzly bear protections in the future.

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There are now more grizzly bears in more places in and around Yellowstone National Park than at any time in over a century. But until this spring, the population lacked genetic diversity. Montana Public Radio’s Nick Mott reports on how fresh bear genes got into Yellowstone, and what it could mean ...

06/08/2026

06/05/2026

Elephants in northern Kenya are guided across landscapes not by policy, but by ancestral memory and access to food and water. Wildlife need to move to survive and adapt to climate change and it's important to formally protect these movement corridors. In January 2025, the Isiolo County Government partnered with communities and stakeholders to protect sections of three wildlife corridors passing through and around the town.

Read more: https://www.standardmedia.co.ke/amp/environment-climate/article/2001542016/elephants-may-not-debate-in-policy-making-but-they-tell-us-how-to-get-it-right?fbclid=IwY2xjawRBnFVleHRuA2FlbQIxMABzcnRjBmFwcF9pZBAyMjIwMzkxNzg4MjAwODkyAAEecEMr6G6yWEvNm2ChDGNU7deW92BB_WFm5yLG0d15Khl9tXUr6-FrrERAnsE_aem_6fpbS_BaaB1msfwW9wgycQ

The elephants will tell us whether we succeeded. They always do.

06/04/2026

Wildlife migrations depend on connected landscapes. That's why the U.S. Department of Agriculture's newly announced Framework for Migratory Big Game Conservation is an important step forward for elk, mule deer, pronghorn, and other species that rely on seasonal movement across the West.

The framework will help direct federal spending and brings together federal, state, Tribal, and private land partners to conserve migration corridors, improve habitat, and reduce barriers to wildlife movement—all while supporting working lands and local communities.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) today unveiled a new framework for migratory big game conservation, bringing together federal, state and Tribal partners across 17 states to address threats…

06/03/2026

Last week, our CLLC board of directors and a few staff members had the immense pleasure of flying with LightHawk, a North American nonprofit that accelerates conservation success through the powerful perspective of flight. LightHawk seeks conservation projects and partners and leverages their team of over 300 volunteer pilots to make flight resources available for free to partners.

The flight was an amazing opportunity to see Montana's Gallatin Valley, Gallatin Canyon and busy US-191, and Paradise Valley and US-89 while gaining a new perspective on the priority wildlife crossing sites we are working on with partners like the Montana Department of Transportation. It was also a stark reminder of the human footprint and fragmentation in the area as we seek to restore pathways for wildlife movement.

Aerial support provided by LightHawk