This map presents planning areas for each Wildlands Network along the Rocky Mountain spine where the Wildlands Project science team and partner groups are identifying the most important habitat for wildlife, based on scientific principles, and the most sensible places to protect, based on political common sense.
Each of these six areas contains some of North America’s biologically important, and threatened, wonders of Nature. Connected, they form the spine of the continent.
1. Yellowstone to Yukon (Y2Y)
2. Heart of the West
3. Southern Rockies
4. New Mexico Highlands
5. The Sky Islands
6. Northern Sierra Madre
New Mexico Highlands
Here, herds of pronghorn outpace the wind; cranes and ducks thunder like a living storm; on pine and fir-clad mountains, bighorn sheep, elk, and black bears roam; on dry desert floors abundant populations of reptiles make a living among the cacti while fish and flycatchers travel cottonwood-lined river corridors. This ruggedly beautiful country is where the Rocky Mountains, Great Plains, Chihuahuan Desert, and Great Basin meet, forming a continental crossroads for wildlife. Recently completed, the New Mexico Highlands Wildlands Network Design sets out a practical vision for keeping the region wild.
