collaborating with wildlife Program
“Collaborating with Wildlife” (CW) is rooted in a vision of ecosystem
sustainability benefitting all life. As wildlife try to adapt to human presence and
migrate across previously wild areas, they encounter risk from intolerance,
deadly road, railway and shipping lanes, deteriorating sources of quality food,water and shelter, challenges to finding mates and raising young safely, and reduced genetic diversity, and health.
North American collaborating with wildlife summit project
The North American Summit on Collaborating with Wildlife in Park Gateways (CW Summit) is a place where practitioners from multiple sectors work together on best practices for meeting wildlife basic needs as park 1 gateway areas quickly develop and experience increasing visitation and use by humans. Sharing their own actively implemented and conceptual Models and Methodologies (M&Ms) for “collaborating with wildlife” in themed Workgroups, Summit participants learn how they can improve their practices and discover replicable or customizable features of the practices of others. Facilitated Workgroup Dialogues challenge practitioners to acknowledge what’s missing and conceptualize innovations that will be needed to meet wildlife needs. The interaction in Workgroups sparks new partnerships and resources for broader deployment of best practices. The Summit e-Workbook compiles individual best practices for comparative purposes and out of the Summit delivers a re-take that consolidates Workgroup results and can be used for further networking and technical training, and M&Ms replication.
Watching out for wildlife (W.O.W)
On land
WRF works with 8 chambers of commerce in Yellowstone and Glacier National Park gateway towns to deliver best practices to tourists and recreationists for:
-
Securing human attractants that draw wildlife into conflict with people
-
Avoiding wildlife death and injury from vehicles
-
Recreating without wildlife disturbance and displacement
Recreation-Wildlife Coexistence Workshops for Park
Gateways
WRF works with District Rangers of National Forests neighboring park gateway towns to plan and hold “Wildlife-Compatible Recreation Workshops.” Careful facilitation engages local chambers, outfitters, businesses, town councils, and community-based organizations in identifying and tackling the risks to wildlife and town opportunities posed by increasing recreation on the Forest, including high-tech rec and dispersed camping. To date, “Recreation-Wildlife Coexistence Workshops” with the Custer Gallatin National Forest have been held in the Yellowstone gateway towns of Cooke City-Silver Gate, Gardiner and West Yellowstone.
