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Southern Rockies Wildlands
Network Vision
World-renowned for their striking beauty
and high mountain topography, the Southern
Rockies are one of North America’s
gems. The Southern Rockies Ecoregion contains
a diversity of life. From alpine tundra
to ponderosa pine forests and sagebrush
grasslands, over 500 vertebrate species
find their home in the Southern Rockies
as well as a rich variety of plants and
invertebrates including over 270 species
of butterflies and 5,200 species of moths.
It is able to obtain this abundance partially
because of its continuous stretches of wild,
remote and undeveloped lands.
And yet, this biodiversity is threatened,
as are many wild places in North America,
due to human expansion and development:
native species have been extirpated; old
growth forests logged, wild and powerful
rivers dammed and polluted, and land degraded.
The Southern Rockies Wildlands Network
Vision calls for ecological restoration
that is based on healing these ecological
wounds: the Vision identifies these wounds
to the land and then considers anthropogenic
causes for each, addressing not only the
symptoms and the disease, but also the root
cause(s) of the illness. The injuries to
the Southern Rockies that have been identified
by the Vision include:
* Loss and Decline of Native Species
* Loss and Degradation of Terrestrial and
Aquatic Ecosystems
* Loss and Alteration of Natural Processes
* Fragmentation of Wildlife Habitat
* Invasion of Exotic Species
* Pollution and Climate Change
The current state of the Southern Rockies
indicates that conservation planning and
work is imperative. This Vision is a comprehensive
look into that work, which is based in rewilding.
It provides six goals and tangible implantation
tactics relating to those goals in order
to make the Vision a reality. These goals
include protecting and recovering native
species and their habitats, reducing pollution,
controlling and removing exotic species,
maintaining ecological and evolutionary
processes and restoring landscape connectivity.
The Vision is a prescription for the future.
It recognizes that national parks, wilderness
areas, and wildlife refuges have accomplished
a great deal for nature. But over time,
protected areas have been surrounded by
roads and degraded landscapes. Now, the
protected areas are too isolated to sustain
viable populations of large animals, let
alone many ecological and evolutionary processes.
The Southern Rockies Wildlands Network
Vision is a conservation blueprint and collaborative
effort of the Southern Rockies Ecosystem
Project, the Denver Zoo, and the Wildlands
Project for the Southern Rockies of Colorado,
Wyoming and New Mexico.
256 pages, 8.5” x 11”, 25 full-color
maps, paperbound, $19.95, ISBN 0-9724413-6-0
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