MAGNITUDE OF THE WILDLANDS PROJECT

"Conservation must be practiced on a truly grand scale," claims Reed Noss. And grand it is. Taken from the article, "The Wild- lands Project: Land Conservation Strategy" in the 1992 special issue of Wild Earth, Noss provides the whopping dimensions of this effort.

Core reserves are wilderness areas that supposedly allow biodiversity to flourish. "It is estimated," claims Noss, "that large carnivores and ungulates require reserves on the scale of 2.5 to 25 million acres.... For a minimum viable population of 1000 [large mammals], the figures would be 242 million acres for grizzly bears, 200 million acres for wolverines, and 100 million acres for wolves. Core reserves should be managed as roadless areas (wilderness). All roads should be permanently closed."

Corridors are "extensions of reserves. .. Multiple corridors interconnecting a network of core reserves provide functional redundancy and mitigate against disturbance.... Corridors several miles wide are needed if the objective is to maintain ( resident populations of large carnivores."

Buffer zones should have two or more zones "so that a gradation of use intensity exists from the core reserve to the developed a landscape. Inner zones should have low road density (no more than 0.5 mile/square mile) and low-intensity use such as...hiking, cross-country skiing, birding, primitive camping, wilderness hunting and fishing, and low-intensity silviculture (light selective cutting).

Taken From: The United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity, Article8a-e; United Nations Global Biodiversity Assessment, Section 13.4.2.2.3; US Man and the Biosphere Strategic Plan, UN/US Heritage Corridor Program, “The Wildlands Project”, WildEarth, 1992.

Click below to see the Wildlands Project map for the noted area.

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US Wildlands Project

US Wildland Project with County Lines

California and Nevada

Deep South - Florida, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, and South Carolina

Kentucky, Tennessee, and West Viriginia

Maryland, West Viriginia, Viriginia, and North Carolina

Michigan and Wisconsin

Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota

Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska, and Iowa

Northern Rocky Mountains - Montana, Idaho, and Wyoming

Northeast - Maine, Vermont, New York, Pennsylvania, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, and New Jersey

 

Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and Kentucky

Oregon and Washington

Southern Rocky Mountains - Utah, Colorado, Arizona, and New Mexico

South Central - Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Louisiana