We envision a Southern Rockies ecoregion that is whole – a vast, connected landscape where native species thrive and natural ecological processes maintain a healthy balance. Such a holistic vision transcends political and human-made boundaries and addresses large landscapes on the ecosystem and ecoregional level. We must start healing the wounds that degrade the health of the ecoregion by restoring critical species and ecological processes to the land – by rewilding the Southern Rockies. Rewilding emphasizes large core wild areas and functional connectivity across the landscape; the importance of top-down regulation to healthy ecosystems, which includes the crucial role of large carnivores and keystone species; and the importance of natural processes such as wildfire and predation that are critical to sustaining functioning ecosystems. To heal the Southern Rockies, we must establish a network of connected wildlands that facilitate the flow of life across the landscape. This wildlands network will include varying levels of protection, from core wilderness, to responsibly managed compatible-use areas, with wildlife corridors that link them all across the ecoregion. The wildlands network for the Southern Rockies connects to other wildlands networks in a north to south MegaLinkage through the spine of the North American continent. These efforts are coordinated by the Wildlands Project, an international conservation group working to restore and protect the natural heritage of North America.

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