Some of the known migratory routes in the United States/National Fish and Wildlife Foundation

Federal agencies have been given six months to outline how they can develop or restore and protect ecological corridors, including those relied upon by wildlife during their migrations.

Under a memorandum from the chair of the White House Council on Environmental Quality, the agencies have been tasked with maintaining such corridors by "developing policies, through regulations, guidance, or other means, to consider how to conserve, enhance, protect, and restore corridors and connectivity during planning and decision-making, and to encourage collaborative processes across management and ownership boundaries."

At the Wildlands Network, U.S. Public Policy Director Erin Sito said that, “[T]o our knowledge, this is the first time we have ever seen a President publicly support and explain how crucial wildlife corridors are to our nation’s conservation efforts."

As the Traveler reported earlier this year, the fragmentation of such corridors and the fraying of ecological habitats has greatly impacted wildlife. The 2022 State of the Birds report pointed out that more than half of bird species normally found in habitats as diverse as forests, deserts, and oceans in the United States are in decline. Climate change is a major factor in those declines, but human development also plays a key role by chewing into wildlife habitat and creating biological islands.

The large landscape national parks that are home to many species of wildlife have been turning into biological islands as development hems them in.

There have been efforts to reverse those trends. Since 1991, the Wildlands Network has been, as that organization puts it, striving to “reconnect, restore and rewild North America.” Two years later, in 1993, the Yellowstone to Yukon conservation initiative was launched, envisioned as a corridor stretching from Yellowstone National Park to Canada’s Yukon Territory to serve wildlife by protecting core wildlife habitat. 

The Pew Charitable Trusts this past October released a report on the need for creating migratory corridors, and the challenges standing in their way.

Now the Biden administration is making it official policy to restore and protect these vital corridors.

"Connectivity and corridors are important across terrestrial, marine, and freshwater environments, as well as across airspaces. Increasing connectivity is one of the most frequently recommended climate adaptation strategies for biodiversity management," Brenda Mallory, chair of CEQ, wrote in her memorandum (attached below) sent Tuesday. "Connectivity allows wildlife to access needed resources and facilitates fundamental to ecological processes. Furthermore, connectivity promotes climate adaptation and resilience by enabling wildlife to adapt, disperse, and adjust to changes in the quality and distribution of habitats, including climate-driven shifts in species’ geographic ranges."

Mallory asked federal agencies to report back to CEQ within 180 days on:

• Outlining steps that have been or will be taken to create, update, or implement policies to align with this guidance;
• Identifying actions that have been or will be taken to advance the objectives set forth in this guidance;
• Where possible, describing how science and data have been or will be used to develop performance measures and metrics to assess how agency actions are affecting connectivity. 

"States, tribes, territorial, and local governments are essential partners to federal agencies and are frequently leading the way on connectivity and corridor efforts, often working with nongovernmental organizations, academia, and private landowners to spur on-the-ground change," Mallory added. "Thirteen states have statutes or executive orders recognizing the importance of and need to protect and restore connectivity and wildlife corridors. Consistency and coordination across federal agencies regarding corridors and connectivity will enable federal agencies to better support and integrate States, tribes, territorial, and local governments’ efforts."

But challenges likely stand in the way of restoring key corridors. They range from the federal land management agencies with different missions to state, local, and even individual landowners in the proposed corridors who might not want to grant conservation easements. And yet, while the National Park Service, Bureau of Land Management, U.S. Forest Service, and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service all have slightly different missions when it comes to managing parts of the federal public lands kingdom, Bart Melton, the National Parks Conservation Association's senior director for its Wildlife Program, doesn't think getting all those agencies on the same page for wildlife corridors that cross their landscapes would be insurmountable.

"But," he said during a Traveler podcast focusing on migratory corridors, "I don't think the federal agencies can do it alone. They have to collaborate with states, they have to work with private landowners, and importantly need to work with tribes, too, in a new and different way. The great news is there's a lot that's happening and has already happened that I think is critically important."

Protected migratory corridors are needed for wildlife, such as elk, that migrate through the seasons/NPS file

According to CEQ's Mallory, the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the Inflation Reduction Act both provided financial resources federal agencies could use to further this initiative.

"Federal agencies should, consistent with their statutory authorities and specific missions, incorporate the objectives in this guidance into agency actions to the maximum extent practicable and should consider connectivity and corridors across terrestrial, marine, and freshwater environments, and airspaces," she wrote.

"... Providing clarity and consistency in how federal agencies address connectivity and corridors can help direct and leverage future federal investments and avoid conflicts between multiple uses, and will enable federal agencies to better support and integrate with work spearheaded by non-Federal partners. Ultimately, this guidance seeks to strengthen on-the-ground efforts on connectivity and corridors to produce benefits for wildlife and human communities alike," Mallory said.

Science coverage from the National Park System is made possible with the support of Earthjustice.