Advancing Landscape Connectivity

Rebuilding connected landscapes across Washington through science, collaboration, and long-term partnerships that support wildlife movement, strengthen ecosystem resilience, and advance statewide connectivity priorities.

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Our Approach

Rebuilding a connected landscape that supports wildlife movement, healthy ecosystems, and long term climate resilience.

Restoring habitat connectivity has been central to Conservation Northwest’s work since our founding in 1989. By convening, facilitating, and partnering with agency, research, and connectivity practitioners, we’ve successfully protected vital wildlife corridors and reconnected habitat across the Pacific Northwest.

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Current Focus

Work We’re Doing to Achieve Advancing Landscape Connectivity Goals

Science & Planning Foundations

We convened and help lead, with WSDOT and WDFW, the Washington Wildlife Habitat Connectivity Working Group (WHCWG), a collaborative, science-based partnership launched in 2007 to identify and prioritize habitat connectivity across Washington.

This group has produced the state’s foundational connectivity analyses, including the 2010 statewide assessment, multiple regional studies, and the 2025 Washington Habitat Connectivity Action Plan (WAHCAP). WAHCAP outlines transportation and landscape-scale priorities that include both diffuse restoration in core habitats—such as forest road network improvements and watershed restoration—and concentrated investments in key corridors, including wildlife crossings and strategic land protection.

With the release of this plan, our work is shifting from generating science to helping partners assess feasibility, build support, and prepare for implementation.

Implementation & Partnership Alignment

We are now working with agencies, Tribes, researchers, and community partners to operationalize WAHCAP’s recommendations and align investments across the state.

This includes advancing outreach, policy development, funding strategies, and deeper engagement with Tribal governments to ensure that connectivity actions reflect ecological needs and Indigenous priorities. By strengthening coordination within the WHCWG and supporting partners as they move from planning to action, we help create the conditions needed to reconnect ecological networks and improve habitat quality at a landscape scale.

These efforts support wildlife movement, ecosystem resilience, community safety, and Tribal sovereignty, laying the groundwork for a more connected Washington.

Impact & Results

A History of Advancing Landscape Connectivity

For decades, Conservation Northwest has helped advance habitat connectivity across Washington by convening partners, building shared science, and turning collaborative planning into on-the-ground action.

Coordinating cross agency and cross sector collaboration

The annual WildLinks conference

Operationalizing the Washington Habitat Connectivity Action Plan

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Coordinating cross agency and cross sector collaboration

Conservation Northwest organizes meetings, workshops, and summits that bring agency leaders, scientists, and practitioners together to share knowledge, align priorities, and mobilize actions that restore habitat corridors and build wildlife crossings in key locations across Washington.

The annual WildLinks conference

The annual WildLinks conference brings together conservationists, land managers, government officials, Tribal and First Nations leaders and knowledge holders, researchers, and other connectivity experts from across the Pacific Northwest to advance shared strategies for ecological connectivity.

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Operationalizing the Washington Habitat Connectivity Action Plan

Conservation Northwest is helping move the plan from science to implementation by building political will, securing funding, and engaging the public around reconnecting fractured and degraded landscapes—linking ecological, political, and social efforts to protect, connect, and restore habitat for wildlife

Impact & Results

Our Key Accomplishments for Advancing Landscape Connectivity

From protecting critical landscapes to advancing collaborative forest restoration, these efforts deliver lasting benefits for wildlife, habitat connectivity, and climate resilience.

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Statewide Policy & Connectivity Advancement

SB 5203 advancing coordinated wildlife connectivity implementation

SB 5203 was introduced to strengthen statewide wildlife connectivity, advancing coordinated implementation of Washington’s Habitat Connectivity Action Plan and supporting the development of wildlife crossings and movement corridor protections that reduce costly wildlife vehicle collisions.

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Scientific Foundations for Connectivity Planning

15+ years of contributions to Washington’s connectivity science

The program has contributed to every major statewide and regional connectivity analysis over the past 15 years, including the 2010 Washington Connected Landscapes Project, subsequent regional studies, and the development of the 2025 Washington Habitat Connectivity Action Plan.

Long-Term Leadership in Collaborative Science

Convening the Washington Wildlife Habitat Connectivity Working Group since 2007

Since 2007, the program has convened and facilitated the Washington Wildlife Habitat Connectivity Working Group, sustaining one of the nation’s longest running, science-driven collaborations focused on landscape connectivity.