Dilemma of the North: Managing Land that is "Pristine" and Changing Fast.

Large landscape conservation often focuses upon connecting undeveloped areas into a network that can support species movement between patches.  In fact, the Landscape Conservation Cooperative (LCC) Network has adopted a goal to support "ecologically connected landscapes" to encourage restoration activities and, hopefully, help steer future development into locations or designs with reduced ecological impact.  In the northern latitudes of North America, large landscape conservation is typically approached from a completely different starting point. Rather than focusing on restoration, northern regions have an unprecedented opportunity to maintain connectivity and functionality.  The challenge is not "How do we connect it back together?", but rather "How do we keep it together and functional?" Using the five LCCs that cover Alaska, Yukon Territory, Northwest Territory and British Columbia as examples, it may seem that the conservation need is lower because the human footprint is smaller and large tracts of the landscape are in some form of protected status.  The reality is that these areas are rapidly changing in response to climate change and global pressure for natural resources.  The need for proactive conservation is great if we are going to use the lessons learned from the development of landscapes in other parts of the continent, and if we are going to position our conservation descendants to facilitate adaptation and promote resiliency as the climate changes become even more pronounced.