The High Divide Collaborative (HDC), facilitated by the Heart of the Rockies Initiative (HORI), comprised of federal and state government agencies, non-governmental organizations (NGO), and land trusts, held their 7th Annual High Divide Collaborative Workshop this month to discuss strategies and issues.
Eight primary conservation goals were identified for the agenda: Ecological Linkage in core areas; Cultural aspects such as protecting Tribal treaty lands; Working Ranchlands & Recreaton; Clean water; Sagebrush Steppe; Ecosystem support; Healthy forests, and Wildland Urban Interface (WUI) to "allow wildfire to play its natural role". Bottom line, the whole goal is doing nothing except conserving everything. There are a few interesting issues discussed at this workshop, one being the use of "GIS to Estimate Fence Locations for Wildlife Passage". This essentially lays a foundation for creation of migratory corridors, mapping out where they plan to protect those migration paths they design for their connectivity agenda, a tool that "can help landowners and conservation practitioners prioritize fence modification efforts for wildlife passage"...and..."help inform land use planning." The true agenda is found in the Landscape Conservation Design (LCD) led by Sean Finn, Science Coordinator, US Fish and Wildlife Service. LCD is a specific agenda to design the landscape into something it currently is not, deciding where wildlife will live, where you will be allowed to live, and how how you will be allowed to live through defined design practices. That is the purpose of fencing and why Renee Lemon -Land Use Planner, MT FWP was a speaker and who has experience in wildlife connectivity modeling. LCD is "living blueprints for the future" and "desired future trajectories or conditions of the landscape." Much of these issues focus around Secretarial Order 3362 by past Department of Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke. This order, without any congressional approval, essentially directs states and NGOs to map out wildlife and other corridors, decide where they want them to be, and "harmonize" federal and state policies. HDC is not giving up in spite of the massive amount of evidence that their agenda is dictating and controlling land use.
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