Efforts to stop land development using the blunt sword of the Endangered
Species Act have been largely stymied by this new administration, which has been less favorable to setting aside public
land than his predecessor. So the going mantra in environmental circles (which is not at all new) is to purchase land
and set it aside for protection.
For environmental groups and conservationists, a
corridor of the wild stretching from
Yellowstone to the Yukon, has long been a dream. The area is called the Crown of the Continent, and thanks to the
efforts of some of these groups it is now largely protected through land acquisition and conservation agreements with
private owners. The Nature Conservancy of Canada, it is hoped, will acquire about 98,000 acres across the border in
British Columbia that a forestry company has agreed to sell that will be added to the corridor. The
Nature Conservancy in the United States has also spent some $45 million on the
effort.