Preserving critical wildlife corridors and habitat is no easy feat. As part of the Western Governors’ Association’s wildlife initiative, five working groups met for the past year. In that time, the stakeholders formulated more than 100 recommendations to improve the state of wildlife.

Among the major suggestions are:

• Passage of federal legislation to protect wildlife corridors and crucial habitat;

• Additional wildlife staffing and support for municipalities;

• The acquisition of better research and data to inform future decisions.

The public has an opportunity to review the groups’ work and reports on climate change, energy, transportation, science and land use. Those reports will be delivered to the Western Governors at the end of June. From that point, the findings have a chance of becoming real change. “From a conservation perspective, I think the governors should adopt as many of those recommendations as possible,” said Monique DiGiorgio. “Part of the public’s charge is to make sure that the policy recommendations they feel are important stay in there.”

DiGiorgio is a working group member and communications and development director for the Southern Rockies Ecosystem Project.

People interested in information or filing comments should visit www.westgov.org. The deadline is April 17.

– Will Sands a