Mission

Wild Utah Project provides science-based strategies for wildlife and land conservation.

Goals

For over two decades, Wild Utah Project has applied the principles of conservation science to land and wildlife management. We bring together community science volunteers, wildlife and habitat studies, technical support, and computer mapping analysis using Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to conservation partners in our region. We seek to engage state and federal agencies and nonprofit partners who are in a position to make on-the-ground decisions regarding public resource management. As state and federal land and wildlife management agencies have their budgets slashed like never before, we continue to provide our partners with effective science-based strategies for conservation.
 

History

Founded by Jim Catlin in 1996 to assist the citizens’ roadless re-inventory of Bureau of Land Management lands in Southern Utah, Wild Utah Project began as a means to provide much-needed science to the conservation of wildlife and wildlands. The study area for this initial project consisted of nine million acres of wilderness, which is home to rare desert waterways, wildlife, and wildlife habitat. These efforts resulted in the proposed America’s Red Rock Wilderness Bill in Congress.

Since our inception, we have worked to conserve landscape level connectivity for vital wildlife corridors. Along with our partners at the Wildlands Network, we envision the world’s most extensive network of protected and connected lands. Achieving this grand vision requires coordinated efforts of conservation groups from Mexico’s Sierra Madre Occidental to Alaska’s Brooks Range.

We work to achieve this vision by advocating for the use of best science for wildlife and habitat management, contribute critcal data for better wildlife and wildlands policy, engage the community in conservation science, and support our partners in shared conservation goals.