Ecologist new president at Y2Y
‘ She’s really knowledgeable about the scientific underpinnings of our work’
Jodi Hilty’s experience is at the heart of what the Yellowstone to Yukon Conservation Initiative does — and now she’ll be working as its head.
On Nov. 1, the well- respected ecologist will become the next president and chief scientist of the Canmore- based organization.
“She literally wrote the book on wildlife connectivity,” said Wendy Francis, who’s been acting as president of Y2Y, a joint Canada- United States non- profit that works to connect and protect landscapes for people and nature. “She was the coeditor of a book on wildlife corridors that came out a few years ago. She’s really knowledgeable about the scientific underpinnings of our work.”
Hilty, 44, joins Y2Y from the Wildlife Conservation Society in Bozeman, Mont., where she served as executive director of its North America program.
“Our largest program was in the Yellowstone to Yukon region,” Hilty said in an interview with the Herald. “We worked on everything from protected area conservation to trying to understand how animals were moving through the landscape to the impacts of climate change to really working on livelihoods as connected to conservation.”
It meant work with landowners in ranching communities or on First Nations.
Hilty said she plans to further that type of work in her role as the president of Y2Y.
“I’m so excited,” she said, noting the organization is considered a leader in landscape conservation. “It really is the example of how we need to think and the scale we need to conceptualize and do conservation. It’s all about core areas and connectivity and livelihood and communities celebrating that they are living within this amazing place.
“The other thing that excites me about the region is it’s the most intact mountain ecosystem in the world ... and I hope we can maintain that into the future, for future generations.”
Hilty said it’s great to be starting at Y2Y in the weeks following an announcement by the provincial government that they would protect the entire Castle wilderness area in southern Alberta as two parks.
“It was the confluence of science and the province doing planning and politics all together, leading to these amazing new protections that are really important for climate change,” she said. “Those headwaters are so important for storing water and also for really sensitive species like grizzly bears and lynx and so many other animals that need that kind of protection to survive in the long- term.”
Otherwise, she said the challenges in Alberta going forward include balancing ongoing development with conservation.
“It’s not that there can’t be development here,” said Hilty. “It’s about being really smart about that development, whether it’s some sort of natural resource extraction or logging or mining or petroleum development or even renewable energy — dams and wind power.
“It’s about placement of that,” she added.
Hilty, who will move to Canmore with her husband and two children, replaces Karsten Heuer after he left the organization earlier this year for personal reasons. Heuer, a wildlife biologist and former Parks Canada warden, returned to Banff National Park this month as the coordinator of its bison reintroduction project.
Francis will return to her role as Y2Y’s program director for a short time, before she moves on to another conservation role.
“I feel good about leaving Y2Y in such good hands,” she said.