Our Milestones
In February of 2015, Wild Ecosystems Conservation Initiative was founded with a mission to conserve biodiversity, restore wildlands and ensure in perpetuity the ecological processes of native ecosystems.
2015-2017
Infrastructure & Stewardship
We began public access infrastructure and wilderness activism campaigns throughout Wisconsin. These efforts focused on building sustainable eco-tourism infrastructure and wilderness education. Our infrastructure work included bridge, boardwalk, trail restoration and staircase projects in the Northwoods of Wisconsin. Our stewardship work included education presentations, informational tables, film and discussion nights, naturalist hikes and camping trips.
Habitat Restoration
Wisconsin State Natural areas represent the most biologically diverse and ecologically significant landscapes in Wisconsin, and we were proud to work to restore and rewild these rare lands throughout the state. We implemented science-based techniques focused on eradicating invasive species and restoring ecosystems to complete ecological health through year-round volunteer-based opportunities for community involvement.
Wilderness Advocacy
We started a wilderness study and activism campaign to designate the remaining roadless areas in Wisconsin, Minnesota and Michigan as new congressionally designated Wilderness areas. We began conducting inventories and evaluations of all roadless areas throughout the state to identify lands that qualified for potential Wilderness designation.
2018-2021
Rio Pascua Project
We worked with local landowners in the southern Aysen Region of Chilean Patagonia to secure voluntary protection for approximately 3,650-acres of wilderness in an area know as a biological hotspot for the critically endangered Huemul Deer. This was our first step toward creating the future Rio Pacua Protected Area, which will permanently preserve approximately one-million acres of pristine habitat for wildlife and protect the Rio Pascua from hydroelectric development threats.
Huemul Program
We started a long-term Huemul Survey and Monitoring Program to determine the abundance and distribution of the endangered Southern Andean Deer across our Rio Pascua Protected Area Project. We visited numerous sites within our project boundaries to initiate our long-term Huemul Program and identified priority landscapes for acquisition to protect underrepresented ecological zones and biological corridors.
Katalalixar Project
We started an advocacy campaign focused on designating the future Katalalixar National Park and Marine Reserve, upgrading protections for an archipelago that is a largely unknown fjord wilderness.
2022-Present
Ruta de los Pioneros Project
Along with our other current projects and programs, we are working to start an advocacy campaign to protect a large landscape and historic route know as the Ruta de los Pioneros. This project will permanently preserve a Yosemite-scale landscape with pristine habitat, subpopulations of Huemul, and extensive local history.
Looking Ahead
Our current projects have moved away from small-scale infrastructure and restoration projects solely in the United States to large-landscape scale parkland creation, wilderness designation and rewilding projects throughout the Americas.
In 2024, we are planning to rebrand our organization, increase our advocacy efforts, expand our fieldwork, and initiate more rewilding programs.