Into the Western New York Wildway

In 2020, the Western New York Land Conservancy introduced the Western New York Wildway. The WNY Wildway will be an extensive series of protected lands that connect the vast forests of northern Pennsylvania to the Great Lakes, through to the Finger Lakes, the Adirondacks and beyond. The Wildway will help protect, restore and connect the region’s largest forests.

Due to threats from climate change and biodiversity loss, bold conservation action is necessary to be taken at the landscape-scale. The WNY Wildway will protect biodiversity across our region, ensuring there are opportunities to thrive for all species, including native plants, insects, amphibians, birds and mammals.

This storymap example is part of a suite of conservation plans, story maps and communications products completed by Land and Climate Grant awardees. The Land and Climate Grant Program is a joint initiative of Land Trust Alliance and the Open Space Institute. The Program provides grants and technical assistance to land trusts and conservation groups to support the development of climate-informed land conservation, stewardship or communications plans addressing issues such as habitat resilience, carbon mitigation and community adaptation to climate impacts such as stronger storms, flooding, drought, fire or extreme heat.