Keep the Places You Love Connected

If you hike, bike, photograph nature, watch birds, enjoy the backcountry, paddle, or simply enjoy being outdoors — you’re already part of a connected landscape.

Every trail you follow, ridge you climb, or lake you visit is also used by tmixʷ | tmícw (all living things) moving through the land. Animals migrate through valleys and forests. Water flows across creeks and wetlands. Plants spread through wind, birds, and insects. These movements are what keep nature alive.

But many of the routes that wildlife rely on have been disrupted over time — by roads, development, fences, and barriers in streams. Understanding how nature stays connected helps us protect the places we love and keep them thriving for future generations.

Big Actions on Land and Water

Large‑scale projects across the Thompson–Okanagan are restoring the pathways that wildlife, water, and plants depend on. These efforts protect entire landscapes, reconnect fish‑bearing creeks and rivers, and make travel safer for both animals and people. Together, they keep the natural flow of life moving across the region.

Corridor
Protection

Fish Passage

Safe Road
Crossings

Habitat
Restoration

Simple Steps in Your Community

Big projects restore landscapes, but everyday choices in our backyards, farms, and neighbourhoods also keep nature connected. These local actions make a difference for wildlife, water, and people right where we live.

Backyard
Habitats

Local
Stewardship

Community
Science

Wildlife-Friendly
Practices

What Is Ecological Connectivity?

Ecological connectivity is the natural flow of life across the land and water — how freely animals, plants, water, and ecological processes can move.

When connectivity is strong:

wildlife can reach food, water, shelter, and safe birthing areas

plants spread naturally across the landscape

rivers flow cleanly and wetlands function

ecosystems recover faster after fires, droughts, or floods

species can adapt as the climate changes

Connectivity describes the overall condition of the land — whether nature is able to function as a living, linked system.

When those links are broken, wildlife becomes isolated, natural processes break down, and ecosystems lose resilience.

How Corridors Work

While connectivity is the flow of life, ecological corridors are linked lands and waters that allow wildlife and natural processes to move across the landscape.

Corridors can be:

valley bottoms and ridgelines
creek-side and riverside areas and floodplains
forests, grasslands, and wetlands
“stepping-stone” habitats like small ponds
wildlife crossings such as overpasses, underpasses, or improved culverts
restored creek channels and naturalized streams

Corridors help prevent wildlife isolation, support healthy fish populations, and keep ecosystems functioning over the long term by:

connecting seasonal habitats
allowing genetic exchange
helping species adapt to climate change

Corridors aren't parks but they ideally connect parks, crossing working landscapes, private lands, forests, ranches and can be near or within communities.

Corridors = pathways.
Connectivity = the result.

How Life Moves

Movement happens in many ways, some visible and others hidden. Here are the four main “movement systems” that keep nature functioning.

All four systems work together. When movement stops, nature is weakened.

In The Air

Below Ground

On the Land

Through Water

What's at Risk

Habitat fragmentation reduces the ability of wildlife to move safely. As landscapes become more divided, both wildlife and people face increased risks.

Connectivity is declining around the world — and here at home — for three main reasons:

A. Habitat fragmentation

Land that once formed continuous habitat is now broken into smaller, isolated patches by:

residential development
agriculture
industry
resource roads

B. Barriers that block movement

Some of the biggest and most dangerous obstacles include:

highways and busy roads
railway lines
dams and perched culverts
extensive fencing
channelized rivers

These barriers cause isolation, road mortality, blocked fish migration, and reduced ecosystem health.

C. Climate change reducing natural resilience

As temperatures rise and snowpacks shift, wildlife and plants need room to move to cooler areas, wetter habitats, and new seasonal ranges. If corridors are lost, climate adaptation becomes impossible.

Why This Matters

When land and water stay connected, communities are stronger.

How You Can Help

If you’re a hiker, photographer, trail-runner, biker, backcountry skier, or snowmobiler, you can help by:

Staying on existing trails to avoid creating new “desire paths” that disrupt habitat.

Learning the seasonal needs of local wildlife (e.g., winter range, lambing areas).

Avoiding quiet valley bottoms at dawn and dusk when wildlife movement is highest.

Taking photos from a respectful distance to reduce stress on animals.

These small practices help wildlife keep using the same paths they’ve followed for generations.

Report Here

Natal APP Here

Watch Here

Plant native species without the use of pesticides to support pollinators, birds, and wildlife.

Native Plant Society of BC:

Society Here

North American Native Plant Society:

Society Here

Pollinator Pathway:

Website Here

Video: Danforth Pollinator Pathway

Keep riparian areas natural — avoid mowing or clearing within 30 m of streams or wetlands.

Use wildlife-friendly fencing (raise the bottom wire, space wires widely, avoid page wire if possible).

WildSafeBC – Wildlife-Friendly Fencing:

Resources Here

Support Indigenous-led stewardship organizations working on connectivity:

Okanagan Nation Alliance:

Website Here

Join a stewardship or conservation group working on local habitat and watershed restoration.

Okanagan Collaborative Conservation Program (OCCP):

Program Here

Thompson-Nicola Conservation Collaborative (TNCC):

Website Here

Okanagan Similkameen Stewardship Society:

Society Here

Kamloops Naturalist Club:

Club Here

North Okanagan Naturalists Club:

Club Here

Burrowing Owl Conservation Society:

Society Here

Volunteer – become a warden at an ecological reserve or volunteer for hands-on restoration such as tree planting, invasive plant removal, creek clean-ups, wetland monitoring.

Central Okanagan Land Trust:

Volunteer Here

Friends of the South Slopes:

Volunteer Here

BP Parks Partner organizations:

Volunteer Here

Ecological reserve wardens:

Volunteer Here

Your observations help identify wildlife corridors and hotspots where action is needed.

Report wildlife observations:

iNaturalist: record plants, animals, insects — all sightings help.

Report Here

Report a Badger

Report Here

Provincial Wild Sheep and Mountain Goat Natal App

Natal APP Here

Wolverine Watch

Watch Here

Report roadkill:

Report roadkill Wildlife Collision Prevention Program:

Report Here

Share sightings of barriers (blocked culverts, broken wildlife fencing, damaged fish habitat) with local stewardship groups.

Interact

Keep the Places You Love Connected

Big Actions on Land and Water

Simple Steps in Your Community

What Is Ecological Connectivity?

How Corridors Work

How Life Moves

What's at Risk

Why This Matters

How You Can Help

Plant native species without the use of pesticides to support pollinators, birds, and wildlife.

Video: Danforth Pollinator Pathway

Keep riparian areas natural — avoid mowing or clearing within 30 m of streams or wetlands.

Use wildlife-friendly fencing (raise the bottom wire, space wires widely, avoid page wire if possible).

Support Indigenous-led stewardship organizations working on connectivity:

Join a stewardship or conservation group working on local habitat and watershed restoration.

Volunteer – become a warden at an ecological reserve or volunteer for hands-on restoration such as tree planting, invasive plant removal, creek clean-ups, wetland monitoring.

Report wildlife observations:

Report roadkill:

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