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Yellowstone
to Yukon (Y2Y)

Since 2025, Fondazione Capellino has supported Yellowstone to Yukon (Y2Y), a project that protects and connects 3,400 km of habitat between the United States and Canada through biodiversity corridors along the Rocky Mountains.

Partnership

Objective

Starting in January 2025, Fondazione Capellino is supporting an ambitious conservation project: the creation of a vast biodiversity corridor stretching between the United States and Canada. 

The goal of the Yellowstone to Yukon (Y2Y) project is to connect and protect an extensive 3,400km area between Yellowstone National Park in the United States and the Yukon Territory in Canada.

Y2Y is committed to large-scale conservation, preserving the integrity and restoring the connectivity of habitats along the Rocky Mountain range, from the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem to the Yukon Territory.
Through a system of wildlife corridors, central protected areas are connected and new buffer zones are created to further safeguard the system from the impacts of industrial and urban development.

Area of intervention

The project covers an area of over 1.3 million km² (130 million hectares) and involves five U.S. states (Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, Washington, and Oregon — Yellowstone National Park is located primarily in Wyoming, but it also extends slightly into Montana and Idaho), two Canadian provinces, two Canadian territories, and at least 75 Indigenous territories (in Alberta, British Columbia, Yukon, and the Northwest Territories).
One third of the project is therefore located in the United States and two thirds in Canada.
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Project

Y2Y works to protect crucial habitats, create protected areas (primarily in Canada), and establish safe wildlife corridors through defragmentation actions (mainly in the USA), removing barriers and building overpasses and underpasses, as well as collaborating with local communities to implement actions that benefit both nature and people.

This work represents a collaboration among conservation groups, government agencies, Indigenous governments, landowners, and wildlife scientists. 
Existing national, state, and provincial parks form the foundation of the system, while the creation of new protected areas and special management zones provides the additional core areas and corridors needed to complete this network.

All of this is grounded in scientific principles of conservation biology, focal species assessments, and the knowledge of local communities, also with the goal of promoting sustainable economies.
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DURATION

Start: January 2025

End: indefinite

OUR INVESTMENT

720.000,00 $CAN

Fondazione Capellino invested these funds from January 2025 to December 2026.

Updates

In November 2025, we renewed our partnership with the Yellowstone–Yukon (Y2Y) project until December 2026, supported by a total commitment of 720,000 $CAN.

The Y2Y region now has at least 204 wildlife crossings (as of 31st January 2026),, with dozens more in the design and planning stages. Some of the key milestones achieved in 2025 are:

On 13 June 2025, Alberta opened its first wildlife overpass outside the national park system, east of Canmore. Together with over 11 kilometres of fencing, the structure reconnects landscapes and promotes both wildlife movement and safety. It links mountain forests, river valleys, and alpine ecosystems across 6.3 million hectares, protecting grizzly bears, wolves, elk, moose, and more. The overpass has already reduced vehicle–animal collisions by 50% compared with the previous seven-year average, with further decreases expected as wildlife become accustomed to the new structure.
Between 2023 and 2025, at least 12,900 wild animals were killed on roads across British Columbia. The Reconnecting the Rockies initiative is installing fencing and wildlife underpasses along Highway 3 to address high risk collision areas. The approach builds on the internationally recognised success of Banff National Park, where similar measures reduced wildlife vehicle collisions by up to 95%, improving safety for both animals and drivers
This project involved realigning a section of highway to improve safety, removing material under a bridge to increase wildlife passage, and installing over 1 kilometre of fencing to guide animals safely beneath the bridge.
In November 2025, a disused bridge over Interstate 90 was transformed into a fully functioning wildlife crossing at a cost of US$645,000. Early camera monitoring has already captured hundreds of deer safely passing above the traffic, showing how existing infrastructure can be adapted in a cost effective way to reconnect habitats and reduce the risk of collisions.

 

In 2025, Y2Y supported 12 projects advancing the protection of more than 10 million hectares of wildlife habitat. Key milestones in landscape protection include:

A 2025 assessment validated the creation of a national park in the Peel River watershed, covering nearly 300,000 hectares. Led by Indigenous leadership, the next step is formal negotiations to protect one of Canada’s largest intact ecosystems.
In December 2025, 45,000 hectares of forest in the Elk Valley were permanently protected through an agreement led by the Nature Conservancy of Canada, with support from the Yellowstone to Yukon Conservation Initiative. The protected area spans 450 km², slightly larger than the city of Vienna. This milestone strengthens a vital ecological corridor in the Canadian Rockies, supporting grizzly bears, wolves and elk, while also safeguarding water quality and long term carbon storage. If you would like it to sound more celebratory or more science led, I can refine it further.
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Partner

Yellowstone to Yukon Conservation Initiative (Y2Y®) is a collaborative effort between a U.S. non-profit organisation and a Canadian public charity that together connect and protect habitat from Yellowstone to Yukon so people and nature can thrive.
Fondazione Capellino AI