EIN: 27-1226829
CLLC is a 501c3 nonprofit corporation based in Bozeman, Montana
Thank you for your interest. We rely on generous donations from funders to fulfill our
mission. For your convenience, we have provided our mission and vision statements, our
work, case studies and staff biographies for your use.
What is the Center for Large Landscape Conservation?
We strategically connect ideas, individuals, and institutions to catalyze collaboration and
amplify progress towards the imperative of our time: to conserve Earth’s resilient, vital
large landscapes.
Since large landscape conservation involves great geographical scales and touches many
lives, it requires a collaborative effort—not something one organization can fully shoulder
alone. We see ourselves as the “hub” for large landscape conservation, connecting people,
organizations and resources to foster powerful solutions that respect diverse shareholders.
Our Mission
We catalyze, advance, and support large landscape conservation by:
 building communities of invested stakeholders around large landscape issues,
 advancing science that informs critical decision-making, and
 advocating policies and strategies that champion ecological connectivity.
Our Vision
Our vision is a dynamic collaboration of ideas, institutions, and individuals that creates a
network of connected natural areas resilient to large scale environmental challenges.
What is Large Landscape Conservation?
Working in partnership with local people and communities, large landscape conservation
connects working lands, urban areas, and wild lands into whole, healthy landscapes that
allow nature to flourish.
On the ground, large landscape conservation enhances the conservation value of working
lands, helping conserve key connections between landscapes, launching climate adaptation
initiatives, and other strategies to help nature remain resilient on a grand scale.
Our Work
We promote natural resiliency by answering to large landscape conservation’s biggest
challenges: the need for deeper collaboration, supportive science and strong policy.
Build Communities That Engage Invested Stakeholders
The diverse conservation challenges of large landscapes merit an equally diverse
response—a collaboration between organizations, communities, companies, individuals
and government. We see ourselves as the connective tissue of conservation, sparking
dynamic conversations between stakeholders and catalyzing widespread, positive progress
across large landscapes.
People are an integral part of large landscapes too—we believe the best solutions arise
when those with varied perspectives meet to find common ground and insight. To that end,
we organize gatherings, facilitate conversations, and provide support communications and
educational resources to deepen understanding and ongoing cooperation between those
who live, work and play within large natural connected areas. We know challenges help
unite people, so we help communities identify—and solve—shared initiatives.
No one organization can single-handedly address the challenges of large landscapes
conservation—but one organization can build communities of invested stakeholders
around large landscapes, setting the stage for collaboration—and solutions—on a grand
scale.
Advance Science That Informs Conservation Decisions
We see science as a powerful diagnostic tool, one that can help us better discover and
defend vital links between landscapes. Our work explores key landscape stressors,
identifying places where maintaining connected landscapes is paramount—now and for
the future. Equipped with a scientific perspective, we collaborate with partner
organizations and practitioners to uphold these crucial connections.
We’re ever-vigilant for opportunities to merge science with large landscape goals, and we
strive to make our scientific findings accessible, useful and relevant. We seek partner
organizations that can benefit from our data and discoveries, supplying them with
resources that amplify their on-the-ground efforts. We also look for gaps in knowledge,
distilling our findings into useful tools to effectively inform decision-makers.
Perhaps most importantly, we look for shared values among stakeholders, directing our
scientific inquiry towards solving common problems. Allied with partners from both inside
and outside the conservation world, we advance connectivity goals together, supported by
a scientific grounding.
Advocate Policy That Champions Ecological Connectivity
We lay the groundwork for a future of large connected natural areas—intact landscapes
that support wildlife while offering all the benefits of nature to those who live, work, and
play nearby. We advocate for policies, plans and strategies that champion large landscape
conservation via federal, state and local initiatives.
Our goal is simple—to lend our policy expertise where it can best advance ecological
connectivity. To that end, we create effective policies, strengthen existing ones, and refine
those yet to be adopted. We encourage agencies and organizations to create wildlife-
sensitive solutions within their priorities for management and practice, advising them in
the process. As policy evolves, we help decision-makers and managers incorporate new
requirements into their programs and on-the-ground work.
Transformative policy change requires open collaboration—especially working on such a
large scale. We unite diverse conservation organizations, leading a collective approach to
advancing policy. Partnering with organizations, agencies, and visionary leaders, we’re
ensuring healthy, intact landscapes for the future of both wildlife and people.
Case Studies
We look for opportunities to support and advance on the ground conservation challenges,
gaining forward momentum with the help of our partners.
Build Communities
Engaging Major Stakeholders Across 18 Million Acres
We’re proud to coordinate one of the first large-scale climate adaptation efforts in North
America: the Adaptive Management Initiative (AMI), a suite of 16 projects in the Crown of
the Continent. These projects, selected through the Roundtable of the Crown of the
Continent, engage a variety of stakeholders across the Crown’s 18 million acres. Brought
together by the AMI, tribes, First nations, rural communities, non-profits and agencies all
collaborate towards more resilient, connected landscapes for both wildlife and people.
We facilitate such wide-reaching collaboration within the AMI by creating venues that
invite deeper participation: we organize an annual conference, host workshops and
webinars, and keep stakeholders updated with a monthly newsletter and conference call.
With our support, stakeholders share ideas and learn from each other to develop and
implement forward-thinking climate adaptation strategies. Currently, AMI participants
collaborate on initiatives strategically chosen for their potential to build resilience into the
Crown’s natural and human communities.
While we consider participatory conservation on such a large scale a worthy achievement
unto itself, we’re striving to make the AMI a model of finding solutions that can transfer to
other landscapes—replicating successes around the Crown, the nation, and even the world.
To that end, we are working on similar initiatives regionally with the Great Northern
Landscape Conservation Cooperative. We’re also working through the Practitioners
Network to share ideas at a national scale.
We’re excited by the possibilities opened by collaboration across scales and landscapes,
and we’re dedicated to fostering ongoing participation and cooperation in the strategic
projects of the AMI.
Advance Science
Preserving Corridors While Protecting Drivers
Partnering with state agencies, we’ve integrated diverse data in novel ways, developing a
clear picture of crucial zones in the Northern Rockies for both wildlife connectivity and
human safety. By distilling wildlife corridor analyses, highway roadkill data, and road
ecology principles, we’ve discovered where wildlife movement matters most, where human
and wildlife safety are most at risk, and most importantly, where these two considerations
overlap. Now, for the first time ever, practitioners on the ground will be able to rely on
rigorous, science-based guidance as they advance strategies to safeguard wildlife
movement across roadways.
Since wildlife crossing structures have been proven to reduce and even eliminate wildlifevehicle collisions, our findings will inform progress that promotes connectivity for wildlife
and protects drivers, too—helping conservation practitioners find important common
ground with state transportation departments. We’ll translate our completed analysis into
pragmatic resources, getting our findings into practitioners’ hands through action-oriented
reports, workshops, and web-based decision-support tools.
Roads disrupt landscapes, and their impacts will only worsen as the West welcomes more
people. By supporting practitioners’ on-the-ground actions with our big-picture
perspective of connectivity, we can empower stakeholders to address existing roadway
issues as well as inspire future transportation infrastructure that provides safe passage for
wildlife and people. While our current efforts focus on the Northern Rockies, our approach
can be applied across the entire West.
Already, we’re excited by the opportunities we see in our completed scientific work, and
we’re dedicated to translating our findings into vital tools for groups on the ground,
ushering in a future of connected landscapes and safer roadways in the Northern Rockies—
and beyond.
Advocate Policy
Ensuring Connectivity for 193 Million Acres
Advocating for wildlife-friendly policy with our conservation partners, we secured a
landmark advancement for large landscape conservation—by persuading the United States
Forest Service (USFS) to incorporate wildlife corridors and ecological connectivity into its
newly minted Forest Planning Rule. Now, as the USFS creates the next generation of land
management plans for its 193 million acres, the agency must evaluate and provide
protection standards for ecological connectivity and wildlife corridors to ensure the longterm integrity of our public lands.
We consider this a major victory for maintaining large connected natural areas across each
of the 171 national forests and grasslands, as well as having the USFS consider its
connections to neighboring wild areas. Still, it’s just the beginning, as this new national
policy must now be translated into tangible local progress during the development of
individual management plans. To that end, we are now providing comments on the changes
to the USFS Manual and USFS Handbook, “how to” books that guide managers through dayto-day operations and planning. At the same time, we also are participating in local USFS
management plan revisions to comprehend firsthand how the new policy is being
implemented.
We’re thrilled to have helped get provisions for connectivity into the new Forest Planning
Rule and we’re committed to assuring the Forest Service converts this new direction into
the protection of dozens, perhaps hundreds of wildlife corridors across the nation in the
near future.
Staff Biographies
Dr. Gary Tabor, Executive Director
BSc Ecology, Cornell University
VMD Wildlife Veterinary Medicine, University of Pennsylvania
MSc Conservation Biology, Yale University
Gary catalyzes forward progress in large landscape conservation, serving as founder and
Executive Director of the Center for Large Landscape Conservation. Drawing on over 30 years’
experience working on behalf of large scale conservation internationally as well as 12 years as a
leader within the U.S. environmental philanthropic community, Gary guides CLLC with a
vision grounded in both science and experience.
A conservation scientist and wildlife veterinarian, Gary’s conservation achievements cross
the globe, including the establishment of Kibale National Park in Uganda and pioneering
the field of Conservation Medicine and Eco-Health. In the West, he co-designed the
Western Governors’ Association Wildlife Corridors Initiative, and co-founded the
Yellowstone to Yukon Conservation Initiative, the Roundtable of the Crown of the
Continent, and the Practitioners’ Network for Large Landscape Conservation.
Gary has served as Program Officer of the Geraldine Rockefeller Dodge Foundation,
Associate Director of the Henry P. Kendall Foundation, and Yellowstone to Yukon Program
Director for the Wilburforce Foundation. Sitting on multiple conservation boards, Gary is a
Henry Luce Scholar and a 2013 recipient of one of two Australian American Fulbright
Scholar awards in Climate Change and Clean Energy.
Rob Ament, Senior Conservationist
BSc Horticulture, Iowa State University
MSc Biological Sciences, Montana State University
Rob leads our efforts in advancing wildlife corridors and ecological connectivity, drawing
on over 30 years of experience in ecology, natural resource management, environmental
policy and organizational development to develop and implement wildlife-friendly policies
across scales.
Complementing his work with the Center for Large Landscape Conservation, Rob is the
Road Ecology Program Manager for the Western Transportation Institute at Montana State
University. He currently serves on Montana State University’s Campus Sustainability
Advisory Council, as Treasurer for the Wildlands Network’s Board of Directors, and as a
member of IUCN’s International Connectivity Conservation Network.
A founding board member of the Yellowstone to Yukon Conservation Initiative, Rob has
also served as an expert panelist to the National Academies’ Transportation Research
Board, on two policy groups for the Western Governors’ Association’s Wildlife Corridors
Initiative, and as a volunteer on causes from wildlife rescue to women’s shelters to
education.
Melly Reuling, Senior Conservationist
BS Biology, Evergreen State College
MS Wildlife Ecology, University of Washington
Melly brings her Montana ranching roots and over two decades of conservation work with
both government and non-government agencies in East Africa to her role at the Center for
Large Landscape Conservation: building and strengthening collaborative communities
around large landscape conservation projects.
Currently, Melly coordinates the Adaptive Management Initiative of the Roundtable on the
Crown of the Continent, a large-scale climate adaptation effort engaging multiple
stakeholders on 16 projects across the Crown. She is also serves on the Leadership Team of
the Rocky Mountain Partner Forum of the GNLCC.
In the past, she’s worked on a wide variety of conservation projects concerned with wildlife
movement, cross boarder conservation issues and human wildlife interaction. She also
helped develop community conservation protocol in both Kenya and Tanzania—experience
that has informed her more recent work on white bark pine, climate change issues, and
migration projects in Montana.
Meredith McClure, Conservation Scientist
PhD in Ecology with Graduate Certificate in Statistics, Montana State University
MA in Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, UCLA
BS in Ecology, Evolution, & Behavior, University of Texas
Meredith helps our partner organizations and agencies focus their limited resources on
conserving the region’s most crucial corridors, bringing a scientific perspective to our
conservation work. Her scientific inquiry also helps to inform CLLC’s conservation policy and
strategy work.
Currently, Meredith works jointly with CLLC and our partner organization, Conservation
Science Partners. Her past and ongoing work has explored connectivity-related processes in
diverse settings, including the nationwide spread of feral swine, puma movements in the Greater
Grand Canyon, the transmission of Hendra virus among Australian flying foxes, and the impact
of roads on Northern Rockies wildlife corridors.
Meredith completed her graduate research in landscape ecology in 2012, testing models
commonly used to predict corridors against actual wildlife movement data. She has volunteered
with Population Connection since 2007, helping educators incorporate population growth and
resource consumption issues into their curricula to instill a global perspective on human impacts
on the natural world and inspire action toward positive change.
Renee Callahan, Senior Policy Officer
BA Economics and East Asian Studies, Harvard University
JD American University
M Environmental Science & Management, University of California, Santa Barbara
An attorney, educated in environmental science and management, Renee lends her legal
expertise in administrative processes, legislative language and judicial rulings to CLLC’s
policy work, with the goal of promoting public policies that facilitate ecological connectivity
and large landscape conservation.
While at the Bren School at University of California-Santa Barbara, Renee specialized in
conservation planning and coastal marine resources management, with a focus on habitat
connectivity and climate change. Renee has over a decade of professional legal experience
working on federal regulatory law and public policy issues in Washington, D.C.
Prior to enrolling at Bren, she was a Partner with the law firm of Lawler, Metzger, Milkman
& Keeney, LLC, and served as an Attorney Advisor for the Honorable Joseph E. McGuire
within the Attorney General’s Honors Program at the U.S. Department of Justice.
Rosemary Burton, Office, Grants & Financial Manger
B Arch, Texas A&M University
Arts Year, Gonzaga-in-Florence
M Architecture, Montana State University
Originally trained as an architect, Rosemary now translates her organizational skills and
attention to detail into managing the office, grants and finances for the Center for Large
Landscape Conservation. An outdoor educator and avid outdoorswoman, Rosemary brings
a love of natural places to her role.
Rosemary’s past experience includes guiding canoe and backpacking expeditions for
Outward Bound, as well as creating the Montana State University's Outdoor Orientation
program for incoming freshmen. She was a visual merchandiser for Patagonia and has
designed and constructed several renovations and additions.
Rosemary speaks Spanish and when she is not traveling with her family to Costa Rica, the
desert southwest or Hawaii, she is canoeing and hiking western rivers, deserts and
mountains. An engaged local citizen, Rosemary is the Vice-President of the Dance Alliance
and volunteers frequently for school and community events.