In late 2017 Parks Canada marked the 20th anniversary of the completion of the first wildlife overpass in Banff National Park, a first-of-its-kind innovation to address wildlife-vehicle collisions, habitat fragmentation, and disrupted migration routes in an area of rapid infrastructure development. Despite much skepticism on the effectiveness of such structures 20 years ago, the successes in and around Banff have transformed the field of transportation ecology - and sparked similar innovations in other landscapes. In Washington state, an infrastructure improvement project along the I-90 corridor through the Cascades is underway and represents a tremendous success story of partnership around transportation projects. And in the Adirondacks of New York, The Nature Conservancy and partners are pioneering low-cost "critter shelves" ( video and more information) as a connectivity solution to busy roadways. 

In today's world of "big data," technology advances are ever-accelerating and new innovations for the application of data and technology are constantly emerging - including innovations on leveraging high-tech tools for conservation at the landscape scale. In December, Microsoft announced a new "AI for Earth" initiative, pledging $50 million over five years to apply artificial intelligence (AI) technologies in addressing the world's most pressing environmental issues. A recent Nature article by the firm's chief environment scientist makes the case for technology investments in conservation. The Chesapeake Conservancy, in collaboration with Esri, has been an early partner with Microsoft, applying deep-learning technologies to convert high-resolution imagery of the Chesapeake Bay watershed into land-cover maps at a 1-meter resolutions - maps that contain 900 times more information than those previously available, and ones that can be readily updated any time new images become available. A recent Bloomberg Environment article explained how the Conservancy is working to use this data to undergird its efforts to protect and restore the Chesapeake Bay's 64,000-square-mile watershed. 

The Conservation Finance Network has launched a new toolkit to guide practitioners through topics and tools for the financing of conservation. The conservation finance toolkit is an online resource structured around a series of articles that cover select financing tools, representing a broad range of complexity and size of funding opportunity. Tailored for the practitioner, the articles are intended to guide the user through a specific financing tool, including how to get started with the tool, when its use may be appropriate, and common challenges and pitfalls in using the tool. The toolkit is expanding, and new articles will be regularly added to help practitioners harness the growing array of innovative mechanisms available for financing conservation.  

The Intertwine Alliance, an Oregon-based coalition of more than 150 public, private, and nonprofit organizations working to integrate nature more deeply into the greater Portland metropolitan region, partnered with researchers at Portland State University's Institute for Sustainable Solutions to undertake a study of the Alliance and use it as a pathway for exploring the impact, depth, and benefits of partnerships. The study findings have just been released in a report, Exploring the Relationship between Collaborative Partnerships and Outcomes. Focusing on specific Alliance projects and programs, the report finds transformative rather than incremental impacts: the study suggests that collaborative partnership networks can increase the pace and scale of outcomes, and have multiple benefits that reach far beyond environmental improvements. An executive summary is available, as is a narrative, long-form journalism article, Restoring the Tualatin River Valley. The Alliance has also created an interactive, multi-media website to weave short partner stories and videos together with the groundbreaking study to tell the story of the power of partnership.