Wildlife corridors span valleys and rivers, linking mountain strongholds. Protecting privately-owned land within them is the key to regional connectivity between ecosystems, for grizzlies and many other wide-rangers. Vital Ground’s Wild River Project is one of the posterchildren for this calling, a decade-long effort to conserve a formerly-subdivided corridor along the Kootenai River. These acres connect the Yaak Valley and the Cabinet Mountains of Northwest Montana, and the small grizzly populations within them.