Harvey Locke is an environmentalist with some big goals.

Locke, a leader in the field of parks, wilderness and large landscape conservation, is leading a movement to link together parks and protected areas over a huge part of North America.

香蕉视频直播淵ellowstone to Yukon is the first large-scale conservation initiative that I worked on extensively,香蕉视频直播� said Locke. 香蕉视频直播淲hen we started in in 1993, it was in response to scientific findings, that as great as national parks like Banff or Yellowstone are for saving wildlife, that if they become islands of habitat in a highly fragmented landscape by other human developments, they will lose their species through time.

香蕉视频直播淏ut if you can connect them up to each other through networks, they will retain species through time.香蕉视频直播�

Locke is also the keynote speaker for this year香蕉视频直播檚 Meadowlark Nature Festival, delivering his talk on May 18, starting at 7 p.m. in Cleland Theatre.

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In his presentation, Locke is taking the audience on a journey from Yellowstone to the Yukon, including the Okanagan, and exploring conservation as it is practiced around the planet.

香蕉视频直播淚 will be talking about these ideas, how we might think about how we live in places like the Okanagan, as it relates to sharing the world with nature,香蕉视频直播� said Locke. 香蕉视频直播淚 hope people will find it an interesting journey. They will be taken around the world 香蕉视频直播� but it will be grounded locally and travelling globally.香蕉视频直播�

The challenge with connecting Yellowstone to the Yukon, he explains, is that you can香蕉视频直播檛 just create a giant national park.

But you can create landscape conditions between the parks that allow for animals to move and maintain genetic connections to avoid inbreeding and population collapse,香蕉视频直播� he said, explaining that might include connections through private land, and highway crossing structures like those in Banff National Park that allow animals to get across busy roads.

香蕉视频直播淲e香蕉视频直播檝e been able to work with land trust partners to purchase key parcels of land along busy highways and gravel bed rivers to protect wildlife connectivity,香蕉视频直播� said Locke. 香蕉视频直播淲e haven香蕉视频直播檛 yet achieved everything we hoped to achieve, but there is certainly an awareness that the landscape needs to be connected.

香蕉视频直播淲e have made some real progress. That doesn香蕉视频直播檛 mean we are done.香蕉视频直播�

Another big initiative is Nature Needs Half, which was inspired in part by the decline in the number of species under threat of extinction.

香蕉视频直播淲e香蕉视频直播檙e seeing across Canada, even where things aren香蕉视频直播檛 going extinct, a huge reduction in the numbers of species that are surviving,香蕉视频直播� said Locke. 香蕉视频直播淪o we need an idea commensurate with the scale of the problem.香蕉视频直播�

When the question asked about how much of a given eco-region needs to be protected, Locke said often the answer is about half.

香蕉视频直播淢any traditional First Nations Peoples, who still have a lot of intact territory, think that scale of conservation of half or higher is necessary,香蕉视频直播� said Locke. 香蕉视频直播淭hose ideas sort of came together, traditional knowledge and western science saying we should be protecting a lot more of the landscape than we thought we should.

香蕉视频直播淭hat香蕉视频直播檚 the idea of Nature Needs Half, of protecting half the world in an interconnected way, both land and sea.香蕉视频直播�

It香蕉视频直播檚 not surprising then that Locke is a big fan of the national park reserve proposition for the South Okanagan Similkameen.

香蕉视频直播淚n places like the South Okanagan, especially the desert part of it, protecting every piece possible is a good strategy.

香蕉视频直播淭here are a lot of endangered species concentrated in certain areas of Canada and the South Okanagan is one of them,香蕉视频直播� said Locke. 香蕉视频直播淚t is also highly desirable for vineyards and other things, residential development, second homes, so there is a lot of pressure on the landscape, so securing as much of it as possible is a first-class strategy.香蕉视频直播�

The fundamental challenge, according to Locke, is that people want to move into the places that are most biologically productive because that is where the climate is nicest.

香蕉视频直播淭hat香蕉视频直播檚 why we end up having conflicts between human aspirations and the needs of nature,香蕉视频直播� he said. 香蕉视频直播淚 think we need to turn that a little bit and say that when we meet the needs of nature, we meet a more satisfying life for humans too, when nature flourishes along with us.香蕉视频直播�

Locke said over his lifetime, he has spent a lot of time in the South Okanagan and has seen the population growth and expansion of the communities. 香蕉视频直播淚t香蕉视频直播檚 got an exceptional quality of life. But that quality of life, if it loses nature, it will be diminished,香蕉视频直播� he said.

Tickets for Locke香蕉视频直播檚 May 18 keynote presentation are $20 and are available through . The 2018 Meadowlark Nature Festival runs May 17 to 21, featuring 78 tours led by naturalists, painters, biologists, writers, ecologists, Indigenous cultural leaders and more.