Project Centinela
Hotspot
Wild Livelihoods proposes the Montana portion of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem (GYE) as a Project Centinela hotspot, with an initial focus on private-land bottlenecks adjacent to Yellowstone National Park—ranging from Red Lodge to West Yellowstone and including Paradise Valley, the Upper Yellowstone watershed, and south Gallatin County. These landscapes sit between large protected cores (Yellowstone NP, surrounding National Forests) and function as critical migration corridors for elk, pronghorn, and bison, as well as connective habitat for wide-ranging carnivores such as wolves and grizzly bears.
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While Yellowstone National Park is fully protected, the greatest near-term risk to biodiversity in the GYE occurs on private lands, where subdivision growth, fencing, riparian degradation, and groundwater stress directly undermine the integrity of the larger ecosystem. This risk is consistently identified by the local tourism economy, which depends on intact wildlife populations and landscapes that generate more than $1B annually in non-resident tourism for our region.
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Climate change compounds these pressures, accelerating whitebark pine mortality, altering snowpack and stream hydrology, and increasing wildfire risk—factors that directly affect grizzly bears, fisheries, and alpine biodiversity.
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* The map depicts Paradise Valley, a critical segment of the proposed GYE hotspot where private lands form an essential migration corridor leading directly into Yellowstone National Park.
Strategic Fit
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This proposed Project Centinela site directly advances Kunming-Montreal 2030 Biodiversity Targets under the GBF, including:
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Target 1 & 2: Spatial planning and restoration in migration corridors and riparian systems
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Target 3: Complementing protected areas through effective conservation on private lands
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Target 5 & 10: Reducing human-wildlife conflict while sustaining working landscapes
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Target 19: Mobilizing private capital and tourism-driven conservation finance
Unlike many global sites, the GYE benefits from strong public-land cores; the challenge—and opportunity—is aligning private lands, markets, and monitoring to sustain system-level biodiversity.
Project Pillars
Planet’s high-resolution imagery and analytics, fused with GrizCam ground sensors, will support the following integrated project portfolio:
A. Wildlife Connectivity on Private Lands
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Wildlife-friendly fencing retrofits benefiting pronghorn, elk, and ranch operations
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Corridor mapping using Planet imagery to identify priority fence-removal and easement zones
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Verification of corridor use via GrizCam detections
B. Large Carnivore Co-existence
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Expansion of electric fencing and bear-proof waste systems for ranches, counties, and tourism businesses
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Grizzly and wolf presence monitoring to reduce conflict and guide proactive mitigation
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Public-private coordination across jurisdictional boundaries
C. Science-Based Wolf Monitoring & Policy Support
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Deployment of acoustic GrizCam sensors to detect wolf howling events
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Improved census estimates to reduce uncertainty in politically contentious quota-setting
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Integration of acoustic ground truth with Planet imagery to develop scalable population models
D. Native Fisheries & Riparian Restoration
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Protection of Yellowstone cutthroat trout habitat across public and private waters
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Monitoring invasive species pressure (e.g., rainbow trout, lake trout)
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Restoration implementation with Montana Freshwater Partners
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Riparian health change detection using Planet time-series imagery
E. Beaver-Mediated Climate Resilience
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Beaver coexistence and beaver-mimicry structures to restore wetlands and cold-water refugia
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Hydrologic change tracking via satellite imagery and in-stream sensors
F. Payment-for-Presence Programs
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Incentive payments to ranchers tied to verified wildlife use of their land
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Automated presence verification via GrizCam photo, acoustic, and AI classification
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Planet imagery used to validate habitat condition and landscape-scale outcomes
G. Wildlife Crime & Compliance Monitoring
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Detection of poaching and illegal activity across public-private interfaces
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Cost-effective alternatives to flight surveys and manual patrols
H. Soil Health & Regenerative Grazing
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Planet-based vegetation and soil proxies to guide grazing practices
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Bioacoustic indices (grassland birds) as biodiversity indicators tied to habitat health
I. County Growth Planning
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Planet-based maps to assist county planners to make informed decisions on growth plans that impact wildlife migrations and water use and fire and flood risk
J. Fire Response Tools
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Planet-based maps coupled with GrizCam scent sensors for early detection of fire
Monitoring Innovation
A defining feature of this proposal is the fusion of satellite intelligence and ground truth:
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Planet’s imagery provides landscape-scale pattern detection
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GrizCam provides species-level verification (photos, acoustics, AI classification)
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Together, they enable training datasets that improve automated wildlife detection globally
This site offers Planet a living laboratory to refine biodiversity monitoring workflows that reduce costs, improve accuracy, and scale to other Project Centinela regions worldwide.
Governance & Local Collaboration
Project Centinela requires durable, locally led coalitions. Wild Livelihoods is uniquely positioned because:
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Tourism is the dominant economy in this region
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Conservation is framed as economic infrastructure, not just ideology
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Local business support for science-based wildlife management is well-documented
Core Partners Include:
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Montana Freshwater Partners
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Yellowstone Gateway Business Coalition
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Upper Yellowstone Watershed Group
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Trout Unlimited
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Greater Yellowstone Coalition
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National Parks Conservation Association
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Absaroka-Beartooth Wilderness Association
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Yellowstone Safe Passages
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Park County Environmental Council
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Property and Environment Research Center (PERC)
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Shane Doyle (Crow Nation)
Why This Site Matters
The Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem is one of the last large, intact temperate ecosystems on Earth. Its future will not be decided inside national parks—but on the working private lands between them. Project Centinela offers a rare opportunity to demonstrate how satellite intelligence, local business leadership, and incentive-based conservation can secure biodiversity while sustaining rural livelihoods.