Nature & Wildlife Art Symposium

The WNY Wildway: Stitching Our Forests Back Together

Western New York’s forests, wetlands, and meadows once formed an unbroken tapestry of wild places. Today, human development, roads, and fragmentation have left the region’s landscapes disconnected, limiting wildlife movement and weakening natural resilience. The WNY Wildway is a bold, long-term initiative spearheaded by the WNY Land Conservancy to reconnect these landscapes, safeguarding the region’s largest remaining forests and linking them through protected corridors. By weaving together core habitats and restoring connections, the WNY Wildway will ensure that wildlife can move freely, critical ecosystems can adapt to a changing climate, and communities can continue to benefit from clean water, carbon storage, and thriving natural areas.

Marcus Rosten is the Director of the WNY Wildway at the Western New York Land Conservancy, where he leads a regional initiative to protect and connect wildlife habitat from Northern Appalachia to the Great Lakes. A Buffalo native and graduate of the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry with a degree in Environmental Education and Interpretation, he has more than a decade of experience in conservation, education, and community engagement. Marcus has served as an interpretive park ranger in national parks and forests, led environmental education and stewardship programs with local non-profits, and worked as a fish and wildlife technician for state and federal agencies. A 2020 30 Under 30 Awardee from the North American Association for Environmental Education, his work has been featured nationally in Scholastic News, the Nike Journal, NPR’s “BirdNote,” and on PBS “Nature.”