History

In the early 1990’s, Dr. Tony Povilitis and colleagues created Life Net Nature to mobilize people to protect wildlife and nature. An early project was establishing Grizzly Bear critical habitat in the San Juan mountains of Colorado. Life Net has continually worked to recover the endangered Huemul Deer in Chile.

More recently, Life Net has worked on endangered species policy in the US, coral reef protection on Maui, and bird and wildlife conservation in Ecuador and Kenya. Life Net manages a protected area in Ecuador called Reserva Las Tangaras, which is open to the public.

In 2015, Life Net’s directors, Dr. Tony Povilitis and Dr. Dusti Becker, began work on natural resources conservation in the Solomon Islands. Thanks to a generous donor, they researched over 20 Marine Protected Areas.  Since 2012, Life Net has been working with the Maasai in Kenya to monitor wildlife and develop local opportunities in ecotourism.  One goal is to establish community-based protected areas next to the famed Masai Mara to protect Nyakweri forest, and endangered giraffes and elephants, along with other wildlife.

In the USA, Life Net advocates for a wolf-watching management unit around Yellowstone National park where trophy hunting of wolves will be prohibited. Life Net endangered species projects include saving the endangered Esmeraldas Woodstar (hummingbird) in Ecuador and the Andean Huemul Deer in Chile through enhanced habitat preservation.

Life Net provides educational volunteer opportunities, works on policy change, and does research on wildlife populations and their conservation. The species change, as do locations, but the goal is always the same: to protect wild nature on our one and only Earth!