The Yellowstone to Yukon initiative (Y2Y) is the largest transboundary conservation effort in North America. Almost 300 conservation non-governmental organizations in the United States and Canada have joined in implementing a common vision of conserving the most intact nature in the Rocky Mountains. Like many places on the planet, habitat fragmentation and climate change are having profound impacts on this landscape. On the one hand, the region is experiencing unprecedented levels of oil and gas development impacting its wild areas and wildlife and on the other hand, Glacier National Park, the poster landscape of climate change, will lose all its glaciers in the decades to come. Here lies the challenge and paradox of conservation in an increasingly crowded and consumptive world. The landscape vision of Y2Y embodies concepts of ecological science that promotes conservation at a scale large enough to allow for adaptation and resilience and to sustain ecological processes. Yet, as in the case of Glacier, a collective blindness exists about the impacts of insatiable fossil fuel hunger. As nature grows scarce, we demand more from what is left. No where is this paradox played out more than in people's individual choice to engage in off-road motorized recreation in pristine landscapes. Can human vision overcome the growing human footprint?