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GRVLT recently launched the Corridor Conservation Campaign, which seeks to connect Wyoming’s working lands and critical wildlife habitats through conservation efforts. This is a 5-year Campaign that that will work with landowners, land managers, and others to develop, fund and implement a set of voluntary tools that can be used to sustain agriculture and wildlife habitat in the face of increasing development.
The Campaign will focus on a different group of species each year. Its current focus is on big game, including pronghorn and their historic migration between summer range in Grand Teton National Park and winter range in Sublette County. Subsequent years will build on previous successes, and focus on birds, fish and other keystone species. GRVLT will consult with landowners and state wildlife experts to objectively identify priority habitats for these species across the state. We will then leverage existing resources and partnerships—and work to create new resources and partnerships—to maintain the connectivity of these animals’ habitats. View Path of Pronghorn Map
To see an interactive tour of the migration route, complete with photos from GRVLT's inventory of existing fences, you can download a Google Earth tour entitled Path of the Pronghorn. If you do not currently have Google Earth software on your computer, you can download a free copy at their website.
The Wildlife-Friendly Fencing Initiative is a critical component of the Campaign. This comprehensive initiative allows GRVLT to work with interested landowners to provide cost-free wildlife-friendly fencing along key migration corridors. GRVLT hopes to protect big game such as pronghorn, moose, elk and deer by modifying or reconstructing up to 500 miles of fencing throughout western Wyoming by 2012.
Each year, Wyoming’s wildlife travel vast distances to survive. Pronghorn antelope, for example, migrate several hundred miles between summer range in Grand Teton National Park and winter range in Sublette County. This migration has followed the same path for roughly 6,000 years. Despite a growing number of challenges, this persistent herd still travels the route to reach the Tetons each year. Their trek represents the longest land-based animal migration in the Western Hemisphere and the third longest non-avian migration in the world.
During their annual migration, the historic pronghorn and other big game face a number of obstacles. Specifically, non-wildlife friendly fencing contributes to the mortality rates of these species as they make their seasonal migrations. The current fencing conditions, along with disruptions such as housing developments and roads along the route, result from the mosaic of federal, state, and private ownership of lands within the route. Such disturbances have the potential to forever disrupt the established migratory route, increase mortality rates, and cause displacement of big game herds. Through its Corridor Conservation Campaign efforts, GRVLT is working with landowners to provide voluntary tools to mitigate or eliminate the obstacles facing Wyoming’s big game and signature wildlife.
The wildlife in Sublette County is especially vulnerable to the impacts of development, as it is the fastest growing county in Wyoming. In fact, the American Farmland Trust (AFT) predicts that Sublette County risks losing 336,000 acres of strategic ranchland to residential development by 2020. According to AFT, this accounts for 13% of the state’s strategic ranchland and puts Sublette County first among Wyoming counties at risk of losing such land to non-agricultural uses. Recent trends support AFT’s prediction. Sublette County saw its acres of developed land increase by 2.6 times between 1982 and 1997. Furthermore, since 1998, nearly 100,000 acres have been subdivided in Wyoming.
Sublette County’s growth from two sources: rural residential development driven often by amenity buyers interested in the area’s recreational opportunities and from the area’s energy production, as the county produces more natural gas than anywere in the Northern Rockies. As a result, the rate of development has drastically increased in the last several years.
Such increased development creates a greater wildlife mortality risk due to human disturbances such as fragmentation and increased fencing use. Thus, there is an ongoing need to balance the area’s world class wildlife with its world class energy resources. GRVLT believes a balance can be achieved and is working hard to help mitigate the impacts on wildlife. GRVLT hopes that by employing tools like wildlife-friendly fencing and conservation easements, the rates of both development and wildlife mortality will decrease.
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One of the greatest challenges associated with pronghorn and other big game migration patterns is non-wildlife friendly fencing. (Wildlife-friendly fencing is generally defined as a fence that is no more than 42 inches high with a smooth bottom wire at least 16 inches off the ground, and at least 10, but preferably 12, inches between the top and second wires.) Such fencing makes it difficult, and sometimes impossible, for pronghorn and other big game to migrate between their summer and winter ranges. View Fence Graphic
The first phase of the Initiative focuses on the pronghorn migration route (the “path of the pronghornâ€) between Grand Teton National Park and Sublette County. GRVLT has already worked with crews to inventory fencing along the route. This inventory confirmed the many previous studies that state fencing does in fact pose a problem for migrating pronghorn and other big game. Additionally, the information gathered during the inventory allows us to work with public and private partners to prioritize which fences can be reconstructed to best meet the needs of wildlife and landowners.
GRVLT is currently working with landowners along the “path of the pronghorn†to determine if their property includes any priority fences. If so, and if the landowner is interested in reconstructing or modifying those fences, GRVLT will discuss recommended fence types and select a mutually-agreeable type to install cost-free. To date, this phase of the Initiative is ahead of schedule and under budget and has modified more than 50 miles of fence.
Subsequent project phases will employ similar steps to identify and replace non-wildlife-friendly fencing in 4 other project areas throughout Sublette County by the end of 2012. Subsequent project areas will be prioritized in consultation with the Wyoming Game and Fish Department and other project partners. Landowner and land manager interest in subsequent project areas will be determined through the community outreach events during winter months.
In addition to providing remediation to prohibitive fencing, GRVLT also hopes that the efforts to work with these landowners will help alleviate the financial burden of their fencing needs (after careful review and information collecting, GRVLT estimates new fencing costs to be $18,000-$25,000/mile) and help keep more working lands out of the hands of developers. Thus, it is important to provide landowners with tools to maintain agricultural lands along the migration route as they encompass crucial seasonal ranges and various breeding grounds for a variety of species.
Although GRVLT is leading this project, staff is working with a number of partner organizations to make it a reality. Even in its infancy, the Campaign is enjoying fundraising success and public endorsements. Most notably, the Jonah Interoffice Agency (JIO) recently awarded a $1 million challenge grant to the Wildlife Friendly-Fencing Initiative ($1 million with a $1 million match requirement). GRVLT is optimistic that federal wildlife agencies, sportsmen groups, private and public foundations, and various corporations will also lend their support.
Additionally, Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne and Wyoming Governor Dave Freudenthal have both endorsed the project. Governor Freudenthal described the effort as “an example of the right way to approach this challenge, by sitting down with landowners and negotiating with them on how best to protect corridors that border or cross their land.†Thus, GRVLT is confident that the Campaign will serve as a model of a successful collaboration among a variety of traditional and non-traditional partners, which now includes participation and/or financial support by:
• Bridger-Teton National Forest
• Bureau of Land Management
• EnerCrest
• Environmental Defense Fund
• Family foundations
• Jonah Interagency Office
• Mule Deer Foundation
• National Fish and Wildlife Foundation
• Natural Resource Conservation Service
• Private donors
• Safari Club International
• US Department of Agriculture
• US Department of Interior
• Wyoming Department of Agriculture
• Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality
• Wyoming Game & Fish Department
We have numerous materials that we have used to describe the details of this effort (and would be happy to provide further information, if needed). There are several that can be accessed online:
Antelope migration project underway (9/4/08)
Fencing project under way to aid pronghorn (9/4/08)
$1M to help pronghorn (7/1/08)
$1M to help pronghorn
As the pace of land development throughout Wyoming soars, the time to preserve iconic wildlife, and the land that supports them, is now. Experts have identified, studied and made recommendations about the pronghorn migration route between GTNP and Sublette County for more than 5 years. These efforts are necessary, but not sufficient, to maintain and improve the viability of animals along this route, as well as others throughout western Wyoming.
GRVLT’s Wildlife-Friendly Fencing Initiative seeks to employ immediate “on the ground†efforts that will improve conditions along key migration corridors in and around Sublette County. As the county represents 18+ million acres of key wildlife habitat, or approximately 1/5 of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, GRVLT’s efforts will have a tremendous impact on countless wildlife species.
GRVLT is appreciative of the opportunity to potentially partner with you on such an important conservation project and hopes your foundation will give thoughtful consideration to this request.
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