The recent announcement of a 2.7-million dollar joint federal and private generated grant for wildlife migration and winter range lands is news that is being welcomed by the Wyoming Game and Fish Department. Deputy Director Scott Smith says it will certainly help defray the costs of on the ground projects with a wide range of price tags. Scott explains “As part of the secretarial order, not only has a plan come out to identify where important migration corridors may exist across the state, but this is an effort to put money on the ground to help enhance those corridors – whether it be a simple fence conversion some of the more expensive highway crossing-type projects.” Smith says what money can be obtained through the grant could be used as seed money for larger projects to leverage other funding opportunities. Among the projects that could benefit he says might be future efforts on the Path of the Pronghorn between Teton and Sublette counties. However, he adds “Today I don’t have a specific project that would apply to that migration corridor. That will be part of our evaluation going forward to look at on-the-ground, localized projects that could be helped with this type of funding.” Smith says the Department has already received $300-thousand from the Department of Interior for research relating to projects that include the Carter Mountain Pronghorn Herd near Cody and the Powder River/Pumpkin Buttes Mule Deer Herd. While the grant seeks to benefit projects in 11 western states, Smith says lessons learned in Wyoming have benefited projects elsewhere. Smith says other states are using Wyoming’s successes as an example of what positive outcomes can be achieved by partnering with universities and other research organizations identify and address migration patterns.
