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migration corridors

Story behind the photo: “Mule Deer Buck” by Debbie Tubridy

Posted on by Claire Cella

Many wildlife photographers will say that “perfect” shots involve luck and being in the right place at the right time. The real trick, said Debbie Tubridy, is observing and interpreting the animals and their signs. It’s a skill she used to capture the foraging mule deer buck that we featured in our 2019 calendar. As an avid and longtime wildlife photographer, Turbidy knew this shot was special. 

“Usually animals put their heads up and look right at you, but this guy just continued to reach his head right up to get those leaves,” she said, “as if I weren’t even there.”

The autumn morning the image was taken, Debbie was out on a drive with her husband and a friend. They were just leaving Grand Teton National Park when they came upon the buck.

“It had just finished raining,” she remembered, “and we had gone out to see what we could find. This was one of the last shots I took that day, and it’s the type of scene that brought me out West.”

Although Debbie closely follows the guidelines for wildlife photography — using cars as blinds, approaching cautiously, always giving animals adequate space — her underlying ethic is not to disturb animals. 

“They shouldn’t change their behavior because I’m there,” she said. “I want them to act as they are. A lot of my shots are not the close-ups of their faces, but catching them in their natural state and environment. That’s part of the story, and you need to show that.” 

Her philosophy is similar to the Wyoming Outdoor Council’s approach to wildlife advocacy — especially around mule deer migration corridors. Science shows that disturbance inside corridors isn’t good for mule deer herds. It’s an issue Turbidy has been following as an Outdoor Council member. She said she wishes more people took responsibility for the impact their decisions have on wildlife. 

“That’s why I like to photograph wildlife, because I can help tell the animals’ story, and help show people that we’re all connected. I like to think I’m helping increase people’s awareness and appreciation for animals with my images.”

There is just something special about stopping and sharing a moment with an animal, she said. 

“It’s like all time stands still for me. It’s super cool. And I just wish other people could have this same experience — could go and see, touch, feel, understand nature. And then think about the decisions we make regarding wildlife and the environment.”

Debbie and her husband moved to Fruita, Colorado, from southern Florida two years ago after years of traveling West. “I did the math,” Turbidy laughed, “and Fruita was the spot because it was within a day’s drive of all of the places we loved to visit — Wyoming included.” 

“There’s a certain amount of truth here,” she said of the West. “People stand up for their values — for the wildlife and landscapes. And, being from populated southern Florida, we love the solitude of the wilderness we find here. The unspoiled beauty that remains in these varied terrains.” 

“I just think, if we’re good stewards of the environment, everything else — flora and fauna — also falls into place.”

Join Debbie and other photographers by submitting your own shot of Wyoming for the Outdoor Council’s 2020 Calendar Contest. You can enter your photos via Instagram or email. To submit your photo(s) via Instagram, you must have a public Instagram account so that we’re able to view your submission. Upload your photo(s) and add the hashtag #MyWyoming.

To submit your photo(s) via email, send your photo(s) to claire@wyomingoutdoorcouncil.org.

For more information about the contest, visit our Calendar Contest page.

We’re on the move to support our migratory mule deer

Posted on by Kristen Gunther

Migration is hard work for Wyoming’s mule deer, especially for the thousands that move 150 miles each way between their winter range in the Red Desert and their summer range in the slopes of the Hoback. Muleys have to contend with weather, disease, predators, fencelines, and human traffic across an increasingly fragmented landscape. One thing they don’t need more of? Challenges that pose a life-or-death threat by closing off or destroying critical habitat — especially when mule deer populations statewide have declined by more than 30 percent in recent decades.

That’s why the staff of the Wyoming Outdoor Council has been on the move this spring and summer, too, working to support these selective critters by advocating good wildlife policy that defends their future. 

SURFING THE GREEN WAVE INTO SUMMER

During late spring and early summer, we joined friends in Lander, Rock Springs, Laramie, and Casper to “Surf the Green Wave” into summer. We were thrilled to see so many of you at these events! Together, we explored the latest science, chatted policy and land management challenges faced by our deer, and talked about how you can take action to support Wyoming’s muley herds (which you did!). We also replicated a mule deer migration by “pub crawling” to various “stopovers” — those places along migration routes harboring the highest quality green “groceries” — and celebrated with our version of high-quality summer forage: a special beer brewed by our friends at Square State Brewing in Rock Springs! 

Thanks to the many, many volunteers, hosts, donors, and members who made these events possible, including Pedal House in Laramie and Backwards Distilling in Casper.

ADVOCACY UPDATE: GOV. GORDON’S MIGRATION ADVISORY GROUP

Your commitment to learn about and take action for mule deer has been essential as we’ve engaged with Gov. Gordon’s Wildlife Migration Advisory Group, which began meeting at the end of June. This eight-person citizen group, comprised of Wyomingites from a range of backgrounds, has been hard at work this summer. The group is considering scientific, conservation, policy, and economic data as it crafts a recommendation for the governor about how Wyoming should manage migration corridors. 

The Outdoor Council had the opportunity to present to the group on July 8 on behalf of the conservation community, and we worked diligently to represent the hopes and concerns you’ve shared with us about the state’s mule deer. I was honored to be able to talk about our conservation priorities for migration corridors and our recommendations for protecting migrating big game — especially mule deer. The committee’s conversations afterward were thoughtful, and I came away encouraged about the prospect of a strong, Wyoming-based solution for our migratory big game.

TAKING ACTION TO SUPPORT OUR MULE DEER

The committee’s final meeting will be held in Pinedale on August 12 and 13. If you are able to attend, we would love to see you there. Watch your inbox for information about the meeting and how to participate. 

Also, the state offered several oil and gas leases in migration corridors this month — including some in critical stopover habitat. We’d like to ask that these leases be canceled until stronger rules — already in development through the Governor’s task force — are in place to make sure that mule deer corridors aren’t harmed. Join us in asking the State Board of Land Commissioners (a group which includes Gov. Gordon) not to approve the sale of seven leases in corridor and stopover habitat.

Speak Up For Mule Deer

FINALLY: Do you want to get your hands dirty and help support the world’s longest mule deer migration?

The Wyoming Game and Fish Department and the Rock Springs Bureau of Land Management are organizing a habitat improvement project on Saturday, August 10. Volunteers are needed to help replace fence. It’s a big job with some heavy lifting involved, and will help migrating mule deer access a key stopover in the Red Desert to Hoback corridor. If you’re interested in joining WOC staff to volunteer, please email me: kristen@wyomingoutdoorcouncil.org. We’ll provide a WOC t-shirt or hat to anyone who volunteers, and will help arrange carpools to Farson! More details about the volunteer day can be found at this link. 

Thank you for being a passionate advocate for Wyoming’s mule deer and other big game! Your voice is making a difference as we strive to negotiate a permanent conservation solution for our iconic migratory herds.

Wyoming must do more to protect mule deer migrations

Posted on by Dustin Bleizeffer

Wyoming has been in the world spotlight since the discovery of the longest known mule deer migration, which runs 150 miles between the northern Red Desert and the Upper Hoback. That such an ancient migration still exists — despite roads, fences, housing, energy development, and other human activities — is amazing.

And new science is conclusive on two points: mule deer avoid development, and once a route is impeded, the deer don’t adapt. Unfortunately, under the new energy dominance policy, the BLM is offering oil and gas leases inside this corridor and other crucial wildlife habitat. And unless they hear from state wildlife managers, they’ll continue to do so.

The existence of the longest known mule deer migration is something Wyoming can no longer leave to chance. If we allow oil and gas activity here, the loss of this unique pathway will be on us.

Wyoming Game & Fish Department must step up

Wyoming’s wildlife is a tremendous part of our outdoor culture and a driver of our statewide economy. Big game hunting alone brings in about $300 million annually. According to a recent poll from Public Opinion Strategies, an overwhelming majority of all Wyoming voters — 89 percent — agree with Gov. Mark Gordon that protecting wildlife corridors does not have to be at odds with Wyoming’s energy industry.

Even former Interior Sec. Ryan Zinke understood the importance and popularity of protecting big game herds for westerners. Last year, he signed an executive order “to enhance and improve the quality of big-game winter range and migration corridor habitat on Federal lands.”

Yet the BLM continues to sell leases inside these habitats.

The thing is, states have the power to push back. When western states have asked the feds to pull oil and gas leases that have been offered in vital big game habitat, we’ve seen the BLM respond. Last year, the agency pulled more than a quarter of a million acres in Colorado from oil and gas lease sales at the request of state leaders.

And on the few occasions when the WGFD has asked the BLM to defer leasing parcels that fall entirely within a designated migration corridor — a very small percentage of the total number of oil and gas leases being offered in corridors — the BLM has granted its request.

This should be good news. But a state has to believe that the science matters, and then it must have the will to speak up. Unfortunately, that’s not what we’re seeing in Wyoming. Right now, the WGFD is operating under the flawed premise that if only a portion of a particular lease parcel falls within a wildlife migration corridor, there’s no threat to our wildlife. But that isn’t the case.

The WGFD has developed a “strategy” that endorses leasing inside migration corridors so long as at least 10 percent of a parcel falls outside the corridor. The rationale — which the WGFD admits is not rooted in science — is based on the hope that energy operators will “do the right thing,” and locate infrastructure in the portion of the lease parcel that’s outside the designated migration corridor. Unfortunately, operators are not legally bound to do so.

Crossing our fingers that private energy companies will do what’s best for our wildlife is no way to manage one of Wyoming’s most important resources. But unless the WGFD finds the will to ask the BLM to pull these leases, blind hope is all we’ve got for now, because there’s no legal way to ensure that energy operators will limit development to outside corridor boundaries.
Even more troubling, when pressed, both the WGFD and the Wyoming Game and Fish Commission — the bodies charged with protecting Wyoming’s wildlife — have said they can’t ask to defer leasing in this tiny portion of Wyoming’s most important big game habitat for fear of retribution from the legislature and the oil and gas industry. This is despite an overwhelming and bipartisan majority of Wyoming voters agreeing that protecting wildlife corridors does not have to be at odds with energy development.

The bottom line is that there is no need to offer oil and gas leases in Wyoming’s migration corridors. Even if every lease that abutted the Red Desert to Hoback mule deer corridor were made off limits tomorrow, millions of acres of public lands are still available to lease — and develop. Wyoming is not so poor that (for as little as $1.50 per acre — less than a slice of pizza or a cheap cup of coffee) we should give away to energy companies our most crucial big game habitats and the very future of our big game herds.

Working to save Wyoming’s muleys — and how you can help

We’ll continue to review every BLM oil and gas lease sale in Wyoming and file protests when the agency ignores our concerns. We’ll keep testifying at Game and Fish Commission meetings, respectfully urging this body, charged with protecting Wyoming’s wildlife, to heed the science and take a stronger stand. We’ll keep meeting with WGFD leaders — and with the governor and his policy staff — to pore over maps and advocate better strategies. We’ll work with with partners, sportsmen and women, and citizens around the state to get the word out.

And we will continue to weigh all our options, including filing a legal challenge. That’s not a step we’d take lightly, but it’s one we’ll consider if it means protecting the future of Wyoming’s mule deer.

Wildlife and the vast open lands they need to survive define us in Wyoming. The Wyoming Outdoor Council is more committed than ever to work on behalf of Wyomingites to defend these irreplaceable resources and protect the state’s migration corridors for future generations.

 

An update: our ongoing efforts to protect Wyoming’s migration corridors

Posted on by Dustin Bleizeffer

These past few months, we’ve been asking the state to urge the Bureau of Land Management to take a more precautionary approach to oil and gas leasing in migration corridors until legally binding wildlife protections can be put into place. New and existing science clearly shows that drilling in migration corridors is bad for mule deer herds, and we want to know that any leases offered will have the stipulations in place that will protect Wyoming’s wildlife.

And thanks to you, the BLM is hearing a loud and clear message from the public. More than 260 of you signed our petition — which we submitted as formal comments — asking the BLM to defer leasing in Wyoming’s mule deer migration corridors and crucial winter ranges. To learn more about this issue, you can read our fourth quarter sale fact sheet.

In September, too, a west-wide court ruling forced the BLM to temporarily withdraw hundreds of thousands of acres of Greater sage-grouse habitat from its oil and gas lease auction scheduled for December, in order to allow for more public participation. The court found the BLM’s attempts to shorten public participation periods are likely in violation of several federal laws. As a result, just three parcels will go up for auction in Wyoming in December while the remaining 584 parcels spanning 790,462 acres will go on the auction block in February.

It’s the biggest lease sale in the state’s recent history, and it’s an indication of what the Trump administration’s “energy dominance” mandate continues to mean for Wyoming — a state where nearly half our lands are public. We’re letting the BLM know that we won’t stand for leasing in our most vital wildlife habitat.

We submitted a second round of comments listing several concerns regarding the BLM’s failure to consider a more measured approach. We continue to ask the BLM to defer leases that overlap big game migration corridors and crucial winter range until science-based and legally-enforceable stipulations are put into place to protect these habitats.

This week we testified before the Wyoming Game and Fish Commission to let them know that Wyomingites overwhelmingly support protecting these migration corridors, and we continue to encourage state officials to simply honor that support by asking the Interior to defer leasing. To find out what our “next steps” are, you can read our recent letter with our recommendations to Gov. Matt Mead’s policy advisor.

 

Wyoming must stand up to feds to save mule deer

Posted on by Dustin Bleizeffer

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The U.S. Bureau of Land Management’s reckless oil and gas leasing actions may be the death warrant for a prized mule deer herd that relies on the renowned 150-mile Red Desert to Hoback migration corridor in western Wyoming — the longest big game migration measured in North America.

Wyoming’s political leaders and wildlife officials can avert this crisis, but there is little time left to take action. The next lease sale is Sept. 18.

“That we still have some of the most intact big game corridors in the world is a rarity worth protecting,” Wyoming Outdoor Council Executive Director Lisa McGee said. “It’s time for Wyoming to stand up for our wildlife.”

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Oil and gas development takes priority over all other uses and values for public lands under President Trump’s energy dominance mandate — drawing a target on Wyoming where much of the surface and underground mineral estate is owned by all Americans and managed by the federal government.

In a rush to implement the mandate and limit options for the public to have a say in future land management, the BLM has tripled the size of its quarterly oil and gas lease sales across the West. More than 1 million federal mineral acres across Wyoming are up for grabs in the Third- and Fourth Quarter oil and gas lease sales. Just a small fraction of those acres overlap the migration corridor and threaten its functionality.

The Outdoor Council and other organizations have asked the BLM to defer these leases, along with others in crucial wintering habitat statewide — a necessary action that does not impede an industry that already has filed 10,000 applications to drill across the state.

So far, the Wyoming Game and Fish Department seems satisfied with the BLM’s claim that “lease notices” attached to these parcels will “mitigate” impacts. But this assertion is incorrect.

Unlike formal lease stipulations, which are legally enforceable modifications to the terms and conditions of a standard BLM oil and gas lease, the notices proposed by BLM provide no authority to halt or significantly modify operations if necessary to protect migrating wildlife. State officials recently appeared to affirm this reality when the Wyoming Office of State Lands and Investments insisted that legally enforceable “lease stipulations” must be in place before offering oil and gas leases on state lands in the corridor. Such science-based stipulations should apply to federal leasing in the same corridor as well. Wyoming’s national preeminence in mule deer migration research positions us with the best expertise to craft these important stipulations.

So far, the BLM has been deaf to these arguments, as well as objections from Wyoming residents who value healthy wildlife populations, and the American people who own these public lands. However, the BLM has shown that it is willing to listen to two voices of influence: Wyoming Gov. Matt Mead and the Wyoming Game and Fish Department.

At the governor’s request earlier this summer, the BLM agreed to withdraw three oil and gas lease parcels from the migration corridor, as well as sensitive habitats in the Greater Little Mountain Area where the state and feds previously had agreed to hold off from leasing.

Both Sweetwater and Teton counties, home to the southern and northern ends of the Red Desert to Hoback migration corridor, have asked the BLM to defer all leasing in the corridor for the irreversible damage it would do to wildlife and the local outdoor recreation and tourism economy. They need Gov. Mead and the Wyoming Game and Fish Department to reinforce and carry their message. Respecting local governments is a mantra of this administration, yet it now rings hollow. The BLM has ignored these counties altogether.

Dan Heilig, the Outdoor Council’s senior conservation advocate, wrote to Wyoming Game and Fish Director Scott Talbott urging him to take action and to use the agency’s influence to insist that the BLM defer Third- and Fourth Quarter leases for sale in the corridor.

“Our big game herds are world-renowned and contribute to our collective sense of pride and quality of life we share in Wyoming,” Heilig wrote in the August 21 letter. “Surely the state can and should advise against sales that risk the future of our mule deer population.”

For more information, read our fact sheet about the issue and how you can effectively advocate for protecting big game migrations in Wyoming. Also, read the Outdoor Council’s August letter to Wyoming Game and Fish Department Director Scott Talbott, urging the agency to stand up to federal overreach to protect Wyoming’s migrating wildlife.

 

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