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Pronghorn in Wyoming

Western Big Game Seasonal Habitat and Migration Corridors Fund

Pronghorn, Wyoming

The Western Big Game Seasonal Habitat and Migration Corridors Fund aims to conserve critical winter range and migration corridors to maintain healthy populations of pronghorn, elk and mule deer, and the phenomenon of big game migration. The program is working with conservation partners across Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington and Wyoming.

Partners

The western United States is home to some of the largest herds of wild native ungulates in North America. However, the seasonal migrations many of these populations rely on in response to weather conditions and resource availability face significant threats. Habitat fragmentation often limits the availability of high-quality forage and cover, and poor habitat condition limits the health and reproductive success of the herd. 

Modern improvements in wildlife science such as global positioning collars and remote sensing technologies allow us to learn and adapt management efforts with precision. Utilizing technology and the priorities of state game and fish agencies narrows the geographic scope of projects while increasing the project efficiency and return on investment.

This program aims to conserve critical winter range and migration corridors through: 

  1. Restoring degraded priority winter range, stopover areas and migration corridors by activities identified in the State Action Plans such as removing encroaching trees from sagebrush ecosystems, rehabilitating areas damaged by fire or treating exotic/invasive vegetation to improve the quality and value of these areas to big game and other wildlife.
  2. Working cooperatively with private landowners and State highway departments to achieve permissive fencing measures including potentially modifying, removing, installing or seasonally adapting fencing if proven to impede movement of big game through priority migration corridors.
  3. Conservation easements and management agreements, or other actions to protect bottlenecks within corridors and other areas within priority winter range, stopover areas threatened by fragmentation. 
  4. Utilizing other proven actions necessary to improve the habitat quality or restore priority big-game winter range, stopover areas or migration corridors across the West.

The Western Big Game Seasonal Habitat and Migration Corridors Fund is a result of Interior Secretarial Order 3362 and a partnership between NFWF and the U.S. Department of Interior’s Bureau of Land Management, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Partners for Fish and Wildlife Program, the USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service, and ConocoPhillips.

Application Information


Western Big Game Seasonal Habitat and Migration Corridors Fund 2025 Request for Proposals View Now
Program Fact Sheet Download the PDF
2024 Grant Slate Download the PDF
2023 Grant Slate Download the PDF
2022 Grant Slate Download the PDF
2021 Grant Slate Download the PDF
Interior Secretarial Order 3362 View Website
Western Big Game Migration 2020 Grant Slate Download the PDF
Western Big Game Migration 2019 Grant Slate Download the PDF
Staff Representatives

Director, Rocky Mountain Regional Office

Program Director, Grasslands and Mountain West

Manager, Rocky Mountain Regional Office

Regional Program Coordinator