Mule deer migration water crossing. Photo By Tanner Warder, Wyoming Migration Initiative, University of Wyoming
By Gabrielle Gasser
On a sunny spring day, a mule deer leads her fawn along a well-remembered migration path to a summer foraging ground. As they pick their way through tall grass, a barbed-wire fence looms on the horizon. The mother leaps gracefully, clearing the gleaming barbs with room to spare. Her fawn, however, is still too small to make this daunting leap. It tries to crawl underneath the fence and becomes ensnared in the sharp metal.
Scenes like this are all too commonplace in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem (GYE)—the 22-million-acre area encompassing Yellowstone National Park (YNP) and surrounding public and private lands in Montana, Wyoming and Idaho.
Like the mule deer above, all wildlife big and small need to move to survive. Elk, mule deer and grizzly bears, to name a few species, don’t recognize the borders of Yellowstone National Park or the difference between public and private lands; they go where there is water, food, shelter or mates.
“The wild lands in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem have some of the most intact big game migrations of anywhere in North America,” Greg Nickerson, writer and filmmaker with the Wyoming Migration Initiative, said. “At the same time, wildlife does face barriers like fences, roads and development of all kinds that encroach on their habitat and diminish their ability to migrate freely.”
The Wyoming Migration Initiative at the University of Wyoming is one of a handful of research groups that are tracking migrations to understand where animals are moving. This research is helping to prioritize conservation actions and unlock new avenues of funding that can make a real difference for elk and other wildlife.
Similar to WMI, the Bozeman-based nonprofit Center for Large Landscape Conservation (CLLC) is working to ensure that GYE migrations continue.
“Finding ways to mitigate the impacts of major roads is essential to maintain habitat connectivity for GYE’s wildlife and to improve safety for residents, commuters, and tourists,” said Liz Fairbank, road ecologist with CLLC.
Busy roads in the GYE represent one of the biggest barriers to wildlife movement, something CLLC is working to change using a combination of science and policy through partnerships and engagement with local communities.
In the fastest growing county in the GYE, Gallatin County, Montana, CLLC completed a US-191/MT-64 Wildlife & Transportation Assessment in partnership with Montana State University’s Western Transportation Institute (WTI), which identified priority sites that are potential barriers to wildlife movement and pose elevated risks to human and wildlife safety. In neighboring Park County, CLLC completed a similar assessment with WTI on US-89 as a member of Yellowstone Safe Passages, a coalition working to create safe passage for people and wildlife in the Paradise Valley.
As highway traffic increases across the region there is a growing number of wildlife-vehicle collisions. A 2020 Montana Department of Transportation (MDT) Corridor Study of US-191 found that 24% of crashes through Gallatin Canyon, from Four Corners to Big Sky, are due to wildlife, while a similar 2014 study of US-89 from Livingston to Gardiner found that 50% of crashes are due to wildlife. These figures contrast sharply with a statewide average of 10%, which is already double the U.S. average of 5%.
Properly sited and designed wildlife crossing structures, like underpasses, overpasses, enlarged bridges, and culverts—implemented together with fencing—commonly reduce wildlife-vehicle collisions by over 80% while maintaining habitat connectivity.
“Historically, Montana’s iconic species moved freely to and from Yellowstone National Park and adjacent habitat in the 1.8-million-acre Gallatin National Forest,” Fairbank said. “Today, without proactive measures, higher traffic volumes, associated road noise, and other road impacts threaten habitat integrity while, simultaneously, residents, commuters, and tourists face greater collision risk.”
To help reduce this risk, CLLC is working to ensure that wildlife is considered in planning activities along US-191, such as in planning for the replacement of the Spanish Creek Bridge and, replacing outdated structures at Teepee Creek. Together with MDT, CLLC is examining any possible federal funding opportunities for a series of crossings, including Southwest Montana’s first wildlife overpass at the mouth of the Gallatin Canyon between Gallatin Gateway and Big Sky, Montana—a hotspot for collisions with elk.
In 2021, Congress dedicated $350 million over five years to the federal Wildlife Crossings Pilot Program (WCPP), which awards grants to states, municipalities, and tribes to reduce wildlife mortality in locations where crossings are most needed. Recently, three pieces of bipartisan legislation were introduced in the House and the Senate, with sponsorship for two of them coming from Representative Ryan Zinke (MT) and Senator Tim Sheehy (MT), to make the highly successful WCPP a permanent part of federal law and extend its authorization for funding through fiscal year 2031. CLLC expects to apply for funds from the WCPP to support construction of a proposed overpass on US-191.
“Keeping migration corridors intact is the best chance we have at keeping elk and other big game abundant and widespread across Greater Yellowstone both now and for future generations,” Nickerson said. “They need these corridors to optimize their use of the landscape and stay flexible as they face other challenges like disease, habitat loss, drought, and severe winters.”
Millions of people travel to Yellowstone National Park each year for the chance to see iconic wildlife in their natural habitat. To do so, they drive on US-191, US-89, and other gateways to Yellowstone running the risk of hitting one of the elk, mule deer or even grizzly bears that they are so looking forward to seeing. Historic movement paths must be conserved for wildlife to survive and thrive now, and in the future.
Scenes like this are all too commonplace in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem (GYE)—the 22-million-acre area encompassing Yellowstone National Park (YNP) and surrounding public and private lands in Montana, Wyoming and Idaho.
Like the mule deer above, all wildlife big and small need to move to survive. Elk, mule deer and grizzly bears, to name a few species, don’t recognize the borders of Yellowstone National Park or the difference between public and private lands; they go where there is water, food, shelter or mates.
“The wild lands in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem have some of the most intact big game migrations of anywhere in North America,” Greg Nickerson, writer and filmmaker with the Wyoming Migration Initiative, said. “At the same time, wildlife does face barriers like fences, roads and development of all kinds that encroach on their habitat and diminish their ability to migrate freely.”
The Wyoming Migration Initiative at the University of Wyoming is one of a handful of research groups that are tracking migrations to understand where animals are moving. This research is helping to prioritize conservation actions and unlock new avenues of funding that can make a real difference for elk and other wildlife.
Similar to WMI, the Bozeman-based nonprofit Center for Large Landscape Conservation (CLLC) is working to ensure that GYE migrations continue.
“Finding ways to mitigate the impacts of major roads is essential to maintain habitat connectivity for GYE’s wildlife and to improve safety for residents, commuters, and tourists,” said Liz Fairbank, road ecologist with CLLC.
Busy roads in the GYE represent one of the biggest barriers to wildlife movement, something CLLC is working to change using a combination of science and policy through partnerships and engagement with local communities.
In the fastest growing county in the GYE, Gallatin County, Montana, CLLC completed a US-191/MT-64 Wildlife & Transportation Assessment in partnership with Montana State University’s Western Transportation Institute (WTI), which identified priority sites that are potential barriers to wildlife movement and pose elevated risks to human and wildlife safety. In neighboring Park County, CLLC completed a similar assessment with WTI on US-89 as a member of Yellowstone Safe Passages, a coalition working to create safe passage for people and wildlife in the Paradise Valley.
As highway traffic increases across the region there is a growing number of wildlife-vehicle collisions. A 2020 Montana Department of Transportation (MDT) Corridor Study of US-191 found that 24% of crashes through Gallatin Canyon, from Four Corners to Big Sky, are due to wildlife, while a similar 2014 study of US-89 from Livingston to Gardiner found that 50% of crashes are due to wildlife. These figures contrast sharply with a statewide average of 10%, which is already double the U.S. average of 5%.
Properly sited and designed wildlife crossing structures, like underpasses, overpasses, enlarged bridges, and culverts—implemented together with fencing—commonly reduce wildlife-vehicle collisions by over 80% while maintaining habitat connectivity.
“Historically, Montana’s iconic species moved freely to and from Yellowstone National Park and adjacent habitat in the 1.8-million-acre Gallatin National Forest,” Fairbank said. “Today, without proactive measures, higher traffic volumes, associated road noise, and other road impacts threaten habitat integrity while, simultaneously, residents, commuters, and tourists face greater collision risk.”
To help reduce this risk, CLLC is working to ensure that wildlife is considered in planning activities along US-191, such as in planning for the replacement of the Spanish Creek Bridge and, replacing outdated structures at Teepee Creek. Together with MDT, CLLC is examining any possible federal funding opportunities for a series of crossings, including Southwest Montana’s first wildlife overpass at the mouth of the Gallatin Canyon between Gallatin Gateway and Big Sky, Montana—a hotspot for collisions with elk.
In 2021, Congress dedicated $350 million over five years to the federal Wildlife Crossings Pilot Program (WCPP), which awards grants to states, municipalities, and tribes to reduce wildlife mortality in locations where crossings are most needed. Recently, three pieces of bipartisan legislation were introduced in the House and the Senate, with sponsorship for two of them coming from Representative Ryan Zinke (MT) and Senator Tim Sheehy (MT), to make the highly successful WCPP a permanent part of federal law and extend its authorization for funding through fiscal year 2031. CLLC expects to apply for funds from the WCPP to support construction of a proposed overpass on US-191.
“Keeping migration corridors intact is the best chance we have at keeping elk and other big game abundant and widespread across Greater Yellowstone both now and for future generations,” Nickerson said. “They need these corridors to optimize their use of the landscape and stay flexible as they face other challenges like disease, habitat loss, drought, and severe winters.”
Millions of people travel to Yellowstone National Park each year for the chance to see iconic wildlife in their natural habitat. To do so, they drive on US-191, US-89, and other gateways to Yellowstone running the risk of hitting one of the elk, mule deer or even grizzly bears that they are so looking forward to seeing. Historic movement paths must be conserved for wildlife to survive and thrive now, and in the future.
