The tens of thousands of mule deer that call the Wyoming Range home constitute perhaps one of the most famous, best-studied ungulate herds in North America.
Its super-sized bucks attract all sorts of attention. Its migratory animals have been the subject of documentary films and a wide-ranging University of Wyoming-led ecological examination that’s been going for a dozen years and counting.
And so it was no surprise that in 2019 the Wyoming Game and Fish Department proposed to protect the 130-mile route that braids across the Wyoming and Salt River ranges from Star Valley and the Hoback Rim to Kemmerer and La Barge.
But within the year, that proposal was pulled back indefinitely after an alliance of industry groups urged Wyoming to hit the brakes on making wildlife-friendly designations on landscapes that are also home to private property, oil and gas fields and livestock grazing allotments. Out of that resistance came Wyoming’s current migration policy: an executive order that gives the governor final say.
Now that new approach has allowed one wildlife migration corridor to move toward designation for the first time. The Wyoming Game and Fish Commission unanimously recommended protections for the entirety of the Sublette Pronghorn Herd’s migration routes — another proposal that traces to 2019 — at its September meeting. That plan is now sitting on Gov. Mark Gordon’s desk, according to Sara DiRienzo, his senior policy advisor.
“The Governor looks forward to thoroughly reviewing the Wyoming Game and Fish Commission’s recommendation [about Sublette pronghorn] and making a determination about next steps,” DiRienzo wrote in an email.
In the meantime, wildlife advocates are urging Game and Fish to hit the gas on the other 6-year-old proposal and restart the process of designating a migration corridor for the Wyoming Range Mule Deer Herd.
“I personally feel like there’s widespread agreement that the herd should be a priority for designation,” said Meghan Riley, wildlife program manager for the Wyoming Outdoor Council. “It’s a struggling population. There’s multiple demands on the landscape. And the state has really made so many huge investments in trying to prop up that herd already: wildlife crossing projects, tons of money on research and some dabbling in predator control.”
Josh Metten, the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership’s Wyoming field manager, agreed that the “timing is good” to make moves on protections for Wyoming Range mule deer.
“We’re also dealing with Bridger-Teton Forest Plan revisions,” Metten said. “And it’s really important for Wyomingites to consider: What is the message that we’re sending to our federal partners regarding the primacy of Wyoming wildlife management if we’re not giving clear direction on how to manage these migrations?”
For the time being, state wildlife managers aren’t jumping into the process of identifying and designating the Wyoming Range Mule Deer migration — or any new corridors at this time.
“I think we’re kind of in a holding pattern,” said Jill Randall, Game and Fish’s statewide migration coordinator. “I’m hoping the governor moves fairly quickly on this so that we can keep moving, but that’s to be determined.”
The reason for the holding pattern, she explained, is because steps remain in codifying safeguards for the Sublette Pronghorn Herd’s migration corridor. If the governor agrees with Game and Fish commissioners, he’ll convene an “area working group” to examine the proposal.
“Supporting the local working group process … that will take a fair bit of support from the department,” Randall said.
It’s a process that is keeping Randall busy, and it hasn’t even started. Currently, she’s updating 50 or so maps from an assessment of the Sublette Pronghorn Herd’s migrations to include recent GPS collar data so that it’s ready for the working group.
It’s tough to say what the “area working group” process will look like, or if members will encounter bottlenecks in deliberations. Wyoming’s migration policy does not specify a process. It does outline membership, directing the governor to select a county commissioner from each affected county; two representatives for agriculture; two representatives for oil and gas and mining; two representatives for hunting, conservation and wildlife; and one representative for motorized outdoor recreation.
Game and Fish officials will revisit a spreadsheet of eligible deer and pronghorn migrations once that process wraps up, Randall said. There are roughly a dozen routes that are on the table, she said, and ultimately the decision about what comes next will be made by Game and Fish Director Angi Bruce’s office.
There are compelling reasons to take up the Wyoming Range Mule Deer migration next, Randall said. There’s a “great data set,” “a lot of public interest” and they’re “highly migratory” and “running the whole length of the Salt and Wyoming Range,” she said.
But there are also pitfalls, she added.
“It’s such a huge data set, and we’re still collecting data actively,” Randall said. “Those are two factors we need to talk through.”
Nevertheless, there may be pressure on the state agency to prioritize the Wyoming Range Mule Deer Herd migration. Ken Roberts, a Game and Fish commissioner from Kemmerer, remarked that seeing protections move forward was a top priority during a September 2024 discussion about the Upper Wind River Mule Deer Herd’s migrations, which the state agency opted to “identify,” but not designate.
Game and Fish staffer Doug Brimeyer responded to the commissioner’s comment.
“It’s a priority for us,” said Brimeyer, who’s now the agency’s deputy director. “We’re hoping to get there at some point, but we’re not there yet.”
If the long-delayed safeguards for the Wyoming Range Mule Deer Herd’s migrations do get jumpstarted, the renewed proposal will likely encounter political resistance.
During a recent meeting in Lander, Sen. Laura Pearson, a Republican from Kemmerer, told Game and Fish commissioners she was “on the fence” about moving forward with Sublette Pronghorn Herd migration protections, and expressed worries they could inhibit oil and gas drilling.
Another member of the statehouse who lives on the flanks of the Wyoming Range, Rep. Mike Schmid, was once a champion of migration protections. The former Game and Fish commissioner, a Republican from La Barge, helped shape the state’s policy and urged bold action during those deliberations.
“There’s no drilling within a half-mile of the centerline of the Oregon Trail, but yet there’s oil and gas wells throughout that country,” Schmid once told state lawmakers. “We leave the Oregon Trail alone, but we still get to the resources underneath. We can do the same with wildlife corridors.”
More recently, however, Schmid has been skeptical about migration protections and he’s pushed the narrative that oil and gas infrastructure benefits migrating big game, even though long-term research on pronghorn and mule deer in the Green River Basin has shown the opposite.
WyoFile is an independent nonprofit news organization focused on Wyoming people, places and policy.
