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Recent Colorado National Forest Plan the New Standard for Conserving Big Game Habitat
USFS management in the revised Grand Mesa, Uncompahgre, and Gunnison National Forests Plan limits disturbance within the most sensitive big game habitats and migratory routes, other forest plan revisions should do the same.
In July, the U.S. Forest Service finalized a revised Grand Mesa, Uncompahgre, and Gunnison National Forests Plan after nearly a decade of analysis and public engagement. Management direction in the plan establishes guidelines that Forest Service staff must follow when authorizing uses in the forests for the next several decades, which is why we applauded the forests’ inclusion of the most up to date science for how agency decisions will affect wildlife populations.
The Forest Service was able to use modern data to limit direct and indirect disturbances to big game caused by habitat fragmentation in sensitive habitats such as summer range and migration corridors. The most influential inclusion in the plan was the establishment of 823,000 acres of Wildlife Management Areas, within which total route density limits have been set to prevent road and trail construction through the most sensitive areas, ensuring that habitat connectivity and function remains at the forefront of management considerations.
The TRCP worked closely with agency staff and our partners during the planning process to ensure these management actions were included, and we encourage other forests to model their future revisions on the GMUG’s efforts to value wildlife needs along with other uses, including increased recreation.
Our contemporary understanding of wildlife movement across the landscape and between seasonal habitats has developed quickly and relatively recently in the last two decades. The advancement of technology from radio collars and radio telemetry to GPS has resulted in efficient and effective means to map animal movement. Modern GPS technology delivers a dozen data points a day, allowing wildlife and land managers to determine precisely where big game herds summer and winter, how they move from one place to another, and where they stop to rest and feed along the way. The TRCP released a report in 2021 highlighting the opportunity to apply cutting-edge science and research concerning wildlife movement to influence public land management across the West.
As new information becomes available, the USFS should include this invaluable data in biennial monitoring reports to inform adaptive management within existing forest plans. And when initiating new forest plans, the agency should design migration-related plan components that are demonstrated to reduce wildlife disturbance. This will allow managers to adapt to new information as it becomes available. Thankfully, tools exist in the forest planning process to utilize this vital wildlife data.
The 2012 National Forest Planning Rule directs the Forest Service to look at the entire ecological and social sustainability of the forest. Intact, healthy wildlife corridors and connectivity are critical to long-term ecological sustainability, and robust big game populations support social values of hunting and wildlife watching that drive many rural Western economies.
More recent investments from the Department of the Interior have supported continued science and learning, which means each year more corridors are identified. Many Western states and tribes are developing this work with the support of the U.S. Geological Survey, who has provided technical assistance to state and Tribal agencies since 2018. This information demonstrates specifically where special management on National Forests, and other lands, is needed.
In the GMUG, the USFS utilized the best available science and modern tools for land use management that resulted in a positive outcome for the future of big game in the forests. A primary challenge to big game conservation in the GMUG is the extensive network of recreational trails in the planning area. The need for public land managers to navigate increased recreational trail opportunities with wildlife, as well as other uses of the forest, is not limited to the GMUG. Between 2014 and 2019, recreational trail use in Colorado grew by 44%, while the number of days spent viewing wildlife increased by 105%i. Increasing recreation opportunity was a desire for the GMUG, yet that opportunity needed to be pared with actions to avoid, minimize, and mitigate for the unintended consequences of trail-based recreation directly and indirectly impacting big game populations.
Elk can survive in some of the harshest environments, but research shows that additional disturbance from humans during their toughest times of the year can prove fatal. In a study of the elk herd in Vail, Colorado, researchers found that if cow elk had to move in response to hikers an average of seven times during calving, about 30 percent of calves died. Resulting data models suggest that if cow elk were disturbed 10 times during calving, all calves would die. When researchers stopped sending hikers through calving areas, the calf survival rate recovered. This suggests that limiting disturbance in production areas and summer concentration areas during calving season could dramatically increase elk calf survival rates.
An analysis and story map developed by the TRCP shows that around 40 percent of the most important elk habitat in Colorado is already impacted by non-motorized and motorized trail users. In this analysis we looked at the overlap between existing recreational trails and high-priority elk habitat, and our results highlight how important management strategies, like development density limits established in the GMUG, are to provide long term benefits for wildlife and recreationists.
The GMUG’s final plan, and the WMAs specifically, set a valuable precedent for other relevant forests within Colorado and the West on how to plan responsible, multiple-use management that conserves the most sensitive big game habitats. Other forests grappling with similar challenges such as increased recreation are the Lolo National Forest (Montana), the Bridger-Teton National Forest (Wyoming) and the White River National Forest (Colorado), which is scheduled to begin a revision in 2025. The GMUG’s model will be extremely relevant in setting future management for these forests, and others, with significant recreation and wildlife values.
The TRCP is your resource for all things conservation. In our weekly Roosevelt Report, you’ll receive the latest news on emerging habitat threats, legislation and proposals on the move, public land access solutions we’re spearheading, and opportunities for hunters and anglers to take action. Sign up now.
In The Arena: DeAnna Bublitz
TRCP’s “In the Arena” series highlights the individual voices of hunters and anglers who, as Theodore Roosevelt so famously said, strive valiantly in the worthy cause of conservation
DeAnna Bublitz
Hometown: Apple Valley, MN
Occupation: Microbiologist
Conservation credentials: DeAnna Bublitz is the founder of DEER Camp, a gear library for hunters based in Missoula, Montana.
DeAnna Bublitz grew up in Minnesota enjoying the many state parks and open farmland the North Star state has to offer. When she moved to Montana in 2012, Bublitz wanted to become more intentional and involved with her meat consumption. She asked a friend if they would loan her gear and show her the ropes of hunting. The rest is history. Since that influential first season, Bublitz has founded DEER Camp, an organization that aims to reduce some of the financial hurdles by providing a gear library for hunters.
Here is her story.
My parents introduced me to the outdoors. They weren’t backpackers or anything, but we’d go car camping at various Minnesota state parks and on my grandparent’s farmland in Wisconsin. I grew up with a big backyard near a pond that let me perfect my frog-catching abilities. My parents also sent me to summer camps which were a major player in getting me into the outdoors. I learned to canoe and backpack at the Wolf Ridge Environmental Center in northern Minnesota, and this foundation led me to taking weeklong backpacking trips with friends along the Superior Hiking Trail in high school.
Hunting came later when I moved to Montana in 2012. After going trap shooting with my landlord (and realizing I wasn’t as terrible as I’d imagined I’d be) I wanted to see if I could be more intentional and involved with my meat consumption. So I reached out to my only friend here at the time, a friend I’d met ages ago at that same summer camp, to see if she and her husband would loan me gear and show me the ropes of hunting. And the rest is history.
I think one of my most memorable outdoor adventures was my first solo backpacking trip. I go hunting alone quite a bit, but those are always day trips or maybe to a Forest Service cabin. But just a few years ago I finally did a longer backpacking trip just myself and my dog and it was wonderful. We did a 20-mile loop over three nights in southern Montana where I didn’t pass anyone on the trail until the last three miles. My campsite for two nights was in an elk wintering ground, and they had clearly only vacated recently because their tracks and scent were all over. It was beautiful and empowering to be in that vast of a landscape with no one but my dog.
A Canadian or Alaskan moose hunt would be a dream. The landscape is just incredible so even if I didn’t get anything, I’d come away happy. And pulling a moose tag in Montana is a test of your patience and longevity.
Conservation enhances my outdoor life by making it possible. Generations of advocates came before me, and they are why the large tracts of land I recreate on are available to everyone. From Missoula-local trails like Mt. Sentinel and Mt. Jumbo, to the Scapegoat Wilderness, these spaces have been conserved for recreation and wildlife alike because of conservation-minded folks.
From an early age it was instilled in me that we are all stewards of our surroundings, so being engaged with conservation issues was a natural course.
DeAnna Bublitz
One of the biggest conservation challenges in my area is development, which is maybe not what a lot of folks think about when they imagine Montana. But we have been growing population-wise for some time and the boom that came in the last few years has really put a crunch on housing. People aren’t moving here so they can live in denser cities; they want their private 20-acre ranchette on prime valley land or high up in the mountains, both options necessitating new driveways, roads, power lines, and fences. All which disrupt wildlife corridors. Wrapped up in development is every other issue you might think of facing conservation: more driving miles because folks still need to get groceries, go to the doctor, get their kids to school, and all of these activities lead to habitat fragmentation, introduction of noxious weeds, wildlife conflict, and changing attitudes of about land use, management, and access.
From an early age it was instilled in me that we are all stewards of our surroundings, so being engaged with conservation issues was a natural course. The simplest reason I’m invested in conservation is that I use and love these outdoor spaces and by extension, I care for what lives there and want it to be healthy. But I also want these places to be available for other folks in the future to discover and fall in love with. And at least in Montana, it feels really easy to get involved and create community around conservation. In a very short time, I’ve made connections with so many regional and statewide nonprofits, I am on the Board of Directors for our local rod and gun club, and these connections and activities help me stay engaged and energized in a way that is long lasting and sustainable.
Most hunters and anglers I know aren’t just in it for the harvest, so while conservation should matter for simply ensuring healthy populations of these game animals, it’s about more than that. Hunting and fishing are ways to get into the outdoors and see new places, take photos of beautiful sunrises, and more often than not, see all manner of critters that aren’t the ones you’re actually looking for. Conservation work creates better habitat for the animals we hunt and fish and subsequently, healthier populations of those animals. The efforts put into conserving the habitats of game animals typically benefits all of the other organisms that exist in those same environments, but it also makes for healthy landscapes to soak in when you’re out there and untying your line from a tree or taking your rifle for walk.
Photos Courtesy of DeAnna Bublitz.
The TRCP is your resource for all things conservation. In our weekly Roosevelt Report, you’ll receive the latest news on emerging habitat threats, legislation and proposals on the move, public land access solutions we’re spearheading, and opportunities for hunters and anglers to take action. Sign up now.
Interior Department Retains Safeguards on 28 Million Acres of Public Lands in Alaska
The department’s decision conserves valuable habitat for salmon, caribou, moose, and Dall sheep
Today, the Interior Department moved to maintain existing conservation safeguards on 28 million acres of public lands in Alaska, including large swaths of intact fish and wildlife habitat that offer world-class hunting and fishing opportunities.
The decision and the associated Public Land Order—which implements the Bureau of Land Management’s preferred action following a robust public process and environmental review—is good news for local subsistence harvesters and non-resident hunters and anglers who value rural Alaska’s undisturbed and unbroken habitat.
“We applaud the Bureau of Land Management and Interior Department’s actions to retain conservation measures that have stood for decades on these public lands in Alaska,” said Jen Leahy, Alaska senior program manager for the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership. “Hunters and anglers can continue enjoying these incredible public hunting and fishing grounds without wondering if these lands will be privatized and developed.”
The 28 million acres encompassed in the decision includes important winter range for the Western Arctic Caribou Herd, one of Alaska’s largest caribou herds, and renowned hunting and fishing habitat in other areas of the state, including Bristol Bay—home to the world’s most prolific sockeye salmon fishery—and moose country in the Yukon and Kuskokwim watersheds. Alaska’s “D-1” public lands are also adjacent to many celebrated and remote rivers that anglers and hunters enjoy floating.
Learn more about why these public lands are prized by hunters and anglers in our guest blog by Bjorn Dihle, a lifelong Alaskan and outdoorsman.
The TRCP is your resource for all things conservation. In our weekly Roosevelt Report, you’ll receive the latest news on emerging habitat threats, legislation and proposals on the move, public land access solutions we’re spearheading, and opportunities for hunters and anglers to take action. Sign up now.
In New Mexico, and Across the Country, Migrating Big Game Herds Meet Roadblocks
The Land of Enchantment has a fresh opportunity in the upcoming 2025 legislative session to devote funds to keep drivers and wildlife safe
Driven by instinct and shaped by their environment, big game such as deer, elk, and pronghorn follow paths sometimes invisible to the human eye—passages deeply set in the landscape and etched in evolutionary memory—but often noticed by hunters. The need for animals to move is immutable, as species of every kind undertake journeys for habitat, food, and reproduction.
In New Mexico, as in other places across the West, migration corridors for big game and other animals alike are increasingly threatened. Poorly sited human infrastructure, like energy and housing development, can degrade habitat and disrupt wildlife movement in ways difficult to mitigate.
Roads are particularly troublesome. If you’ve ever driven the highways abutting forests and grasslands around New Mexico, you’ve likely seen evidence of this struggle in the remains of animals lying in broken piles beside the road.
Near where my wife and I live in northern New Mexico, motorists are likely to see a dead deer alongside Highway 550 on their way south to explore the San Pedro Parks Wilderness, and two more on their way home along the same road. Regular travelers along US-180 and NM-90 near Silver City, US-70 out of Ruidiso and the Sacramento Mountains, and I-25 over Glorieta Pass are likely to report similar sights: a regular occurrence of dead animals that attempted to cross a busy roadway.
On average, there are around 1,200 wildlife-vehicle collisions reported in New Mexico every year, costing about $20 million in vehicle damage, emergency response, and healthcare expenses. And that doesn’t include the incalculable damage to wildlife populations and hunter opportunity.
You Can’t Teach a Deer to Use a Crosswalk, But You Can Build a Bridge
Fortunately for wildlife, and the safety of New Mexico drivers, the collision hotspots mentioned above (and others like them) were identified in the state’s Wildlife Corridors Action Plan. Finalized in 2022, the plan provides comprehensive guidance to the New Mexico Department of Transportation and the New Mexico Department of Game and Fish to conserve areas important for wildlife movement and to develop road-crossing structures designed to help animals safely cross heavily trafficked highways. In turn, crossing structures also protect the public from dangerous, sometimes deadly, collisions with wildlife.
We don’t need to look far to see how beneficial investments in wildlife-crossing structures can be. Nearby states like Colorado and Utah have seen success in similar solutions. In Utah, the construction of two underpasses beneath I-15 saw a 98.5 percent reduction in deer mortalities for that corridor, and in Colorado, wildlife crossings above and below State Highway 9 have reduced collisions by 90 percent over five years.
We also have evidence of crossing infrastructure working right here at home. Near where I live in Aztec, the state installed three wildlife crossing culverts in 2004, primarily to encourage mule deer to travel below US 550. Between 2017 and 2020, camera monitoring conducted by AZGFD and NMDOT documented more than 6,000 successful mule deer crossings. That’s 6,000 fewer opportunities for a problem on the roadway above.
No Money, More Problems
Incredible improvements like those mentioned above are possible for New Mexico’s wildlife and drivers, but only if we’re willing to pay for them. For just one of the collision hotspots (US 550 north of Cuba), the cost to develop all the recommended infrastructure—multiple crossing structures, fencing, and additional signage for drivers—is estimated to be $45 million. Statewide, an estimated $388 million is needed to address the eleven priority areas identified by NMDOT.
While modest investments have been made in recent years to implement the state’s action plan ($5 million in 2024), New Mexico has a fresh opportunity in the upcoming 2025 legislative session to more adequately devote funds to these critical, life-saving solutions. With the allocation of additional funding, the state can also leverage federal dollars from grants such as the Wildlife Crossings Pilot Program, which is designed to assist states in efforts to mitigate the more than 1 million wildlife-vehicle collisions that take place across the country every year. Leveraging federal money while the opportunity exists will be crucial if we’re to come close to meeting the large estimates in New Mexico’s state plan.
Absent robust funding, we’ll continue to see animals hitting these proverbial roadblocks around the state in alarming numbers, especially as new pressures on habitat limit the ability for wildlife to move freely. For hunters, investments in crossings infrastructure makes good sense, both in keeping us safer on the way to our hunt and in conserving the health of herds we’d like to enjoy well into the future.
As we’re in the middle of busy summer travel and approaching both hunting season and the next legislative session, sign up so you can stay tuned for ways to assist TRCP and our partners in securing substantive funding of the New Mexico Wildlife Corridors Action Plan.
The TRCP is your resource for all things conservation. In our weekly Roosevelt Report, you’ll receive the latest news on emerging habitat threats, legislation and proposals on the move, public land access solutions we’re spearheading, and opportunities for hunters and anglers to take action. Sign up now.
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