As Wyoming moves toward official protection for the vaunted “Path of the Pronghorn,” a major migration route for antelope, questions are being raised about striking a balance between energy development and wildlife conservation.
Public meetings on the matter hosted by the Wyoming Game and Fish Department wrapped up this week.
The next step involves the Wyoming Game and Fish Commission considering whether the Path of the Pronghorn should be designated as a protected wildlife migration corridor.
Pronghorn And Energy Development
That designation could help protect one of the most vital pronghorn migration routes in Wyoming, Sublette County resident Linda Baker told Cowboy State Daily. Baker is director of the Upper Green River Alliance conservation group.
The Path of the Pronghorn is vital for an antelope herd that was already declining before it suffered devastating winterkill losses in 2022-2023, Baker said.
“The time is right for designation of the corridor,” she said. “It doesn’t make any sense to cut short the designation. That was shown to us during that winter.”
Wyoming legislator Rep. Mike Schmid, R-La Barge, told Cowboy State Daily that he’s concerned about the designation hampering energy development.
“It can, in my opinion, cause oil and gas, the energy industry folks to have another layer of red tape to get through,” said Schmid, who owns the La Barge-based SOS Well Service.
Major energy development areas, the Jonah Field and Pinedale Anticline, are along the migration route.
Energy development there began in the 1990s, and the animals are used to it, Schmid said.
“I see them all the time, using the tanks in the production units as shade,” he said.
Antelope Highway And A Winter Of Death
The Path of the Pronghorn is a network of migration routes running between antelope summer range in the Grand Teton National Park area and winter range in the Red Desert near Rock Springs.
Some of Wyoming’s largest and most treasured antelope herds depend upon it. They undertake a spring trek – heading up out of the Red Desert as snow retreats from the high country.
When the snow starts to fly in late autumn, they head back the way they came, to tough out the winter on whatever exposed forage they can find in the Red Desert.
During the winter of 2022-2023, nature played a cruel trick on the antelope and other wildlife that winters in the desert.
There was a “reverse snowpack,” meaning the worst of the snow piled up in the desert low country. And through a cycle of thawing and freezing as temperatures fluctuated, the snow set up, practically as hard as cement.
Unable to paw their way through to forage, animals starved and froze to death by the thousands, leaving the landscape scattered with decaying carcasses and reeking of death that spring.
Antelope Numbers Down From Peak
The Sublette antelope herd is one of the major users of the Path of the Pronghorn, according to the Wyoming Outdoor Council.
Roughly 75% of that herd migrates up and down the path, and nearly half of its members died during the winter of 2022-2023, according to the council.
The number of antelope using the migration path is thought to have peaked at around 62,000. After that terrible winter, they might have plummeted to about 23,600.
Numbers have been declining since about 2007 for several reasons, including pneumonia outbreaks among antelope herds, Baker said.
How Does Energy Development Affect Them?
Schmid argues that since energy development has been around in the area for several generations of antelope, they aren’t bothered by it.
They aren’t disturbed by something “that’s there from the moment they hit the ground (as newborns) and open their eyes,” he said.
He noted that he regularly sees antelope and other wildlife passing through gas well sites, or even lying down to rest amid tanks, pipelines and equipment sheds.
While some animals might frequent energy sites, studies indicate that most of them don’t like oil and gas wells and avoid them, Baker said.
A five-year study launched in 2006, using data points from animals outfitted with radio tracking collars, indicated that most of them went out of their way to avoid energy sites, she said.
Ground disturbances caused by development can also spread cheatgrass – an invasive species that wildlife can’t eat, and which can be a fire hazard, Baker said.
Schmid said he remains skeptical that designating the Path of the Pronghorn could do much for wildlife that isn’t already being done.
“Every project that oil and gas does is already examined by Game and Fish” for possible effects on mule deer, antelope and sage grouse, he said.
Meanwhile, the Sublette, Baggs and Platte Valley mule deer migration corridors have been designated for about five years, according to the Wyoming Outdoor Council.
Out of about 100 proposed projects in those areas, only one was denied a permit, the council claims.
The Process From Here
There have been efforts to get the Path of the Pronghorn designated as a protected migration corridor for about 25 years, Baker said.
It’s closer now than it’s ever been – but there are still a few steps ahead.
The matter will go before the Wyoming Game and Fish Commission for consideration during its July meeting.
The commission will then make a recommendation to Gov. Mark Gordon.
If the recommendation is to proceed, Gordon will appoint a working group to delve into the details, although no exact timeframe has been set for that.
That group would then make a final recommendation to Gordon, whether to designate the Path of the Pronghorn.
Even if the designation goes through, it would apply only to the parts of the Path of the Pronghorn that go through public land.
The protections would not apply on private property, according to Schmid and the Wyoming Outdoor Council.
Regardless of what happens with the designation, the pronghorn herds are deeply valued in Sublette County, Baker said.
“This is personal for me, they migrate right past my place,” she said. “People in Sublette County consider the pronghorn to be our neighbors. When so many of them died that winter, it’s like we lost our neighbors.”
Contact Mark Heinz at mark@cowboystatedaily.com
Mark Heinz can be reached at mark@cowboystatedaily.com.
