Editor’s note: Governor Gordon and Wyoming Game and Fish Director Brian Nesvik have announced a second town hall meeting on April 4 in Rawlins, Wyoming, to continue the discussion about Wyoming wildlife impacted by the extreme winter weather.
PINEDALE, Wyo. — Governor Gordon and Wyoming Game and Fish Department (WGFD) Director Brian Nesvik, along with Dr. Kevin Monteith, came to Pinedale on March 30 to discuss Wyoming wildlife impacted by the extreme winter weather and hear directly from community members.
The harsh winter conditions starting in early January have affected wildlife in critical ways, exacerbating pneumonia in pronghorn and causing higher than average mortality for fawns in mule deer herds. There have also been ungulates with reduced winter ranges moving into more developed areas, emergency feeding programs, elk co-mingling with cattle in places they don’t normally go and elk mortality uncommon for the resilient species.
The increased losses could mean significant cuts in hunting opportunities for affected species like pronghorn and mule deer, with potential emergency changes made even after the April meeting.
According to Nesvik, WGFD will continue monitoring mortality to determine hunting season and available licenses this year. The increased losses could mean significant cuts in hunting opportunities for affected species like pronghorn and mule deer, with potential emergency changes made even after the April meeting depending on collected data.
Most of the town hall attendees seemed supportive of the reduced hunting to ensure wildlife population recovery.
“We love to hunt, and for Wyoming’s wildlife population if it means us taking a year or two off, it’s the right thing to do,” a community member said in response to Nesvik.
Dr. Monteith pointed out that the key elements to ensuring wildlife survival in bad winters are more robust shrubs, less snow, greater freedom of movement, prime age and how fat an animal is going into the cold season. This winter started with animals around 12 percent body fat, the lower end of what’s ideal for fat reserves.
Some of the local comments questioned the WGFD response and expressed disappointment for the lack of successful solutions.
“As far as our response, we have folks who haven’t had time off since Christmas,” Nesvik said of the WGFD team. “Our folks have not failed to respond to this situation.”
Nesvik pointed out the problems preventing the use of some methods, like increased transmission of disease in concentrated populations as a consequence of feeding and habitat destruction as a result of breaking up snowpack. He also spoke to the expensive cost of wildlife corridors. “I wish we were able to do more. We’re as frustrated as a lot of folks in this room are.”
Governor Gordon emphasized protecting migration corridors, delisting the grizzlies for predator control and managing the invasive plant species outbreak in Wyoming as the primary ways his administration will attempt to address the heavy loses in wildlife populations.
“There is some goodness that’s going to come,” Nezvik said before the end of the meeting, reminding everyone that the heavy snowpack this year will put streams and rivers in good shape and support plants that pronghorn and deer rely on. “There is some brightness on the horizon.”
