Hunting, Fishing, and Conservation Organizations Applaud BLM’s Decision to Align Big Game Management with the State of Colorado

Final plan creates consistency between federal and state jurisdictions for oil and gas development within high priority big game habitat, sets the table to reduce impacts from renewable energy and recreation development

Today, the Colorado Bureau of Land Management published its Proposed Final Resource Management Plan Amendment for Big Game Habitat Conservation that aligns oil and gas management with State of Colorado big game conservation policies. Colorado BLM manages 8.3 million acres of land for multiple uses, such as oil and gas development, renewable energy development, ranching, and recreation opportunities such as hunting, fishing, camping, rafting, and hiking. A significant portion of these lands – approximately 6.3 million acres– is also high priority habitat for Colorado’s elk, mule deer, pronghorn, and bighorn sheep populations.

“Consistency between federal and state oil and gas regulators is good business, and it’s good policy,” said Madeleine West, director of the Center for Public Lands with the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership. “The BLM’s programmatic approach to state-wide planning has proved an efficient and effective way to align with state regulation to conserve Colorado’s iconic big game species and other wildlife. The BLM is on the right track with this plan, and we encourage them to similarly consider conservation of big game in their future management decisions beyond oil and gas.”

“As ungulate herds face daunting challenges from an array of uses on Colorado’s public lands, it is vital that BLM take these additional management actions to address oil and gas siting and development and lessen the pace of fragmentation to crucial habitats,” said Suzanne O’Neill, Executive Director of the Colorado Wildlife Federation.

“Providing safeguards for crucial big game habitat by creating continuity and clarity between how the state of Colorado and the BLM manage these areas makes sense on numerous levels,” said Aaron Kindle, director of sporting advocacy at the National Wildlife Federation. “It is a welcome outcome that took years of hard work by sporting conservation partners and the agencies. We look forward to seeing improved outcomes for big game herds in Colorado.”

The State of Colorado has prioritized intact habitat and migration corridor conservation for many years, including through Governor Polis’s Executive Order D 2019 011 “Conserving Colorado’s Big Game Winter Range and Migration Corridors” and through promulgation of new guidelines at the Colorado Energy and Carbon Management Commission in 2020. The ECMC protocols established clearer expectations for development of oil and gas resources in the most sensitive wildlife habitats in Colorado.

The proposed final plan would amend management plans for 12 field offices to set a density limitation for greater than one active oil and gas location per square mile in big game high priority habitat and would require operators to develop and implement mitigation plans to minimize and offset direct, indirect, and cumulative adverse impacts. Through this plan, Colorado BLM is taking an important step to safeguard sensitive habitats critical to the long-term success of big game species, as well as other wildlife that utilize those habitats.

Prior to completion of this planning effort, companies that sought to develop oil and gas resources on federal land in Colorado had to follow federal leasing and permitting processes that could differ from one BLM-managed area to the next and from state permitting requirements administered by the ECMC.

This planning effort is now a model for how the BLM, and other land managers, can efficiently update plans and policies to facilitate responsible management of multiple uses on our public lands that conserve important fish and wildlife resources. The BLM is currently updating the 2012 Western Solar Plan to accommodate new science and technological advances across 11 Western states, including Colorado. Hunter, angler, and conservation organizations have called on the BLM to take a similar approach to ensure development impacts do not occur in the most sensitive big game habitat. The BLM’s proposed final Western Solar Plan revision is expected to be published this summer.

Similarly, the BLM is grappling with increased demand for recreation opportunities on the lands they manage. A 2020 report from Colorado Parks and Wildlife listed poorly-sited recreation infrastructure, such as trails for hiking and biking, as having the potential to fragment important big game habitats if not managed properly. In 2022, the TRCP released an analysis showing that 40% of Colorado’s most sensitive elk habitat is already impacted by recreational trails. Colorado’s Guide to Planning Trails with Wildlife in Mind offers science-based recommendations for advancing recreational trail opportunities while maintaining viable wildlife habitat. The BLM has the opportunity to implement these State recommendations to reduce impacts to big game from new recreation infrastructure. Just last month, the U.S. Forest Service applied many of these management principles across 823,000 acres in the final Grand Mesa, Uncompahgre, and Gunnison National Forests Plan.

Today’s announcement opens a 30-day protest period prior to the BLM signing a Record of Decision to finalize the plan.

Photo Credit: Larry Lamsa

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.

by: Dan Morgan

posted in: Habitat and Clean Water

In The Arena: Wade Fellin

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.

Wade Fellin

Hometown: Wise River, Montana
Occupation: Big Hole Lodge Co-Owner/Guide/Outfitter, Photographer
Conservation credentials: Wade Fellin is an established guide, outfitter, and cold-water fisheries advocate. As a founding member of Save Wild Trout, Fellin works with a coalition of anglers, river advocates, citizens, and businesses to protect wild trout for the benefit of all by developing science-based solutions aimed at protecting cold-water fisheries for future generations.

A native Montanan, Wade Fellin has spent his life exploring, guiding, and stewarding the wild, trout-rich rivers of Montana’s Big Hole Valley. Concerned about the declining health of Montana’s wild trout fisheries due to climate change and other factors, Fellin has worked with Save Wild Trout to address the urgent need for conservation actions to preserve these vital natural resources and to coalesce a community around the shared values of clean water and vibrant, healthy rivers.

Here is his story.

My father joined the Marine Corps and went to Vietnam, and when he got back, he moved to Missoula, Montana in 1974. He worked as a security guard at the airport and on his lunch breaks, he hung out at the Streamside Angler, then owned by Frank Johnson and Rich Anderson. They gave him all the advice he needed to hone his skills as a fly fisher and he fished between shifts in a white shirt, tie, and black slacks on these rivers.

He headed to Aspen, Colorado in 1978 and guided for Chuck Fothergill. While in Aspen, Dad met my mom, a Bozeman native whose family helped found Wisdom, Montana on the upper Big Hole, and they decided to start a fly-fishing lodge. In 1983, with Fothergil’s blessing, they headed north through Wyoming, Idaho, and Montana searching for their perfect spot and founded their business on the banks of the Wise River, just up from the Big Hole River. Back then the caddis hatches looked like snowstorms. The salmon fly hatches were so thick cars would slide driving through the canyon. At that time, there were very few people on the water.

I came along in the summer of ’88, the year of the Yellowstone fire. Mom and Dad strapped my bassinet to their 14’ Avon raft and fishing was just part of life. I spent my childhood exploring the Wise River with a fly rod and my teens rowing the Big Hole and surrounding rivers. Now, with 18 years of guiding under my belt, I’m partnered with my father in a business he has spent 40 years nurturing. But now, the future of Montana’s wild trout fisheries is uncertain, and the rivers need all the help they can get.

My most memorable outdoor adventure served to fuel my drive to help ensure that Montana’s natural resources are here for future generations to enjoy. About six years ago, I met a friend at Bridger Bowl after a big snowstorm. We hiked to the ridge from the top of the chairlift and traversed out to a run we’d skied since we were kids. He dropped in first, into the couloir, under the cliffs, and out of sight. I dropped in and turned hard at the end of the chute to slide out over a fresh run. Unseasonably warm weather the week before opened the snowpack to a ground spring, or a melt-out, below the cliff invisible under two feet of new snow. I hit the outer wall of the crevasse hard and fell backward, upside-down and snow collapsed in with me. Everything was dark and I couldn’t breathe. For the first time in my life, I considered that I had lived my entire life. Then adrenaline and sheer will took over and I inched my way to a clear airway. To that point I’d taken my life in the outdoors for granted, as if it’d always be there. And naively, that I’d be here for a long time. So as long as I am here, I’m going to do what I can to make sure the rich outdoors heritage of Montana is here too.

The Big Hole Valley and the Big Hole River holds an important place in my heart having spent most of my life fishing and hunting this valley. As Edward Abbey said, “it’s not enough to protect the land, you must also enjoy it.”

Without conservation, none of us will have the opportunity to enjoy the outdoors the way we do now. You don’t have to look far to find an organization working toward a healthy outdoors future and it really doesn’t matter which one you join – they all need your help, and we all need their work.

Climate change exacerbates everything affecting our fisheries. It was encouraging to hear Gov. Gianforte and Montana Fish, Wildlife, and Parks identify warmer water temperatures combined with low flows as the primary drivers behind the southwest Montana trout declines. Adding elevated levels of nutrient pollution to those conditions becomes a deadly mix of aquatic life and wild trout. We must come together to address this shared challenge. The decline of wild trout in southwest Montana’s cold-water fisheries isn’t something new. We’ve been tracking the downward trend with Montana Fish, Wildlife, and Parks, and our partners at the Big Hole River Foundation, and we have been raising concerns for over half a decade. It’s just that now we’ve hit a make-or-break point with population numbers at, or near, historic lows with the prospect of the fishery making a recovery now in our hands. I still have hope that after this winter’s already record-breaking warmth and low snowpack, we can put down our differences to coalesce around our shared values of clean water and vibrant, healthy rivers. There is more that unites us than divides us, so let’s acknowledge our shared challenge and get to work protecting the resources that provide for our way of life and livelihoods.

This isn’t about me, the lodge, or fly fishing, for that matter. This is about us, our communities, and what they will look like next year, the year after that, and for future generations. We like to say Montana is “Next-Year-Country,” and I’d argue, particularly in southwest Montana, we are snowpack country. Snowpack sustains our limited clean water resources, and it is the foundation that drives nearly every aspect of our economy and well-being. When we set out to launch Save Wild Trout it was abundantly clear that our mission was simple: To protect wild trout now and for future generations. The values and connection to our waters and lands provided to me through fly fishing, hunting, and the outdoors is an opportunity I want my kids to have and enjoy.

Conservation, hunters, and anglers go together like a hand in a glove. Much of the work to protect and conserve our lands, waters, and wildlife was and continues to be borne out of the hunting and angling communities. The next generation must carry the conservation mantle forward, and there are few better ways than getting them out hunting on public lands or in a boat fishing public water. It’s the values that were passed down to me from my father and something I’ll pass on to my son. How we respond to this crisis and address the new reality of climate change in our fisheries management paradigms can be and should be a success story for future conservationists.

Do you know someone “In the Arena” who should be featured here? Email us at info@trcp.org

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.

by: Josh Metten

posted in: Habitat and Clean Water

July 3, 2024

TRCP Applauds Wyoming Proposal to Identify Mule Deer Migration Corridor

Iconic mule deer migration path stretches from Dubois to Grand Teton National Park

On Monday, July 1, the Wyoming Game and Fish Department formally announced the public input process to establish the Upper Wind River Mule Deer Migration Corridor via Governor Gordon’s Executive Order 2020-1. This iconic deer migration connects winter range surrounding Dubois to summer range 90 miles west in Grand Teton National Park.

“Wyomingites care deeply about our wildlife and recognize the crucial importance of maintaining connectivity for migratory big game species,” said Josh Metten, Wyoming field manager with the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership. “TRCP appreciates the state’s effort to formally identify the Upper Wind River Mule Deer Migration Corridor.”

The corridor is primarily used by the Dubois mule deer herd, which is prized by sportspeople for the outstanding hunting opportunities it provides. The herd’s quality winter range and intact migration routes are thought to have buffered these animals from the steep declines observed in other mule deer populations across the state. Identifying the corridor will increase opportunities for incentive-based private lands conservation and prioritization of corridor functionality on state and federal lands. This includes a current effort by Tribes, the Game and Fish Department, Department of Transportation, and other partners to fund wildlife crossings in the area, which could prevent hundreds of wildlife-vehicle collisions each year.

“For thousands of years, deer have migrated between the lush meadows of the Teton range and surrounding national forests to the winter ranges of the Dubois Badlands,” continued Metten. “We look forward to helping Wyoming sportspeople support corridor identification and will work with the department to conserve this iconic migration for future generations.”

The public is invited to participate in two upcoming public meetings about the corridor and can submit comments online until 5 p.m. on August 9.

Wind River Mule Deer Migration Corridor Identification Process Public Meetings

– July 8, 5 p.m. Jackson, Jackson Public Library

– July 9, 6 p.m. Dubois, Dennison Lodge

Learn more about Wyoming wildlife migration corridor conservation HERE.

Photo credit: Josh Metten

by: Jen Leahy

posted in: Habitat and Clean Water

June 28, 2024

BLM Decision Will Maintain Safeguards for 28 Million Acres of Public Lands in Alaska

The agency’s recommendation would conserve valuable habitat for salmon, caribou, moose, and Dall sheep

Today, the Bureau of Land Management moved to retain 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.

“We welcome the BLM’s intent to maintain 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. “We urge the BLM to finalize this decision in a timely manner so hunters and anglers don’t have to worry about these incredible public hunting and fishing grounds being 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.

The TRCP is your no-B.S. 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.