As ranchers, oil and gas squeeze wildlife Wind River adapts

The Wind River Indian Reservation in Wyoming has been suffering the effects of benzene, metals, naphthalene, methane and other contaminants in their water supplies since at least 2011 when the US Environmental Protection Agency warned residents of the dangers of hydraulic fracturing. 

In 2018, the Wind River Food Sovereignty Project began to address more broadly the food insecurity and high rates of diet-related disease in the community. With help from the Nature Conservancy, Wind Cave National Park in occupied South Dakota contributed to the reintroduction of bison to the Eastern Shoshone and Northern Arapaho on the Wind River Reservation sending fifty to Wyoming in 2021. Today the Wind River Tribal Buffalo Initiative is part of a program that teaches members traditional methods of drying meat and even modern canning techniques. 

Wapiti or elk, mule deer and pronghorn travel from Grand Teton National Park to winter ranges throughout the region and into the Wind River Reservation. But disease, urban sprawl and oil and gas development have altered historic migration routes.

The ungulate migration is managed by many different players in multiple jurisdictions – like the National Park Service, the Forest Service, the Bureau of Land Management, Wyoming Game and Fish, Idaho Fish and Game, private landowners, and the Shoshone and Arapaho Tribal Fish & Game Department. [Wildlife documentary shows how large ungulates migrate far beyond Grand Teton National Park]

Elk in the region are dying en masse from Chronic Wasting Disease that researchers say is exacerbated by the federal government feeding elk in close proximity.

But stopping feeding also will impact ranchers, increasing the number of elk reaching private lands. And there are also diseases at play, particularly brucellosis and chronic wasting disease. Allowing chronic wasting disease to spread through elk herds will kill more elk over time than those that would die in the first few years of stopping feeding, researchers conclude in a new study. [For elk feedgrounds, a fatal tradeoff looms]

We all know this: unless the West embraces rewilding on portions of the Missouri River basin west of a north/south line from Oacoma, South Dakota through the CM Russell National Wildlife Refuge to Yellowstone National Park then to the Yukon water and carbon wars will clog the courts leaving violent armed vigilantism to settle disputes, especially in Wyoming.

Learn more at Wyoming Public Radio.

ip image: the Tetons rise above Jackson Lake.

USDA's Wyoming pilot program supporting voluntary conservation of private working lands and migratory big game expands to Idaho and Montana!

Learn more here: https://t.co/vUXQzNl6Go pic.twitter.com/yNcMys0Q5A

— Wyoming Migration Initiative (@wyo_migrations) November 30, 2023