Wyoming’s ‘Path of the Pronghorn’ is a signature away from protections sought for a quarter century

From afar, conservation biologist Joel Berger has tracked Wyoming’s long-lasting attempt to designate a migration corridor used by pronghorn that seasonally trek upwards of 150 miles from Interstate 80 all the way to Grand Teton National Park.

In the early 2000s, Berger, then a Jackson Hole resident, was among the loudest voices urging land and wildlife managers to take steps to ensure that pronghorn could continue moving across a fragmented landscape that was on the front end of the Pinedale Anticline and Jonah field natural gas boom.

In 2003, Berger authored a paper provocatively titled, “Is it acceptable to let a species go extinct in a national park?” That came at a time when then-Wyoming Gov. Dave Freudenthal was wary about protecting the southern reaches of the corridor — a hesitation shared by Sublette County elected officials and the Bureau of Land Management. Safeguards for the migrating pronghorn stalled except in the northern portion of the corridor, where in 2008 the U.S. Forest Service protected some 47,000 acres via a Bridger-Teton National Forest plan amendment.

Very slowly, times changed. A continued push to conserve the perilous passages animals encounter along a route dubbed the Path of the Pronghorn overcame inertia and skepticism.

This week, Berger was enthused to see Wyoming reach the penultimate step of a state-led process for protecting the route. A Gov. Mark Gordon-appointed working group completed its review of the migration corridor, agreeing to recommendations soon headed for the governor’s desk.

“Wyoming sometimes leads, and Wyoming sometimes lags way behind,” Berger told WyoFile. “It’s really nice to see Wyoming, after a quarter of a century, step up and formally declare how important migration corridors are.”

In Pinedale, where the 11-person stakeholder group convened Friday, audience members shared their appreciation for a process that’s almost done.

“I know it doesn’t feel like it — working through Google Docs in real time — but this is actually a historic moment,” Wyoming Outdoor Council staffer Meghan Riley told the working group. “This is the first time that the state has ever gone through the full designation process under the executive order. And it’s the very first time the state has ever tried to do this for pronghorn.”