The Agriculture Department on Tuesday unveiled a framework with 17 states that aims to help direct federal spending to better support big game migration.
The agreement aims to improve landscape connectivity, preserve open space and improve forage available to species like elk, pronghorn and mule deer by aligning efforts on state and federal lands, as well as private property across the West.
“We know that migratory big game rely on large and connected landscapes to meet their daily, seasonal and annual needs,” said Richard Fordyce, USDA’s undersecretary for farm production and conservation, in a statement. “This new Framework for Conservation Action helps us better target our resources and align our efforts, which benefit wildlife as well as ranching operations.”
The agreement notes that it incorporates movement data on migrations collected by participants — which includes Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Kansas, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, Washington and Wyoming, as well as tribal nations — along with state wildlife action plans and uses that information to prioritize how USDA spends resources authorized by the farm bill.
