{"id":730692,"date":"2026-06-28T07:51:21","date_gmt":"2026-06-28T07:51:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/730692\/"},"modified":"2026-06-28T07:51:21","modified_gmt":"2026-06-28T07:51:21","slug":"at-6000-year-old-crossing-gov-gordon-oks-wyomings-first-ever-designated-pronghorn-migration-route","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/730692\/","title":{"rendered":"At 6,000-year-old crossing, Gov. Gordon OKs Wyoming\u2019s first-ever designated pronghorn migration route"},"content":{"rendered":"

SUBLETTE COUNTY\u2014Gov. Mark Gordon heralded Wyoming\u2019s first-ever designation to protect a pronghorn migration corridor \u2014 a more than 2 million-acre web of habitat \u2014 at Trapper\u2019s Point, which he called a \u201cwonderful passageway.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cHow incredibly valuable it is that you are standing here today,\u201d Gordon told the crowd, \u201cto witness this remarkable moment.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gordon commemorated the moment with his feet planted on the narrow bulge of high country that splits the Green and New Fork rivers. Thousands of years ago, the site was a well-used hunting ground for Native Americans \u2014 it\u2019s the earliest known killing and processing site for pronghorn<\/a> in North America. Now it boasts a wildlife overpass.<\/p>\n

\"\"Several dozen western Wyoming residents came to Trapper\u2019s Point for a June 26, 2026 celebration of the designation of the Sublette Pronghorn Herd\u2019s 150-mile-long migration corridor. (Mike Koshmrl\/WyoFile)<\/p>\n

No pronghorn were to be seen during the especially windy Friday afternoon gathering, which attracted 75 attendees from nearby Pinedale and other western Wyoming communities.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Now Trapper\u2019s Point is officially classified as a \u201cbottleneck\u201d for the Sublette Pronghorn Herd \u2014 one of 13 such bottlenecks<\/a>. That classification is supposed to prevent any surface-disturbing activity, with the intent that pronghorn can keep passing through Trapper\u2019s Point for generations to come.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"Wyoming Gov. Mark Gordon and Wyoming Game and Fish Department Director Angi Bruce listen to remarks from Trapper\u2019s Point at a June 26, 2026 celebration commemorating the designation of the Sublette Pronghorn Herd\u2019s 150-mile-long migration corridor. (Mike Koshmrl\/WyoFile)<\/p>\n

Protecting the ability of the fleet-footed, tawny-and-white ungulates to migrate is a \u201ckey factor\u201d in sustaining their population, Wyoming Game and Fish Director Angi Bruce said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThis becomes even more important in severe winters or extreme droughts,\u201d Bruce said. \u201cPronghorn are long overdue for recognition.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Pronghorn in Sublette, Teton, Sweetwater and Lincoln counties travel a long road \u2014 some migrate more than 200 miles<\/a> to escape harsh winters, trekking south into the lower Green River Basin, a semi-arid sweep of sagebrush steppe between Pinedale and Rock Springs. Then in the spring, they retrace those paths, returning to summer ranges, lush with verdant vegetation, even going as far as Grand Teton National Park.<\/p>\n

There was also a long road of bureaucracy to get to this point.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Nearly three decades of effort<\/a> preceded the formal designation of the migration routes used by the Sublette Pronghorn Herd, which is the farthest-traveling and among the largest pronghorn herds in the West.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Jackson Hole biologists long knew that the valley\u2019s pronghorn left in the winter. But details were hazy on where they went and how they got there until around the turn of the century. Using data from tracking collars, biologists like Joel Berger, Steve Cain, Hall Sawyer and Doug Brimeyer helped delineate the route.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"Wyoming ecologist Hall Sawyer fits a tracking collar onto a migratory pronghorn near the Tetons in 1998. Twenty-seven years later, state wildlife managers are pressing to designate the pronghorn herd\u2019s migration path. (Mark Gocke\/Wyoming Game and Fish Department)<\/p>\n

In 2008, a Bridger-Teton National Forest plan amendment<\/a> established a portion of the path as the nation\u2019s first designated wildlife migration corridor.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Popularized by its branding as the \u201cPath of the Pronghorn,\u201d the route has received press in national publications like High Country News<\/a> and the New York Times<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But the southern reaches of the migration through the energy-rich Green River Basin have faced major political opposition<\/a> since the early 2000s. Wyoming first attempted to protect those travel corridors in 2019, under a policy administered by the Wyoming Game and Fish Department. That effort was halted after a coalition of industry trade groups and counties protested<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Then, in early 2020, Gordon revamped the migration policy with an executive order. Still, the Sublette Pronghorn Herd proposal gathered dust, even as development threatened the route<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\tClick to enlarge: Eight of the 10 segments wildlife managers identified \u2014 the two easternmost segments were excluded \u2014 have been designated as migratory habitat for the Sublette Pronghorn Herd. (Wyoming Game and Fish Department)<\/p>\n

Game and Fish revived efforts to protect the migration in late 2023<\/a> and early 2024. Biologists pulled together one of North America\u2019s most comprehensive migration datasets, benefiting from approximately two decades of GPS collar information collected from more than 400 pronghorn.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Some controversy followed the process until near the end. There was a debate about whether to designate the migration\u2019s two easternmost segments, in the Red Desert and east of Farson. The Game and Fish Department proposed excluding the routes<\/a>, but was overridden by its commission<\/a>. Then Gordon upended that decision<\/a>, excluding the two segments.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Vetting the migration corridor through a Gordon-appointed working group<\/a> was the second-to-last step in the designation process.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cToday\u2019s designation demonstrates that voluntary, locally driven conservation works,\u201d said Robb Slaughter, who chaired the group, during the commemoration at Trapper\u2019s Point.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Time will tell if that\u2019s the case. Wyoming\u2019s migration policy is, by design, permissive of development<\/a>. Private land is exempt from protections, and designation is not an assurance that new stressors won\u2019t be added to the landscape<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"Sweetwater County resident Robb Slaughter, who chaired a working group that vetted the Sublette Pronghorn Migration Corridor, gives remarks at a June 26, 2026 event celebrating the designation of the 150-mile-long route. (Mike Koshmrl\/WyoFile)<\/p>\n

\u201cToday is not the end of the process,\u201d Slaughter said. \u201cIt\u2019s the beginning of the next chapter. Continued monitoring, adaptive management, research, and cooperation will ensure these recommendations remain effective as conditions change.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

But Friday was the end of the migration designation process. The governor\u2019s informal OK \u2014 no signature was needed \u2014 was the last step, said Sara DiRienzo, the governor\u2019s deputy policy advisor.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Wildlife advocates celebrated the moment.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is historical,\u201d Bruce said. It\u2019s the first effort to protect the full length of a pronghorn migration corridor in the nation, she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SUBLETTE COUNTY\u2014Gov. Mark Gordon heralded Wyoming\u2019s first-ever designation to protect a pronghorn migration corridor \u2014 a more than…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":451418,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[79,201],"class_list":["post-730692","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-science","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/730692","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=730692"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/730692\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/451418"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=730692"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=730692"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=730692"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}