- Motor vehicle collisions with wildlife in Wyoming had become a huge and gruesome problem as the 21st century arrived, then a group of Wyoming forward-thinking leaders, including our guest today, decided to do something about it.

We'll speak with Nate Brown of the Wyldlife Fund.

I'm Steve Peck of Wyoming, PBS.

This is Wyoming Chronicle.

(upbeat music) - [Narrator] Funding for this program is made possible in part by the Wyoming Humanities Council, helping Wyoming take a closer look at life through the humanities, thinkwy.org, and by the members of the Wyoming PBS Foundation.

Thank you for your support.

- We're joined today by Nate Brown, who's the Operations Manager for Wyldlife Fund.

Nate, I want to talk about Wyldlife Fund and what your extremely diverse and busy job is.

But first, the obvious question is, what is this thing behind you here that we're looking at?

- Steve, that's a wildlife highway crossing or a wildlife overpass.

- It looks like a big tunnel that's been constructed there, but it's actually a bridge.

- [Nate] It is.

- Why is it there?

- So typically these are created to reconstruct an old migration corridor or ridge line that wildlife used to cross over this area and go back and forth between their summer range and their winter range, Steve.

- [Steve] We're here now north of Pinedale.

- [Nate] Yep.

- South of Jackson.

And this entire mini region here of 20, 30, 40, 50 miles, perhaps maybe more than that, is actually at the center of the wildlife crossing effort, really nationwide.

Is that fair to say?

- [Nate] Wyoming is leading the charge with regard to wildlife crossings.

It's safe to say that in Wyoming it's driven by research more than anything.

- [Steve] Tell us about that.

I mean, there are numbers that told people in Wyoming who care about not just wildlife, but highway safety as well, that this would be a good idea.

- Yeah.

You know, there's been a lot of research being done for years and years with regard to migration in Wyoming.

Anyone from Wyoming obviously knows that big game animals migrate constantly in Wyoming, it's, you know, it's very challenging for food sources, particularly getting from summer range to winter range.

And so, you know, the University of Wyoming, the Haub School folks, like the Wyoming Game and Fish Department, the Wyoming Migration Initiative, all of those folks have been doing a lot of research for a lot of years.

And we've known about migration, but now it's backed by GIS data, collaring information.

There's all sorts of technology that's added to this, Steve.

- There are a couple of these in Wyoming now, and they've emerged over the past 10 years or so, and it's a new and bold way to solve what is known to be a big problem in Wyoming.

Who uses that structure?

- Steve, it was basically designed for large ungulates to use.

It's also used by cattle.

This particular one is in an area where there's cattle that get driven back and forth and across this area.

But the main focus of it was the large ungulates, pronghorn and mule deer primarily, here at Trappers Point by Daniels Junction near Pinedale, Wyoming.

That's a classic spot.

This is in the path of the pronghorn.

These were, you know, it was a notable spot for pronghorn and mule deer fatalities.

- So it's good for the wildlife because this is where they live.

They were here before us.

They know already they have to cross the road.

They have to get from there to there.

They can't help it.

- [Nate] Yeah, and it's actually, you know, it's ingrained in their very existence.

They've been doing it for centuries.

- It's an instinct for them to go to where the food is at a particular time of year.

So now we put this road in between and it's caused them a problem.

The animals, it's caused the people a problem because there are thousands, I'm not sure people understand this.

Thousands of wildlife automobile collisions.

- Yeah, wildlife vehicle collisions are, you know, very common in our state.

I think one of the earliest memories I have is a member of my own family, when I was very young, was killed in a rollover vehicle accident.

- In the case of the person you mentioned, this was someone who had swerved to avoid a pronghorn antelope on the road.

- Yeah, rolled the car, the spare tire, you know, killed my cousin.

And like I said, it's one of my earliest memories, and I think that anyone in the state of Wyoming that's lived here very long, if they think about it, they probably know someone, Steve, that's been down that road or had a family member or friend lost to a vehicle collision with, you know, likely a, you know, a large ungulate.

- The data that has been collected showed some gruesome numbers, correct?

- Yeah.

Yeah, absolutely.

I mean, 6,000 is an average low end number, that's basically a number of total animals retrieved from the highway crossing area where, you know, the actual right of way for WYDOT occurs.

And so the, you know, the WYDOT guys, they're always constantly cleaning up these roadways so people don't see this carnage.

But what people don't realize is there's a lot of animals that have been impacted by cars that get off of the right of way out into the sage brush.

They're either killed by predators as a result of their injury, or they have a slow lingering death as a result of an injury.

Those animals are never counted.

There's estimates as high as four times the 6,000 average number that we go off of now.

So nobody really knows because that's data that's hard to gather.

- Well, you told your story.

My story is not nearly as bad as that, but I've hit a deer twice in my life.

Both times it was at night, both times on a narrow, a two lane road.

I spun the deer around both times and it vanished.

It wasn't dead on the highway, but it was impacted by a car at speed.

I slowed down, slammed on the brakes, but I thought, "Well, I wonder if that deer's gonna make it."

And what you're telling me, and what I think we know is it very well might not have.

- There's definitely a large volume of those animals that definitely don't make it.

- So the wildlife deaths and injuries is part of it, but there's also property damage concerns, beginning with automobiles, right?

- Yeah, and the impacted fence lines along the edges of the road, property damage that cars end up hitting, you know, the deer that end up flying and damaging someone else's car that's in the oncoming lane.

Those are actually around $50 million a year annually, just in our state alone.

- So that led smart minds to think about ways to do this.

But why don't we just lower the speed limit?

Why don't we just put rumble strips in?

Why don't we just put flashing lights in?

Won't that solve this problem?

- They've tried it all, Steve.

They've tried literally all of it.

And you know, another thing I want to touch on is as modern technology, cell phones, are absolutely another issue.

You know, we're all distracted nowadays from our driving.

You know, the reality of it is, is it plays a part in this as well.

People just aren't as attentive on the roadways as they used to be.

And then they're driving faster.

The roads are better.

It's a long ways from point A to point B in Wyoming, Steve.

And so, you know, that's kind of a typical problem as well.

- So these other things were tried, they were effective partially, but then the idea comes along to do something big.

And I hope it shows up on camera.

This is the first time I've ever seen it in person.

It's big and it's designed to just keep as many animals as possible from even having to face the decision of crossing the road because they can cross there.

Who came up with this?

Do you know?

- I'm not exactly sure who you could give credit to that initial concept.

I think, you know, we've been using overpasses for our own personal reasons, you know, for vehicle reasons, for years and years.

I think it only makes sense to people, but one of the, you know, the challenges, and that's where the Wyldlife Fund comes in, is how do you talk people into funding these kinds of things.

They don't really see the value in it unless they've actually experience experienced, you know, a motor vehicle collision themself or wildlife vehicle collision.

So it's one of those things that unless you're really doing the research and digging into it, it's kind of outta sight outta mind and we're all apathetic.

That's another thing that's kind of an interesting thing.

I think, you know, you see, I alluded to WYDOT doing a great job of cleaning the carnage up along the road.

I think the case could be made that it would be more impactful if you left it there.

Nobody'd like it, it would obviously create other issues and not be safe.

And a lot of, you know, raptors and large birds of prey would suffer as a consequence of that.

But, you know, the idea that we remove 'em out of our sight definitely doesn't help make the cause, right?

- Interesting point.

Wyldlife Fund is not the Game and Fish Department.

- No.

- It's not the Wildlife Federation, it's not the US Fish and Wildlife Service, but you have interaction with many different agencies.

How would you describe what Wyldlife Fund is?

- You know, we're a partner foundation to the Wyoming Game and Fish Department.

We were created by the commission and the department in 2019 to serve a unique role in funding projects like this and just being free and easy with regard to funding.

People can dedicate funds to a specific project.

If this is your end game and this is what you like, if it resonates with you, you can dedicate all your funding and take advantage of a 501C3 tax deduction and still fall within the strategic vision of the Wyoming Game and Fish Department.

- When you're talking about funds like this, there's simply no way that the state is gonna be able to budget for it.

- That's exactly correct.

- But you find, Wyldlife Fund finds, that there are people who would wanna help pay for it, the individuals, foundations, other entities.

But you have to have the mechanism so that it can get from them to the project.

This is what Wyldlife Fund can do.

- That's really the whole impetus and the whole reason for the Wyldlife Fund is to facilitate partnerships for impactful things that, you know, help our wildlife in the state.

And, you know, that's what it is.

I mean, people generally don't like to fund government organizations anyway.

You know, they feel like, you know, it's always an issue.

They don't know where their money's going.

We have a 90/10 model, so 90% of every dollar that's donated to the Wyldlife Fund goes straight to projects.

- That was my next question.

No one can accuse Wyldlife Fund of being this big bloated bureaucracy, right?

There's you and one other person.

- That's right.

We have two employees that are full-time, an entire volunteer board.

You know, Chris McBarnes, the president, is the first employee.

He's been doing a great job.

I actually was outta state for several years.

I'm a Fremont County, Wyoming native.

As many people know, it's challenging to make a living in Wyoming.

And I went elsewhere for a while.

But I can say that, you know, one thing that's unmistakable is Wyoming brings you home, Steve.

And, you know, I found a home with the Wyldlife Fund and that's what I honestly believe, you know, is the main reason why I took this job.

And I can say that it's a home for everyone who loves wildlife.

- And that crosses a broad gamut of people, of types of people, of philosophies that people have.

Wildlife can be a unifier.

Are you finding that?

- Absolutely true.

And I think it's long, long awaited.

I mean, I think it's a polarizing subject.

Wildlife is polarizing.

You have, you know, long-term heritage folks from Wyoming who've subsisted off of wild game.

You have ranchers who have fed wild game and you know, kept them on their place all their lives.

And sometimes that's troublesome.

They're eating their haystacks, you know, the Department of Game and Fish has to deal with those issues all the time on a daily basis.

So what's neat about the Wyldlife Fund is all folks from all different walks of life, energy industries, all encompassing, every type of energy industry, you name it, business entities, recreational businesses, tourism businesses, private groups, private ranches, private, you know, partnerships across the state.

- Conservationists.

- Family trusts.

Now Block has been a huge funder of these, I'd like to, you know, bring them out.

You know, those are the kind of folks that have noticed that the Wyldlife Fund is the kind of organization and the type of organization that's inclusive of all ideas and concepts.

It's not that we're definitely, you know, we're still within the strategic vision of the Wyoming Game and Fish, but we listen to everybody, anyone who has an interest in conserving wildlife habitat and funding research for wildlife can have a home with the Wyldlife Fund.

Well, this particular area, Steve, is actually designed to funnel cattle to the crossing.

Yeah, and also exclude wildlife at the same time.

So you can see the shorter fence here and then the taller fence on the perimeter of the actual easement.

The whole idea is to keep the wildlife that are typically out in the wide open space off of this highway area.

But this is particular to the cattle driveway and a multi-use and multi-use concept that all of these organizations are working together to make happen.

So it allows the guys that run cattle on public land to have a place to funnel these cattle up onto the crossing and then safely across the same roadway that we're concerned with wildlife.

- So there's no, it's not cattle drive season yet, but it will be.

- Absolutely.

- And there are times when people coming by here might see hundreds and hundreds of header cattle walking right where we are.

- Absolutely, Steve.

- So before the crossing was here, what did they have to do?

- The typical deal is you set up flaggers on both ends and say a Hail Mary and hope for the best and try to get 'em across the highway.

- Was that part of the planning of the wildlife crossing originally?

Did the the concept include realization that could be used this way?

- Yeah, absolutely Steve, and I think, you know, one thing that the Wyldlife Fund and the Game and Fish have done a good job of is recognizing the role that ranching plays in wildlife conservation.

Sometimes that's not necessarily the rancher's choice, but large expansive open spaces are what it takes to winter wildlife and for wildlife to have successful feed, to make it through Wyoming's harsh winters.

So the ranching community plays a huge role in that.

So it only makes sense that we partner with them and accommodate them in any way that we can to try to help make this work for everybody.

- How then does the wildlife itself needing to cross get to the bridge, so to speak?

- So these are classic migration corridors to begin with.

So that's where the habitat biologists of the Wyoming Game of Fish Department and those folks have, you know, observed the fish and wildlife in certain places, in certain cases, they know that they want to generally come this way anyway.

As you can see, this is a large ridge between Daniel and between Bondurant and that's kind of general area.

So this is a corridor that we basically, essentially just put back.

It was always here until we bisected it with this highway.

So we've just kind of put it back.

But as you can see on both sides, these lower fences that are more like the size of your typical cattle fence, they also have a high, a pole on the top, a horizontal pole on the top to make 'em more visible to cattle or to wildlife.

And then after the cattle have grazed and been trailed through here, then these gates are generally left open as well.

So the whole idea is to kind of funnel the wildlife naturally in a corridor that they're already used to using and have been over, you know, generations have learned to use, and then allow them a safe passage across this highway.

The horizontals on the top rail of the fence are generally much more easily seen by wildlife.

And one of the things that happens as we went through this past winter obviously is you have three or four feet of snow.

Most of that fence is covered up.

And so imagine trying to jump out of a swimming pool.

I use that example for people sometimes.

- And suddenly it's... - Stand in, you know, four feet of water and see how high you can jump, right?

So that's what they're encountering when there's a lot of snow.

That top rail gives 'em a visual aid to help 'em see where they need to reach to get over safely.

But you know, the point is to utilize it for cattle.

When that's done, prior to the big migration push in November, that starts mostly in November.

Then those gates will be actually opened up and tied back to allow safe passage, an easier passage.

- And you said this was, could be a $35 million project.

- That was the cost of the entire US 189 highway crossing project, which also included these, the exclusionary fencing, the jump out structures.

- But we're talking, comparing that to an annual property damage- - Of 50 million.

- Cost of $50 million just for one year.

- Yeah.

Yeah.

- So there's some bang for the buck here.

- Oh, absolutely.

And then, you know, we're not even putting a price on the, you know, or a value.

It's easy to put a price on wildlife because we know what our license costs are.

We know what those, you know, the revenue that hunting and fishing brings to our state.

Those are all tangible things that get measured pretty often.

But, you know, how much is one person worth, you know, that dies on one of these spots.

I mean, when you throw that into it, then it really kinda evens up.

- Can't be calculated.

- Yeah.

It can't be calculated at all, so.

- Protection of wildlife is a big term that can cover, that does cover lots and lots and lots of things, beginning or including keeping so many of 'em from being struck and killed by cars.

It's an ever ending topic.

And Wyoming's perfect for it.

- It is, and this is a classic example too, Steve, of different end users having impacts on wildlife.

The folks travel on this highway, many of them probably never have hunted before, you know, but we're basically bringing this idea to the nation's attention and showing that this absolutely has an impact.

All this traffic also has an impact on wildlife.

And so this is a great way for multiple groups of people across all different, you know, thought processes, all different ideas to be involved in helping protect the resource for all.

- There's no question that some of these vehicles we're seeing are on their way to or from Grand Teton National Park, Yellowstone National Park, the Jackson Hole region.

That's a given.

We're also in one of the biggest energy producing parts of, not just of Wyoming, but of North America here as well.

- Yep.

- We have farm and ranching here.

We have small business here.

We have conservation interests here.

- Yeah, and you know, we're happy to engage all of those different, you know, groups of folks, because at the end of the day, that's what the wildlife needs.

It needs, you know, folks that are willing to group together not on polarizing talking points, but to get together on the main talking points.

Like what can we do right now to impact the legacy and the heritage of wildlife in the state of Wyoming.

You know.

- You found, it has been determined just through the initial construction of these first few of the crossing projects.

The results have been profound, haven't they?

- Absolutely.

They're 80 to 90% effective immediately, Steve.

And, you know, that's the kind of win-win philosophy that the Wyldlife Fund and the Wyoming Game and Fish Department are gonna support wholeheartedly, along with WYDOT as well.

I mean, anything you have that good of a return on any investment, you know, it only makes sense to jump on board.

So there's these two immediately that are right here.

These are the first two of the state.

Highway 189, the South Kemmerer 189 project, which will include a major overpass like this.

One of the other projects that's on the radar is US 26 up by Dubois, between Dubois and Crow Heart, there will be an overpass there as well, so.

- And there you have not only the deer, and we have the bighorn sheep as well.

- Absolutely.

The only reason the US 189 really took priority is because of the Wyoming Range mule deer herd, and because of Terra Power's nuclear plant construction.

So there's estimates as high as 2,500 additional employees during the construction phase for that nuclear plant down near Kemmerer.

- On a statewide basis, I've seen a map where there have been dozens of places identified that would be advantageous certainly to do this.

- Oh yeah.

- Is that part of the longer vision of Wyldlife Fund?

- It absolutely is.

And you know, it takes huge partnerships as you can imagine.

They're not easy to fund, they're not easy to put in place.

You know, we have a short construction season.

Wyoming's a tough place to build high fence and exclusionary fencing and jump outs.

And so you have a short window to do 'em in.

But I guess, you know, from my perspective, the Wyldlife Fund and the Game and Fish and WYDOT are on a good course.

We're, you know, we're setting the bar high and just chiseling away at projects as we can and as we can obtain the kind of private funding partners that we need to make these a reality, Steve.

- Sure.

You start somewhere.

Here's where we started.

Look what we did.

- Yep.

- And it proved that it's possible to do.

And that the payoff is fantastic.

- We also want to, you know, showcase that these are a win for human safety.

There's a lot of folks that travel to the state of Wyoming and get injured in wildlife accidents.

I'm sure they didn't think that that would be a possibility.

- Here's what I remember about my, the first time I had this collision with a deer.

It didn't really damage my car.

The deer survived at least the collision.

I don't mind saying I felt awful that it had happened.

The last thing in the world I wanted do is to hit that.

- Yeah, the remorse and the, you know, the emotional, you know, it is, it's hard.

- You and I are both long time, old time Wyoming residents, me a little older time than you.

(Nate chuckles) We've seen what I think has been the worst winter overall in much of Wyoming and certainly in my lifetime, in terms of the duration of it, the relentlessness of it, the cold temperatures and the snow.

Has that, and we know coming out of that, the mortality numbers for pronghorn and mule deer in particular just been terrible.

Does that affect the thinking or the progress or the concept of the wildlife crossing project at all?

- Absolutely.

After this epic winter of 2022-23, it absolutely showcases how important these are because, you know, it makes that number, 6,000 animals a year doesn't seem like that many in the broad scope of things until you start thinking about 80% mortality in adults.

And there's definitely herds of pronghorn and herds of mule deer across the state, you know, in selective groups.

I firmly believe we'll bounce back, but it might take a decade to do that, Steve.

- But this structure could help that happen.

- It's actively helping that right now.

It definitely is.

And that's the thing is, you know, when you build a structure of this scope and of this magnitude, you know, you're in it for the long haul.

And that's why research is so important and doing this right the first time.

- A lot of things that I've encountered in my news career that I had and my television career that I'm having now, I ask myself, what are future generations gonna think about what we did?

And too often I'm afraid the question they're gonna ask is, why in the world did you do that?

Or why did you let that happen?

Or why didn't you do this?

I think this is something that future generations are gonna look at and be proud of what we did.

- Absolutely, Steve.

And I think, you know, one of the things that WYDOT does well and some of these other entities, the migration initiative and folks like that is, you know, they're using technology to give people a glimpse of that.

There's trail cams that you can get on.

If you look up Trappers Point highway crossings online, you can watch in real time, you know what these cameras are showing wildlife, utilizing these resources.

So it's so cool that we have technology to be able to shore up and back up the decisions we've made collectively as a group.

And I think another thing I'd love to showcase about these that, you know, it's kind of an afterthought.

We don't really have a lot of mortality or problems with people hitting small mammals, small predators, raccoons, badgers, all of those different things.

But one of the things that's immediately obvious when you look at these webcams is you have bears and you know, mountain lions, bobcats, skunks, all sorts of wildlife that are utilizing these crossings that were built.

Not necessarily with them immediately in mind, but they use it too.

But it is a secondary benefit.

- You're a Fremont County guy, you mentioned, but you've lived, worked, been outta state, visited other places.

How does Wyoming stack up in the wildlife arena?

Where do we rate?

- Well in the lower 48, Steve, I think we're, you know, we're unmistakably at the apex of all of it.

I mean, you know, the waters all start here.

You know, you have the Rocky Mountains, Yellowstone National Park, one of the, you know, the greatest, you know, conservation ideas that was ever known to man.

I mean, they started the National Park concept right here in Wyoming.

Unbelievable groups of wildlife that migrate hundreds of miles across this state.

Many different large ungulates, birds, all types of species.

And so it only makes sense that the Wyoming Game and Fish Department and folks like the Wyldlife Fund and some of these other great organizations and NGOs that we partner with, work together to kind of set the bar for the whole country and even for the world I believe.

Because, you know, at the end of the day, the resource is, you know, it's only so much, there's only, you know, there's not an unlimited resource.

We've noticed, you know, 40% decline in the snowy range and Wyoming range, mule deer herds, you know, for reasons all across the board, different biological reasons.

One thing we've identified is we know that killing does and fawns on the interstate and on the highway systems in our state has a tremendous impact.

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