An Initiative for Landscape Conservation on southwest Wyoming
The following article is contributed by Erica Husse, Wyoming Landscape Conservation Initiative (WLCI) Coordinator for the Bureau of Land Management
The formal WLCI partnership includes: Bureau of Land Management, U.S. Geological Survey, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, U.S. Forest Service, National Park Service, National Resources Conservation Service, Wyoming Department of Agriculture, Wyoming Game and Fish Department (WGFD), six county commissions, eleven conservation districts, landowners, and industry representatives.
The Wyoming Landscape Conservation Initiative (WLCI) was established in 2007 as a long-term, science-based effort to conserve and enhance fish and wildlife habitats while facilitating responsible development through local collaboration and partnerships. Today, this initiative extends across 19 million acres. For over 100 years, Wyoming has been a leader in energy and mineral exploration, and part of being a leader means working to make sure the wildlife and landscapes in proximity to energy and mineral development maintain their character and function. With this goal in mind, federal, state, county, and private partners agreed to create a formal partnership, which became WLCI.
Wyoming has extensive public lands, with checkerboard patterns of private and state lands containing landscapes and wildlife that are highly valued by many different user groups like recreators, ranchers, and those in the energy and production industry. WLCI encompasses all land ownerships in southwest Wyoming, with sagebrush, mountain shrub, aspen, riparian, and aquatic communities being the focus for the initiative’s conservation work. Numerous wildlife species depend on the connectivity and proper functioning of these landscapes, including Greater sage-grouse, mule deer, pronghorn, moose, and cutthroat trout. This initiative facilitates cooperation between land managers, private landowners, industry, and the public to maintain the long-term viability of these communities.
“WLCI is a key component that brings other partners, science and financial benefits to projects,” said Joe Parsons, District Manager for Saratoga-Encampment-Rawlins Conservation District. “WLCI has been instrumental to on-the-ground habitat enhancements in the Upper North Platte Valley where my conservation district is. Aquatic, sagebrush and aspen habitats have all benefited.”
Some of North America’s longest big game migrations occur in the WLCI area, but land use and vegetative changes to the habitat types here have altered some migration routes. WLCI partners are applying new information, identifying movement impediments, and taking action to keep migration corridors intact and reduce big game vehicle accidents. In addition, federal, state, and local teams are working together to identify and remove movement barriers, improve forage quality, and enact easements to ensure long-term viability of migration routes.
"WLCI is a very important partner in southwest Wyoming because their interests, like that of the Wyoming Game and Fish Department, include working across land ownership boundaries towards solutions that meet multiple objectives,” said Jill Randall, WGFD Statewide Migration Coordinator. “Projects such as aspen treatments, cheatgrass management, highway crossings and fence modifications have all been completed to improve the function of our ecosystem for multiple users on our landscape including wildlife, livestock, sportsmen and landowners."
WLCI’s greatest collaborative asset is our four regional Local Project Development Teams (LPDTs). These teams are comprised of land managers and resource specialists from federal, state, and local government agencies, special interest groups, agriculture and other private landowners, and industry that all have a desire to participate in cooperative conservation. LPDTs are the “partners living on the ground,” working together to address conservation issues, actions, and priority areas. All four LPDTs collaboratively define issues and needs that inform the WLCI Conservation Action Plan, which defines WLCI conservation priorities and documents conservation actions in five-year increments.
“WLCI has been an integral partner for Trout Unlimited projects throughout southwestern Wyoming,” said Hillary Walrath with Trout Unlimited. “The local development teams have provided expertise when needed and bridged the gap with funding, making many of our projects possible. Cold-water fisheries have been strengthened because of WLCI’s efforts over the years.”
These efforts also provide economic benefits to many small rural communities across southwest Wyoming and are critically important to the customs and culture of Wyoming’s citizens, to wildlife, agriculture, and the open space unique to this region. Benefits to local communities are accomplished through the purchasing of equipment and materials, providing local and state level employment opportunities, and direct spending associated with food, lodging, and gas that support local communities and their livelihoods. A recent USGS study indicates that every million dollars spent on sagebrush projects in western states adds 16.9 job years and at least 1 million dollars in labor income.
To get involved or learn more about WLCI, please come visit us at www.wlci.gov. If you have an idea for a partner project, or would like to join a Local Project Development Team, email Erica Husse, ehusse@blm.gov.
WLCI conservation projects are organized across seven broad themes:
1) Maintaining and Reconnecting Wildlife Corridors and Passages in Southwest Wyoming
2) Improving Resilience and Function of Priority Habitats
3) Maintaining, Enhancing and Restoring Sagebrush Communities
4) Improving Aquatic Habitat and Improving the Distribution of Native Fish Assemblages
5) Controlling Invasive Plant Species and Restoring Ecosystem Integrity and Landscape Connectivity
6) Re-establishing Native Riparian Plant Communities
7) Developing and Enhancing Wetlands
In the first 10 years, WLCI partners invested $64 million in the landscape and economies of western Wyoming, leveraging federal funds 5.7:1. In that time, WLCI partners have accomplished:
70,600 acres of habitat improvements
19,777 acres of corridor conservation easements
312 miles of fence removal
2 highway underpasses constructed
108,888 acres of invasive plant control
27,400 acres of mechanical and controlled burn treatments in aspen
8,535 acres of conifer reduction
92,803 acres of sagebrush protected through easements and forage reserves
87.2 miles of stream opened to fish passage
6.6 miles of in-stream habitat restoration and enhancement
18 barriers to fish migration removed or modified
14,859 miles or riparian habitat protected
4,497 yards of streambank stabilization
5,161 trees and shrubs planted
73 acres developed for trumpeter swans
7 miles of improved dikes and infrastructure