news

Site Home > news home
CHEYENNE -- The Wyoming Department of Transportation is joining with the Game and Fish and Agriculture departments to ease the problem of right‑of‑way fencing blocking wildlife migration during winter. Game animals, particularly antelope, can get trapped at fence lines during storms and be prevented from reaching areas where they can better survive severe weather. A combination of cold temperatures and deep snow makes it difficult for antelope, which rarely jump fences, to go under the bottom fence wire, so herds tend to pack together against the fence. Earlier than usual severe cold and heavy snow have already created problems in the Sybille Canyon and Opal areas this year. Up to 800 antelope were stacked up in early November on the south side of Wyoming Highway 34 about two miles east of the US 30 junction north of Laramie. Through the teamwork of rancher Allen Cook , WYDOT and G&F, fence gates were dropped Nov. 7 to allow the migrating animals to reach their winter range. On Nov. 17, WYDOT gave the G&F permission to drop fence gates where 300-400 antelope were congregated on the west side of Wyoming Highway 240 about 12 miles north of Opal. “Not only was John Eddins (WYDOT district engineer in Rock Springs) eager to help out the antelope in this situation, he told us he’d help out any way he could if any other problems arose,” said Bill Rudd, G&F wildlife management coordinator in Green River. WYDOT and the Game and Fish Department have had a working agreement for the past four years for dropping fences to deal with such situations, and officials met again recently to review the plan. The two agencies are developing a critical calling list of people to contact if quick action is needed to drop a fence. The Department of Agriculture will serve as a liaison with the agencies and private landowners. “We don’t want to do anything without contacting folks with private interests in the areas,” said WYDOT Director Sleeter C. Dover. “We want them involved in the solution to these problems. We have procedures in place, but the intent is to deal with the problem as informally as possible, because we don’t want to create a new bureaucracy.” WDA spokesman Don Christianson said ranchers and farmers continue to play an important stewardship role by reporting to state officials whenever they notice wildlife gathering at fence lines. WYDOT State Maintenance Engineer Ken Shultz said, if the problems are handled quickly, antelope usually move on soon after the fences are dropped, so the barriers are down only a short period of time. “No one wants to see massive numbers of game animals dead along the highways,” Shultz said. However, there is no fence design that will allow every kind of wildlife to cross under all conditions, he said, so a coordinated effort is needed to respond to unavoidable problems as they develop. WYDOT has installed lay‑down fences in known problem areas. The fences have a release mechanism allowing a section of fence to be dropped quickly and easily.

Uploaded: 12/18/2000