Vern Evans
A grassroots conservation organization devoted to pronghorn antelope will launch Monday with the goal of funding research-driven habitat and migration projects around the West.
The North American Pronghorn Foundation grew out of founders’ affection for pronghorn and the recognition that, between habitat fragmentation, obstacles to seasonal migration, and impacts from drought, feral horses, and development, the continent’s original ungulate needs advocates and assistance.
At least initially, the group will exist as a volunteer-driven entity with memberships, merchandise, and a social media presence, but not as state and local chapters or a paid staff. Instead, the group will aggregate its funding to be used in on-the-ground projects, says co-founder Brock Wahl of Bismarck, North Dakota.
“We’ve observed that while there’s been an increase in the last few years, historically pronghorn haven’t gotten the resources and attention and dollars associated with research of other big-game animals,” says Wahl. “With GPS collars these days you can really get a sense of where animals want to go and how they’re using the landscapes. We’d like to leverage that knowledge with a start-to-finish model where we help fund research to find out what animals need in terms of habitat or removing barriers to migration, then utilizing results of that research to put projects on the ground that benefit pronghorn.”
Co-founder Randy Routier, a South Dakota outfitter and rancher, said that projects might be as simple as replacing the bottom strand of barbed-wire fences with smooth wire and lifting it up a few inches so pronghorn, which scoot under fences instead of vaulting over them like deer and elk, can pass safely.
“In some cases, high-quality habitat exists, but pronghorn can’t reach it because of a fencing issue,” observes Routier. “That’s an easy problem for us to identify and fix, to enable antelope to go where they need to go.”
Founders highlighted helping with local habitat needs, including building or enhancing water sources in the Southwest, contributing to wildlife-friendly highway crossings in key migration corridors, and mitigating impacts of large-scale solar projects. Wahl noted that across their range, pronghorn populations have slipped some 20 percent in recent years.
“I feel it’s an American responsibility to safeguard an animal that has such a unique place here,” says Wahl. “After all, it’s such a distinctly American animal whose closest relative is the giraffe. Plus, with the increase in Western hunting, with tags harder to draw and with chronic wasting disease on the landscape heavily impacting deer in some places, pronghorn will only get more pressure and attention, so it’s timely to advocate for the resource that’s facing challenges.”
The group’s focus will stretch from Saskatchewan to Sonora.
“With something like 40 percent of the world’s pronghorns, it would be easy to focus exclusively on Wyoming, where there have been some significant population declines,” says Wahl. “But Wyoming already has an effective infrastructure for pronghorn conservation, including the Wyoming Migration Initiative, the Monteith Shop, and Game and Fish’s pronghorn studies. We want to make sure that other states and areas benefit from similar infrastructure, advocacy, and funding.”
Advocacy may extend to the policy arena, but Wahl said the group will be judicious about the issues it tackles, and aims to work with industry and other partners on solutions.
“I think you can expect that we’ll submit comments to support the Sublette (Wyoming) Migration Corridor, and we’ll likely be involved in public policies that address the negative impacts of feral horses on pronghorn habitats, and maybe comments on energy infrastructure in the wrong spots, but as a 501c3 we’re going to pick projects and policies wisely.”
The North American Pronghorn Foundation is the second high-profile species-specific conservation organization to launch in the last months. The Blacktail Deer Foundation was started by the Mule Deer Foundation in December to advocate for coastal black-tailed deer.
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Other groups formed in recent years to advocate for a specific species or landscapes include the Rocky Mountain Goat Alliance, formed in 2011, and the North American Grouse Partnership was established in 1999. The North American Pronghorn Foundation is actually the second conservation group with that name and focus. A previous version, based in Rawlins, Wyoming, has been inactive for over a decade.
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