The WYldlife Funds sends $29,000 to the Dry Piney Wildlife Crossing project
Thank You to the Muley Fanatic Foundation and the Mule Deer Foundation for their generous contributions!
Providing safe passage across busy roadways for Wyoming’s wildlife! Also, keeping our roadways safe for drivers!
The WYldlife Fund unites people to advance Wyoming wildlife habitat, research, and education. Our foundation strives to be a vehicle to inject donor funds on the ground to advance critical projects and initiatives which strengthen Wyoming’s wildlife. We are a home for tax deductible gifts. Our foundation accepts restricted gifts so that a donor’s particular passion is directly and transparently funded.
Our latest grant heads to the Dry Piney Wildlife Crossing project. This stretch of US-189 has one of the highest rates of mule deer vehicle collisions in Wyoming. The migrating and wintering deer impacted are part of the Wyoming Game & Fish Department’s priority Wyoming Range mule deer herd. The road has existing sheep fence (woven wire) along both sides which creates a substantial movement barrier. In addition to mule deer, vehicle collisions with pronghorn and moose also occur along this stretch.
The Dry Piney project consists of underpasses and high fencing to funnel wildlife to the crossings structures and thus a safe passage across busy roadways.
Thanks to a generous $24,000 donation from the Muley Fanatic Foundation and a $5,000 donation from the Mule Deer Foundation, The WYldlife Fund is able to send $29,000 to this critical project.
In order to leverage these donor funds to the fullest The WYldlife Fund is routing these grant dollars to Dry Piney through the Wyoming Wildlife Natural Resource Trust.
Executive Director Bob Budd explains, “Governor Gordon and the Wyoming Legislature have stepped up to address critical migration issues, including matching funds for this type of project, and the WWNRT has created a separate account to aggregate funds from a variety of sources to address the need. This contribution will generate an equal amount into the corpus of the Trust Account which will generate conservation funds long into the future. This is truly the Wyoming way, where many hands make light lifting, and we really appreciate the leadership and commitment The WYldlife Fund has shown in this regard.” .
The $29,000 sent through the Wyoming Wildlife Natural Resource Trust will be matched dollar for dollar by the state of Wyoming. These matching dollars will stay with WWNRT to help support long term advancement of initiatives and projects for the benefit of Wyoming’s wildlife. In addition, the WWNRT has committed $100,000.00 to the Dry Piney project to date and may have the ability to contribute more as the project develops.
The Dry Piney project will reduce vehicle collisions with mule deer and decrease mortality in this ecologically and economically important herd by improving habitat connectivity, and helping to conserve migrations in this area. Pronghorn and moose movements could also be enhanced.
The WYldlife Fund applauds all federal, state, and non-profit partners who have made this project possible! We are honored to join this great group of leaders and change agents.
