The Wyoming Game and Fish Commission moved forward last week with protecting the critical Sublette antelope herd migration route in a 7-0 unanimous vote, going against the gas and oil industry in its decision. As a result, this historic and already fragmented migration route will be protected to help antelope that biologists believe are already at “high risk” of being lost, according to WyoFile.

Biologists used data collected over the past 20 years on 415 GPS-collared animals to inform the agency’s recommendation. The Sublette herd travels along Interstate 80 to Jackson Hole in a migration “web” that was discovered more than a 25 years ago. Jill Randall, Wyoming Game and Fish Department’s (WGFD) big game migration coordinator, illustrated the impact of human encroachment on this important route with “a map that showed huge gashes in the landscape where subdivisions, energy development and other human activities have fragmented” the route antelope rely upon to survive.

“For example, last winter, it was very apparent to us that those individuals that had the ability to move south … had a higher likelihood of survival,” said Randall. “Connectivity to get them to those crucial winter ranges in severe winters is really essential.”

Despite push-back from industry, the decision to protect this important corridor was largely supported by the public with 90% of the over 300 comments submitted in favor of protecting the Sublette antelope herd.

“Overwhelmingly, the public sentiment was in support of moving this process forward,” said Doug Brimeyer, WGFD’s deputy chief of wildlife.

This is a solid step forward in a state’s push to conserve wildlife migration. Next steps include a biological risk assessment that should be circulated to the public later this year along with establishing a stakeholder group to work on the state’s proposal, according to WyoFile.