Summary
The fundamental necessities for wildlife to persist are food, shelter, and water. Lack of access to any one of these needs impacts individual animal survival and ultimately the persistence of entire populations of wildlife. Ensuring wildlife can reach these needs is a core component of habitat connectivity. Unfortunately, habitat connectivity is compromised in many places throughout our country. Habitat fragmentation is caused by roads, energy development, housing, fencing, and other modifications that can, and often do, disrupt animal movement and ultimately the overall sustainability of a wide-array of species, including many ironic species such as elk, deer, moose, sheep, and pronghorn, to name a few. Conservation efforts are underway on landscapes across this nation to remove or mitigate barriers preventing wildlife from freely making their annual migrations or daily and seasonal movements. The most successful efforts are those closely working with private landowners, state agencies, and other key stakeholders using a voluntary, incentive-based, and bottom-up approach to addressing habitat fragmentation. The Congressional Sportsmen’s Foundation strongly supports voluntary, incentive-based efforts such as the Department of the Interior Secretarial Order 3362, the United States Department of Agriculture Secretary’s Memorandum focused on conserving and restoring terrestrial wildlife habitat connectivity and corridors, the Wildlife Movement Through Partnerships Act introduced in the 119th Congress, and the 5-year Wildlife Crossings Pilot Program authorized in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act 2021.
Background
One of the most pressing challenges facing wildlife across the nation is habitat connectivity for wildlife to meet the demands of their annual lifecycle. Across the nation, landscape connectivity and the habitat that is necessary to sustain a wide diversity of wildlife with ecologically sustainable populations continues to change at an expeditious pace due to a multitude of factors. For instance, anthropogenic modifications such as commercial and residential development, energy development and highway and railway construction or expansion across the United States continues to advance at a rapid rate, which leads to the loss and fragmentation of wildlife habitat. As such, the Congressional Sportsmen’s Foundation strongly supports efforts to bolster habitat connectivity through conserving and enhancing wildlife migration corridors and building and expanding wildlife crossings to provide safe passage for wildlife (and the safety and health of motorists) over and under highways, among other efforts to ensure intact ecosystems of wildlife.
In the American west for example, many species of wildlife such as elk, mule deer, pronghorn, and others are highly migratory to meet the demands of their annual life cycle associated with seasonal changes to habitat conditions. As an example, a mule deer herd may spend most of the summer at higher elevations, such as within U.S. Forest Service managed land, to escape summer heat, seek nutritional browse, and raise offspring. As winter begins to set in and weather conditions change, the same mule deer herd will migrate down to lower elevations to seek sustainable food resources and more suitable weather. In some cases, these migrations exceed 150 miles in one direction. Along their movement path, this mule deer herd may traverse numerous land ownerships ranging from Forest Service land, Bureau of Land Management (BLM), state and tribal lands, and private lands. Clearly federal and state agencies cannot work in silos to improve landscape permeability, so they must respectfully engage and cooperatively work with private landowners, if we are to be successful in conserving landscape connectivity.
For years, sportsmen and women, state and federal agencies, and other key stakeholders recognized that animals migrated to meet the demands of their annual lifecycles, but there was a lack of thorough understanding of how, when, and where wildlife migrates. However, with advancements in modern technologies, we now have a stronger understanding of wildlife migrations and movements. For example, GPS and satellite tracking have allowed wildlife managers and researchers to conduct real-time studies that provides critical information on the movement of a variety of species that better informs management decisions and other conservation efforts.
One of the most meaningful advancements in efforts to bolster habitat connectivity is an effort known as Department of the Interior Secretarial Order 3362 (SO 3362), which was signed in February 2018. SO 3362 brought forward the necessary fiscal resources that vastly improved the understanding of big game movement patterns, greatly expanded corridor mapping efforts in a voluntary manner, and facilitated communications and partnerships amongst private, tribal, state, and federal partners. As written, SO 3362 focused on 11 western states and three different species (elk, deer, and pronghorn), but given its high degree of success it’s time to expand this concept and overall effort nationwide, broaden the scope of eligible species, and provide much-needed consistent funding to successfully scale this effort.
Additionally, in late 2024, the U.S. Department of Agriculture issued a Secretary’s Memorandum (Memo) that directs agencies within USDA to improve and conserve terrestrial wildlife habitat connectivity. The successful implementation of the principles and direction outlined in the Memo are vital to broadening the impact of corridor conservation because USDA has robust private land-focused programs. The Memo bolsters the conservation of migratory wildlife habitat by providing direction to enhance interagency coordination within the USDA as well as interdepartmental coordination with other important entities such as the Department of the Interior and state fish and wildlife agencies. The Memo provides direction to important USDA agencies such as the U.S. Forest Service, the Natural Resources Conservation Service, the Farm Service Agency, and the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service to implement science-based decision-making as it relates to conserving and restoring wildlife habitat connectivity. The Memo also builds upon other actions by USDA to conserve migratory wildlife habitat such as the USDA Migratory Big Game Initiative, which has leveraged existing programmatic funding to conduct voluntary conservation efforts in Montana, Idaho, and Wyoming.
Notably, the Congressional Sportsmen’s Foundation strongly supports the bipartisan and bicameral Wildlife Movement Through Partnerships Act, which seeks to codify SO 3362 and expand its reach and scope. This legislation checks critical boxes for CSF by codifying and expanding a proven program in the form of SO 3362 that allows private landowners to envision themselves in the program through voluntary, non-regulatory approaches. Beyond codifying and expanding the scope of SO 3362, this legislation is also important because it establishes a non-regulatory grant program to help provide crucial funds to conserve wildlife movement areas and the seasonal habitats for which wildlife depend.
Further, CSF strongly supported the 5-year Wildlife Crossings Pilot Program (WCPP) contained in the 2021 bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, which sought to reduce wildlife-vehicle collisions and improve habitat connectivity by providing competitive grants to fund infrastructure projects that help wildlife safely cross roads and highways. Specifically, the WCPP provided $350 million to build overpasses and underpasses, fencing to direct wildlife to safe crossings, and other structures to help reduce vehicle crashes with wildlife. This Pilot Program is the first-time wildlife-specific highway crossing funding was provided in a transportation bill. Consequently, the incredible demand for grants surpasses the available funding. The 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act is set to expire in September 2026, and one of CSF’s top priorities leading into the infrastructure bill reauthorization will be to make this program permanent and seek opportunities to expand funding.
Points of Interest
- CSF has and continues to be a leader in advancing efforts to improve habitat connectivity, including serving as a witness before the House Natural Resources Subcommittee on Water, Wildlife, and Fisheries in September 2024 on the Wildlife Movement Through Partnerships Act, among two other bills.
- CSF strongly supports locally-driven, voluntary, and non-regulatory efforts to restore habitat connectivity across the country that respects private landowners and property rights by offering voluntary incentives that meet the objectives and goals of the landowners as well as conserving wildlife.
- Any effort to bolster habitat connectivity must be conducted in a way that upholds and respects state wildlife management authority
- DOI Secretarial Order 3362 was pivotal in advancing efforts to understand and bolster habitat connectivity, and it is now time to legislatively codify this effort and expand its scope through the Wildlife Movement Through Partnerships Act. Maintaining and promoting implementation of the USDA Secretary’s Memorandum focused on conserving and restoring terrestrial wildlife habitat connectivity is important to offer incentives and unique programming to private landowners.
- Additionally, given the success of the Wildlife Crossings Pilot Program, CSF will be working with the appropriate Congressional committees and the conservation community to improve the current program while making it a permanent provision in future transportation bills.
Moving Forward
In the 119th Congress and new Presidential Administration, CSF will be working to advance the Wildlife Movement Through Partnerships Act, expand and make permanent the Wildlife Crossings Pilot Program, and work with the new Administration to build upon SO 3362 and the USDA Secretary’s Memorandum.
