Status
Private land makes up a significant portion of the Corridor and represents an opportunity to establish positive working relationships with those who rely on these lands for their livelihood. In May of 2019, Y2U received the GIS analysis that was funded through a joint grant proposal with project partner Wild Utah Project. This GIS analysis completed by Wild Utah Project determined key wildlife impedance points, as well as bottlenecks, in a portion of the corridor occurring south of Caribou County in Idaho and North of Davis County in Utah stretching East to Mountain View, Wyoming. We are especially interested in how these impedances and bottlenecks overlay with private land. This will help inform our Landowner Conservation Campaign where we will help procure funding, expertise and other resources for private landowners to install wildlife friendly fencing and riparian area livestock exclosures, assist with conservation easement procurement, and push for the implementation of other regenerative ranching practices that benefit wildlife. Unfortunately, this project has not had the time allotted that is needed thus far due to the high volume of EA, EIS, and other Forest Service and BLM proposed project involvement requiring immediate attention and staff time. We will follow up with those landowners that are having a high frequency of entanglement by wildlife in their fencing and schedule on-site visits for next spring.
Work Plan
- Y2U has finished analyzing the WUP results and will be sending out correspondence to the high priority landowners this winter regarding entanglement issues on their property.
- In 2020, Y2U will work to ground truth the GIS analysis and prioritize identified parcels.
- Y2U will begin the outreach campaign with high priority private landowners to establish relationships with potential program participants.
- Y2U will incentivize program participation by assisting landowners with writing grant proposals to procure funding for wildlife friendly fencing, riparian exclosure and technical assistance leading to an increased margin for the operation.
Expected Outcome
Provide resources and assistance for private land restoration efforts and habitat connectivity throughout the Corridor.
