Photo: Noppadol Paothong
Migratory Big Game
We provide scientific reports, project profiles, technical tools, videos, photos, field guides, and links that tell the story of how cooperative conservation is making a difference for working lands and wildlife across the West.
News
Introducing The Mesic Analysis Platform: Restore Water Where It Matters Most
July 15, 2026
The Mesic Analysis Platform helps guide conservation of mesic, or wet, resources across sagebrush ...
Publication Alert
Virtual Fences, Actual Conservation
July 9, 2026
Virtual fencing technology holds significant promise for boosting conservation outcomes. New research explores these potential ...
News
Migratory Big Game Framework In Focus: Wildlife Conservation Through Sustainable Ranching
June 2, 2026
Learn more about WLFW's new Migratory Big Game Framework for Conservation ...
Publication Alert
Where There’s Width, There’s A Way (For Big Game To Move)
May 20, 2026
WLFW-affiliated research from Wyoming informs how residential development in the West can balance housing growth with the movement needs of migrating big ...
News
Data-Driven Wildfire Recovery in the Great Plains
April 29, 2026
New wildfire recovery website translates decades of rangeland and fire ecology research into a decision-support resource for ...
News
What Are Mesic Resources?
April 28, 2026
Ranchers and wildlife depend on wet, green places such as streamsides, meadows and springs, which represent just 2% of the West's ...
News
Invasion Severity Index
April 10, 2026
The Invasion Severity Index (ISI) online mapping application helps practitioners plan invasive annual grass management efforts across the sagebrush ...
News
New Guides-Reducing Conifer Encroachment in Western Rangelands
February 11, 2026
Reducing Conifer Encroachment in Western Rangelands Technical and Pocket Guides deliver new tools and strategies specific to western ...
News
Science to Solutions: Invasive Annual Grasses Threaten Mule Deer
December 11, 2025
Targeted weed treatments can improve core sagebrush habitat for big game, but leaving weeds unchecked will drastically reduce mule deer ...
News
Grit, Grass and Gated Pipe Help A Wyoming Ranch Thrive
December 8, 2025
Colter McCumber is a generational rancher in Hot Springs County, Wyoming. He partnered with the USDA NRCS to modernize his water system and improve fences, benefiting cattle ...
News
America’s Last Great Grasslands
September 29, 2025
Grasslands are the most imperiled ecosystem on earth. North America is home to two of the world’s largest remaining intact grasslands: the Nebraska Sandhills and Wyoming ...
Publication Alert
Invasive Annual Grasses Threaten Mule Deer Habitat
September 2, 2025
Defending and growing intact sagebrush cores is a key strategy to keeping mule deer and other big game habitat ...
News
New RAP Dataset Provides Additional Functionality and Improved Vegetation Monitoring
August 26, 2025
New 10-meter datasets add increased functionality and accuracy to the Rangeland Analysis ...
News
Wyoming Shares Strategies For Wildlife Friendly Fencing
August 15, 2025
At a summit in Wyoming, experts share research and success stories about how to make fences work better for ranchers and ...
News
Announcing the Conifer Encroachment Education Project
July 24, 2025
Just-launched website promotes simple and effective solutions to conifer encroachment in sagebrush ...
News
Western Working Lands Snapshot | Migratory Big Game
June 30, 2025
Learn all about the West's big game species like elk, deer, pronghorn, moose, and bighorn ...
News
Defend The Core: Fighting back against woody invaders on the Great Plains
February 24, 2025
NRCS Working Lands for Wildlife is investing in proactive ways to help livestock producers keep healthy grasslands free from woody ...
Publication Alert
The Last Continuous Grasslands on Earth
December 8, 2024
Research pinpoints the largest intact grasslands left on earth. Two of the top three are in the American West: the Central Wyoming Basin and the Nebraska ...
News
Podcast: Conservation Programs with Tom Watson and Tim Griffiths
November 15, 2024
Tune in to this super informative podcast featuring the NRCS's Tom Watson and Tim Griffiths to learn all about how NRCS works with ...
News
USDA Announces Department-wide Effort to Support Terrestrial Wildlife Habitat Connectivity
October 23, 2024
New USDA Announcement Supports Wildlife Connectivity Across the ...
Publication Alert
Targeted and Proactive Conifer Treatments Restore Key Components of Sagebrush Ecosystems
October 15, 2024
Analysis of largest ever, cross-boundary conifer removal efforts in the sagebrush biome showed projects achieving management goals and validated need for coupled management of ...
Publication Alert
Getting to the Core: SGI Evaluates 12 years of Conservation through the Lens of the Sagebrush Conservation Design
October 15, 2024
SGI’s proactive, voluntary conservation model has conserved sagebrush cores but analysis shows more work to be done on invasive annual ...
News
Sagebrush Conservation Gateway Delivers Latest Science from Across the Biome
October 15, 2024
New website highlights the latest research from diverse group of experts to help land managers, conservationists, and anyone interested in saving the sagebrush ...
News
From Bird To Biome: Keeping the range intact for wildlife and people
September 27, 2024
Learn more about our shift from species-specific conservation to biome-centric ...
Publication Alert
Research Demonstrates Impacts of Woody Species Expansion on Wyoming’s Pronghorn
April 16, 2024
Research shows how woody species expansion impacts pronghorn productivity in ...
News
Where Trees Are the Problem
April 10, 2024
Learn about how woody species expansion or tree encroachment is impacting sagebrush and grassland ecosystems in this story from the North American Grouse Partnership ...
News
Holding the Line: Defending Wyoming’s Sagebrush Cores from Cheatgrass
March 27, 2024
Sublette County, Wyoming has successfully treated more than 97,000 acres of cheatgrass, protecting core sagebrush ...
Publication Alert
Making Home on the Range Safer for Big Game
February 20, 2024
NRCS Technical Note Leverages Lessons Learned from NRCS-Wyoming Migratory Big Game ...
Publication Alert
WLFW Contributes to Open-Access Textbook Guiding Future of Rangeland Conservation
December 14, 2023
"Rangeland Wildlife Ecology and Conservation" is the new go-to resource for rangeland professionals, practitioners, and students. Three of the chapters were coauthored by WLFW ...
Ask an Expert
NRCS and Partners Work Together to Help Families Keep Their Land Green-Side Up
December 13, 2023
Conservation easements are one of the best tools to keep working lands in working hands. Learn about how partners, like land trusts, work with the NRCS to craft successful ...
News
Migratory Big Game Conservation Highlights the Best of West
December 8, 2023
Learn more about the USDA's Migratory Big Game Initiative and how WLFW is helping lead this broad effort in Wyoming, Montana, and ...
Publication Alert
Prioritizing healthy grasslands leads to more efficient conservation than focusing solely on wildlife
November 6, 2023
New research highlights how WLFW's shift from single-species conservation to conserving intact landscapes produces better conservation ...
Ask an Expert
New Science Backs WLFW’s Biome-Wide Conservation Approach
November 6, 2023
Research shows that WLFW's updated approach to conserving intact working landscapes produces better conservation results than focusing on a single ...
Publication Alert
WLFW Research Details How Wildfire Follows Cheatgrass In the Great Basin
September 29, 2023
WLFW research shows that 77% of invasive annual grass transition in the Great Basin occurred without fire, suggesting proactive management of invasive grasses is ...
Publication Alert
Visual analysis shows tree expansion across Montana rangelands since 1950s
August 29, 2023
New mapping application shows where tree expansion is happening in Montana through easy-to-see, interactive comparisons of historical and modern aerial ...
News
Landscape Explorer map shows how much the West has changed since the 1950s
July 18, 2023
Explore past and present landscapes from the Great Plains to the Pacific coast. New, easy-to-use map uses historic and current aerial imagery to highlight how our landscapes ...
Ask an Expert
How can we balance sage grouse and pinyon jay conservation in sagebrush country?
May 17, 2023
Two recent papers highlight that the majority of conifer removal in sagebrush country has avoided key pinyon jay habitat and further detail how we can balance managing pinyon ...
Podcast
Podcast: How Invasive Grasses Are Harming Hunting
April 19, 2023
Join Brian Mealor, director of the University of Wyoming's Sheridan Research and Extension Center and the Institute for Managing Annual Grasses Invading Natural Ecosystems for ...
News
USDA-ARS Now Stewarding the Rangeland Analysis Platform
April 10, 2023
The USDA-Agricultural Research Service is now stewarding the powerful Rangeland Analysis ...
Podcast
Podcast: Part 2 of “Defend the Core” Strategy for Invasive Plants
March 30, 2023
WLFW's Jeremy Maestas and Dirac Twidwell join the Art of Range podcast for part two of a two-part discussion of Defend the Core, a proactive management strategy defending ...
Podcast
Podcast: Part 1 of “Defend the Core” Strategy for Invasive Plants
February 24, 2023
WLFW's Jeremy Maestas and Dirac Twidwell join the Art of Range podcast for part one of a two-part discussion of Defend the Core, a proactive management strategy defending ...
News
Saving Time, Money and Wildlife through Conservation Practices
November 18, 2022
Jeff Boardman's partnership with the USDA-NRCS is paying off for him and for the migratory big game that move through his ranch every ...
News
Making Fences Friendlier for Ranchers and Wildlife
August 23, 2022
The Vickrey Family hosts one of the largest mule deer migrations in the country and has worked with the NRCS to make their ranch's fences easier for the deer to ...
News
New Partnership in Wyoming Rewards Landowners for Stewarding Wildlife Habitat
August 3, 2022
In 2022, the USDA-NRCS and the state of Wyoming announced a pilot program to benefit migrating big game that move across public and private ...
News
Conserving Prime Hay Ground As Well As Colorado’s Famous Elk and Deer
August 23, 2021
The Etchart Family placed much of their ranch in a conservation easement protecting prime working land from development and preserving habitat for elk, deer, and sage ...
Ask an Expert
Ask an Expert | The Green Glacier: What is Conifer Encroachment and Why is it Bad?
June 22, 2021
Learn about the "Green Glacier," the slow-moving expansion of conifer trees across western rangelands, in this Ask an Expert with NRCS's Jeremy ...
News
Washington Ranch Preserves Sagebrush Rangeland in Perpetuity
May 26, 2021
New conservation easement in Washington state preserves more than 2,000 acres of native sagebrush range in critical sage grouse habitat, adding to a 6,800-acre easement the ...
News
The Value of Keeping it in Grass
May 26, 2021
The Burke Family's long partnership with NRCS has led to better forage for livestock and wildlife and, in 2017, their ranch was protected in perpetuity through a ...
News
Healthy Grass Equals Profitable Ranches
March 15, 2021
The Blair family has worked hard to make their ranch profitable and resilient which benefits wildlife and the next generation. These ranchers earned the 2020 Leopold ...
News
Shared Capacity, Shared Success
February 21, 2021
Learn about the Strategic Action Watershed Team and how these partner-positions are adding significant capacity to NRCS offices across the ...
Sage Whiz Quiz
Sage Whiz Quiz | Conifers
April 10, 2020
Test your knowledge of conifer trees and how they impact sagebrush and grassland ...
News
SGI’s “Ranching First” Approach Proves Key to Protecting Ranch in Washington
March 10, 2020
The Keane Ranch is now protected from development in perpetuity thanks to a conservation easement supported, in part, by the ...
News
Ask an Expert | How Does Grazing Affect Native Pollinators
February 20, 2020
Join Gabrielle Blanchette for a deep dive into the role native pollinators play in rangelands and how grazing can impact these critical components of a healthy ...
Sage Whiz Quiz
Sage Whiz Quiz | Pronghorn
October 25, 2019
Test your knowledge of pronghorn, one of the most iconic residents of the sagebrush ...
News
Western Working Lands Snapshot | Grasslands
September 24, 2019
Join us for a new series focused on the natural history, wildlife, and people on the West's working lands. This innagural post focuses on ...
News
Conservation Easements Continue to Protect Idaho’s Pioneers-To-Craters Landscape
May 23, 2019
Two new easements protect an additional 2,500 acres of prime sagebrush habitat, adding to area's conservation ...
Sage Whiz Quiz
Sage Whiz Quiz | Elk
April 16, 2019
Take this Sage Whiz Quiz to test your knowledge of ...
News
How Do Mule Deer Use Sagebrush?
February 5, 2019
Miles Moretti of the Mule Deer Foundation tells us how mule deer use sagebrush country and why MDF is partnering to conserve western ...
Sage Whiz Quiz
Sage Whiz Quiz | Water In The West
September 28, 2018
Test your knowledge about precious wet habitat on America's arid western ...
News
High School Students Help Restore Montana Sagebrush
July 12, 2018
Partners come together -- including youth field crews -- to improve working lands for wildlife in southwest ...
Sage Whiz Quiz
Sage Whiz Quiz | How Are Weeds Linked To Wildfire?
July 2, 2018
Take this quiz to test your knowledge of how invasive annual grasses are linked to wildfires in the ...
News
FAIR CHASE Magazine | The Value of Sagebrush Country
December 8, 2017
by Josh Millspaugh | This feature in the December 2017 issue of Fair Chase Magazine highlights how sage grouse conservation benefits hunters and a host of wildlife ...
News
Water Is Life: SGI’s Mesic Habitat Conservation Strategy
April 5, 2017
The NRCS-led Sage Grouse Initiative is proud to announce a new conservation strategy that empowers private ranchers and partners to protect and enhance the wet green places ...