On Cloud Nine

RMEF celebrates 9 million acres

PHOTO: Mark Raycroft

In the last four years, RMEF soared to our latest conservation milestone of 9 million acres conserved or enhanced since 1984. Here are a few of the many highlights in nine different categories where we make a difference.

Land Conservation Projects

Thanks to conservation-minded landowners, RMEF has made some of its biggest impacts for elk by conserving hundreds of thousands of acres for wildlife both through acquisitions and voluntary conservation agreements.

Big Snowies

Montana; 2022—When 97-year-old Forest Allen left his 5,668-acre property in the foothills of Montana’s Big Snowy Mountains to Shodair Children’s Hospital, CEO Craig Aasved reached out to RMEF, and together they worked with Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks to create the Big Snowy Mountains Wildlife Management Area. PHOTO: RMEF

Ataya

Kentucky; 2023—RMEF partnered with The Nature Conservancy, National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, Kentucky Department of Wildlife Resources and others to complete a cutting-edge voluntary conservation agreement protecting over 54,500 acres of private land habitat for elk and other wildlife. The agreement also creates permanent public access for hunting, other recreation and wildlife and habitat management. PHOTO: Ben Childers

Minam River Project

Oregon; 2021, 2023, 2024—In a three-phase project, RMEF, Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife and Manulife Investment Management Timber and Agriculture Inc. created a total of almost 16,700 contiguous public acres connecting to nearly 2.5 million acres of adjoining public lands. PHOTO: David Jensen

Projects with Outsized Impacts on Access

RMEF has helped open access to thousands of previously difficult to reach or
landlocked acres for hunting and other recreation.

Pole Canyon

Nevada; 2022, 2023—RMEF worked with a conservation-minded landowner to complete the Pole Canyon Voluntary Conservation Agreement in 2022, protecting over 12,000 acres of important wildlife habitat in Elko County, Nevada. In 2023, this private landowner also agreed to create a new public access trail up Pole Canyon. The route is flanked by private land and leads up into 15,000 acres of premium public ground for hunting, fishing and other recreational activities. Elk use the property for calving and valuable summer range, and elk and a large portion of the Area 10 mule deer herd, the largest in the state of Nevada, use it for transition range as well. PHOTO: Susan Summer Elliot

Eel River

California; 2024—This multi-phase project protected over 3,300 acres now administered by the BLM, and improved access to 4,750 for a total of over 8,100 acres of improved access. The project is just one in a series of Eel River projects dating back to 2011, part of the Eel River Peninsula Conservation Project. This partnership between a conservation-minded California family and RMEF aims to protect approximately 70,000 acres of wildlife habitat and migratory corridors for tule elk, mule deer, black bears, mountain lions, turkeys and black-tailed deer. PHOTO: George Ward

VOLUNTEER PROJECTS

Each year RMEF volunteers work tirelessly building wildlife-friendly fencing, installing water guzzlers and more. They also shine in the banquet halls, raising critical funding for RMEF’s on-the-ground work.

O’Haco Adopt a Ranch Project

Arizona—Starting in 1997, RMEF volunteers have put in a weekend’s work each year mending fences and building water tanks for wildlife and stock. In exchange, ranching landowners Jim and Jeanne O’Haco allow public access for all to their 65,000-acre property. Part of the Arizona Game and Fish Department’s Adopt a Ranch Program, RMEF's Red Mountain Chapter spearheaded this project. PHOTOS: RMEF

Volunteer Fundraising Events

NATIONWIDE—Chapter fundraisers put on by volunteers run the engine of RMEF. A portion of the funds from these events go to state grants which put money on the ground for wildlife and hunting heritage in the state where it was raised. From 2020, the year we hit 8 million acres to 2024, the year we hit 9 million, our incredible volunteers put on over 3,000 events across
47 states and raised millions of dollars for elk and elk country.

Habitat Stewardship

RMEF stays engaged on the landscape, funding prescribed burns, weed treatments
and more to ensure elk and other wildlife have high-quality habitat.

B.O.S.H.

IDAHO—Improving habitat on more than 617,000 acres in southwestern Idaho means a lot of partners must come to the table. RMEF and multiple state and federal agencies fostered this long-term partnership to make the Bruneau-Owyhee Sage Grouse Habitat Project (BOSH) a success. The project calls for mitigating encroachment of junipers into critical sagebrush habitat—a benefit to not only sage grouse but a host of grassland species, including elk and other big game. To date, RMEF has awarded $330,000 toward juniper removal—a sum that has helped enhance nearly 150,000 acres since 2021 alone. PHOTO: RMEF

Wildfire Restoration

Nationwide—Responding to an area burned by a wildfire helps ensure the landscape rebounds as quickly as possible. Whether implementing cheatgrass controls in Wyoming, reseeding native plants and shrubs in Utah or replacing burned water tanks in Arizona, RMEF steps up to fund wildfire restoration work, with projects in 10 states totaling over $10 million since 2021 that impacted more than 75,000 acres. PHOTOS FROM TOP: RMEF l Ken Archer

Research

RMEF has long supported science-based wildlife management and prioritized funding research to decipher factors that influence elk and other wildlife, so managers have the tools they need.

Migration Mapping

NATIONWIDE—It seems each year exciting new research shows the importance of wildlife migration corridors and our understanding of how best to conserve them. RMEF became an early advocate and funder of wildlife migration mapping with multiple state and federal projects aimed at identifying routes used by species such as elk, mule deer and pronghorn. RMEF funding has topped $3.5 million to map nearly 200 migration corridors across the West. PHOTO: Ken Archer

Disease Research

NATIONWIDE—With the widespread surge of chronic wasting disease, and coastal elk herds in the Pacific Northwest continuing to grapple with elk hoof disease, wildlife managers and researchers need all the resources they can get. Thanks in part to RMEF, which has funded more than $1.2 million for CWD research alone, researchers have been able to leverage tens of millions of dollars toward better understanding diseases, improving testing and finding better mitigation techniques. PHOTO: Tana Wilson

PHOTO: Creative Commons

Advocacy

RMEF’s presence on the national stage as a trusted voice for wildlife and hunters has been pivotal in some of this nation’s biggest wins for wildlife, habitat and access.

Legislative Advocacy

NATIONWIDE—From championing better forest management to backing state management of grizzly bears and gray wolves to successfully pushing to overturn funding cuts to the National Archery in the Schools Program, RMEF is at the forefront of some of the most pressing federal wildlife and hunting issues facing our nation today. At the same time, RMEF has continued to grow state-level capacity focused on wildlife management issues, with contract lobbyists now in California, Colorado, Montana, Oregon and Wyoming.

Colorado Ballot Initiative

COLORADO—In a rejection of ballot-box biology, in 2024 Coloradans soundly voted down an attempt to ban the hunting of mountain lions and bobcats in the state. Pushed by animal rights groups, Proposition 127 fell by more than a quarter million votes after RMEF spent upwards of $400,000 and a coalition of opponents stepped up to educate voters, and defend hunting and science-based wildlife management.

Eastern Elk Conservation

From raising funds to relocations to habitat projects, RMEF remains a leader for elk in the East.

Kentucky Elk Relocation

KENTUCKY—After helping put the first elk on the ground in Kentucky’s coalfield country in 1997, RMEF got to be a part of another historic milestone for this growing herd of over 10,000 when it assisted in expanding the herds’ reach throughout the state in 2022. RMEF provided volunteer assistance as well as $130,000 to capture and GPS collar 50 elk that were shuttled to Daniel Boone National Forest in McCreary County. PHOTOS: RMEF

Virginia First Elk Hunt and Elk Conservation License

VIRGINIA—Ten years after elk were restored to their historic haunts in Virginia, hunters got to reap the rewards of a conservation success story. The Commonwealth hosted its first modern-age elk hunt in 2022, giving out five bull tags by lottery, and allocating one additional tag to RMEF that, when raffled off in a fundraiser, generated $93,000 for elk conservation efforts in the state. PHOTO: Bo Prieskorn

William H. Silver Game Land

NORTH CAROLINA—North Carolina’s Maggie Valley has not only a growing elk herd, but increased pressures for development due to its proximity to Great Smoky Mountains National Park. To help ease the pressures of development on elk habitat, RMEF and numerous other partners and private landowners collaborated in 2017 to create new public lands. The end result was the 2,030 acre William H. Silver Game Land which created new recreational opportunities for hunting, hiking and trout fishing, as well as permanently protected important elk calving habitat. PHOTO: RMEF

Places We Have Been Conserving More than 20 Years

When RMEF helps conserve habitat, its commitment doesn’t stop once the project is complete.
We’re in it for the long term to ensure elk and other wildlife thrive.

WMAs in Oklahoma

Oklahoma—This state’s elk country has come a long way since a lone bull elk, a donation from a zoo in Wichita, Kansas, got dropped off in 1908 at Teddy Roosevelt’s brainchild the Wichita Mountains Game Refuge. In the more than 100 years since, RMEF has helped carry on the vision of conserving and enhancing wildlife habitat in the Sooner State to the tune of more than $220,000, enhancing over 110,000 acres. PHOTOS FROM LEFT: RMEF l Kim Hart

Black Hills

SOUTH DAKOTA/WYOMING—RMEF’s deep history with South Dakota and Wyoming’s Black Hills dates back to 1990 when it completed the first of 271 habitat stewardship, land conservation and wildlife management projects. These projects have conserved or enhanced over 150,000 acres and improved access to roughly 24,000 acres of elk country in the Hills. PHOTOS FROM LEFT: Toni Kahnke l Les Voorhis-Royal Tine Images, Inc.

Fort Riley, Kansas

Though someone may initially raise an eyebrow at the thought of a military installation providing great wildlife habitat, Fort Riley in Kansas has provided the blueprint for how wildlife can not only survive, but thrive within its boundaries. Since RMEF first helped place the animals on Fort Riley in the 1980s, the herd has grown to about 120 individuals. They see continued support from the state’s RMEF chapters that helped generate 175,000 in funding that leveraged an additional 500,000 in partner funds to carry out two dozen habitat improvement projects that will ensure the continued success of elk in the Sunflower State. PHOTOS: RMEF

Wildlife crossings we’re helping to protect

Ensuring that elk and other wildlife can move safely across the landscape is at the heart of RMEF’s work to conserve migration corridors through funding studies and construction of wildlife crossing structures.

Snowy Range I-80 Movement Study

WYOMING—RMEF is tossing $50,000 in the pot to study elk migration from southeast Wyoming’s Snowy Range to winter range, and more specifically how they use I-80 to do so. The grant will help purchase GPS collars and the data will be used to identify where best to place wildlife crossing structures along the interstate and help guide future habitat projects and management decisions for the elk of the Snowys. PHOTO: Wyoming Game & Fish Department

Highway 160 Wildlife Crossing

COLORADO—The junction of U.S. Highway 160 and Colorado Highway 151 between Durango and Pagosa Springs had historically been a treacherous crossing zone for migrating elk, mule deer and pronghorn headed to vital winter range south of the highway. In 2022, construction concluded on an $11.3 million project including a wildlife overpass and underpass, exclusion fencing, and wildlife escape ramps that are expected to reduce wildlife-vehicle collisions by at least 80%. RMEF provided funding for the project along with the Colorado Department of Transportation, Southern Ute Indian Tribe, Colorado Parks and Wildlife and other partners. PHOTOS FROM TOP: The Southern Ute Drum l Aran Johnson

Fish Creek to Arco Pronghorn Migration Route Wildlife-Friendly Fencing

IDAHO—The kids say all things “retro” are in style. And in the case of dealing with dilapidated old fencing, sometimes improving old fencing works better than tearing it out and replacing it with wildlife-friendly fencing. This model is being used in Butte and Blaine counties of southern Idaho where RMEF is partnering with Idaho Department of Fish and Game, Bureau of Land Management Idaho Falls District and Natural Resource Conservation Service to allow wildlife to move more freely through tracts of public and private land. RMEF chipped in $20,000 to help retrofit fences to wildlife friendly specs, create fence crossings and remove fencing that will benefit numerous species that travel along this identified Pronghorn migration corridor. PHOTO: RMEF

Taos Plateau Wildlife Friendly Fencing

NEW MEXICO—Lying along an important migration corridor identified by U.S. Secretarial Order 3362 Dedicated to Improving Western Big Game Migration Corridors, the Taos Plateau that runs through northern New Mexico is an invaluable stopping point for animals migrating from high up in the Tusa mountain range on their way to the Riparian areas of the Rio Grande. But moving through this area has proven to be more than just a pit stop for many species, evidenced by the elk, deer and pronghorn carcasses found tangled in nearly miles of net wire fencing. Thanks to funding compiled by numerous organizations and the private landowners, over 6 miles of fencing on both public and private lands was ripped out. Rebuilding the fence was necessary, so RMEF threw in $100,000 to reconstruct the fence in a wildlife-friendly manner. PHOTOS: RMEF

I-40 Oak Hill Wildlife Overpass

ARIZONA—Arizona’s busy I-40 interstate runs straight through the Grand Canyon to Prescott big game migration corridor that has been identified as a major migration corridor improvement priority by Arizona Fish and Game. A plan to build a wildlife overpass and fencing at Oak Hill has been decades in the works, and RMEF has played a big role in seeing that through.Oak Hill has been decades in the works, and RMEF has played a big role in seeing that through. A 2012 study funded in part by RMEF found the future project site saw the highest number of elk-vehicle collisions west of Flagstaff. In fact, 70% of collared elk refused to even approach the freeway. To begin to prepare for the overpass, RMEF contributed over $37,000 to a 2023 project that cleaned up nearly 50 acres of overgrown juniper and ponderosa pine to open up the historic grassland corridor that will connect to the north and south once the overpass is complete.