WMAs
In Wildlife We Trust
PHOTO: Tony Bynum
by Gentry Hale and Paul Queneau
What does a wildlife management area, game production area, state game land, wildlife habitat management area and state wildlife area all have in common?
They share one simple goal regardless of what each state calls them: put wildlife first.
RMEF follows that principle, too, as a guiding light for its mission. This organization’s first land protection project was the 1988 purchase of southwest Montana’s 17,000-acre Robb Creek Ranch—which soon became the Robb-Ledford Wildlife Management Area (WMA). In the 36 years since then, this WMA has sustained thousands of elk, mule deer, pronghorn and moose as a critical lifeline in a popular hunting unit once the 10,000-foot peaks of the Snowcrest Range above it get buried in snow.
It also now hosts some other notable neighbors, including Ted Turner and Rupert Murdoch. The latter paid $200 million for a ranch nearly next door to the WMA in 2021—then the priciest land transaction in Montana history. That makes the $1.7 million RMEF corralled to purchase the Robb Creek Ranch seem a bargain beyond measure, but in truth this WMA is priceless.
Every year since that first cannon-ball leap in 1988, RMEF has helped create new WMAs, add to existing ones and fund habitat work that ensures they keep providing superb habitat for the scores of wildlife they sustain.
In total we’ve helped create more than 500,000 acres of WMAs and improved over 1 million acres of their critical habitat through more than 750 projects in 25 states.
The Robb Creek project immediately earned RMEF nationwide respect as a credible partner to state wildlife agencies and a new force for land protection and public access, says Jennifer Doherty, RMEF’s managing director of mission operations. “It showed we are ready and willing to fight for these areas to protect the best elk habitat.”
Two years after the Robb Creek acquisition, RMEF purchased a considerably smaller parcel on Lick Creek in eastern Washington—just 200 acres. But protecting this inholding was key to ensuring the surrounding Asotin Creek Wildlife Area stayed whole for elk and other critters. RMEF has since added nearly 10,000 acres to Asotin and improved another 5,700 acres, with Washington volunteers gathering often to pull old fences and complete other work to support wildlife.
WMAs and their kin are typically state-owned (though some are private land with management and access agreements) and open to the public, part if not all of the year.
“We manage them for wildlife, versus other public lands, which are multi-use areas,” says Raymond Bredehoft, habitat and access branch chief for the Wyoming Game and Fish Department. He oversees about 500,000 acres of public land across Wyoming, much of it crucial winter range for wildlife.
Wyoming’s wildlife habitat management areas (WHMAs) are not only essential to elk and other big game but also local ranchers and landowners. They’re sometimes closed to the public during winter to provide solitude for wildlife when they’re simply trying to survive to see another spring. This also helps keep them off nearby croplands and reduce contact with domestic livestock. RMEF has become a steadfast partner to help create and maintain these vital spaces.
“RMEF is always looking for ways to help us get these properties. Whether it’s acquisitions or conservation easements, they are always willing to do what it takes to help make them a reality,” says Bredehoft.
In Wyoming, RMEF helped to add more than 35,000 acres of WHMAs and enhance more than 30,000 acres. That began in 1992 with the purchase of the Thunderhead Ranch in the Upper Green River Basin, nearly 29,000 acres now forever known as the Spence & Moriarity Wildlife Habitat Management Area. Nestled at the foot of Wyoming’s Wind River country near Dubois, it hosts more than 4,000 elk and 5,000 mule deer that descend from the Absaroka Range to winter. It’s also a key stopover on the now-famous 200-mile Path of the Pronghorn migration from summer habitat in Grand Teton National Park to the Green River Valley.
Often situated along essential migration corridors, key feeding grounds or other critical habitats, WMAs are conservation cornerstones, playing pivotal roles in sustaining wildlife populations, limiting urban expansion into vital habitats, preserving prime ecosystems, protecting biodiversity and keeping some of America’s most beautiful landscapes accessible for hunting, fishing and recreational opportunities for generations to come.
Geographically diverse and widespread across the U.S., the WMAs RMEF has helped conserve provide a lifeline to countless species. They also reflect our founders’ vision of hunters giving back, but on a scale unfathomable back when they launched the organization in 1984.
Today, the United States is speckled with wildlife management areas that RMEF played a hand in conserving or improving. In the state of Washington alone, RMEF has completed more than 230 WMA projects that have added more than 127,000 acres of WMAs and enhanced another 100,000 acres on lands that sustain that state’s largest elk herds.
And this isn’t just a western phenomenon. The second largest WMA project RMEF ever helped complete sits in Tennessee—74,000 acres protected in 2002 at the core of that state’s elk range now known as the North Cumberland WMA. Then just last year, RMEF joined with The Nature Conservancy and other partners to deliver another 54,000 acres now forever known as the Cumberland Forest WMA right across the border in Kentucky, home to the East’s largest herd of more than 10,000 elk.
In fact, RMEF’s WMA projects stretch coast to coast from Pennsylvania’s Alleghenies, where WMAs are known as State Game Lands; to the Great Smoky Mountains of North Carolina, where they’re Game Lands; to California’s Grizzly Island and Washington’s Mount Saint Helens, where they’re simply called Wildlife Areas. This includes a vast array of conservation work from land protection to forest thinning, weed spraying and prescribed burning.
RMEF's nationwide army of volunteer chapters have also stepped up to help, hosting rendezvous and work projects to maintain these habitats. From fence pulls to building wildlife water sources to combating noxious weeds, volunteers work hard to keep WMAs as vibrant as possible for the wildlife they support.
“The Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation really stays involved in a full circle, holistic way,” says Doherty. “Whether it’s working with landowners to transfer land, assisting with the inevitable habitat enhancement work—often by the hands of RMEF volunteers—or advocating for public lands and wildlife, RMEF is there for it all.”
Here are 20 extraordinary WMAs that RMEF has helped conserve over the past 40 years.
BANKROLLED BY HUNTERS: WMAs protect more than 20 million acres of America’s elk country, a nationwide network that sustains a vast array of wildlife. Hunters paid the lion’s share to purchase this habitat and also foot the bill for its upkeep with license fees and Pittman-Robertson funds. Since P-R’s inception in the 1930s, this federal excise tax on firearms and ammunition has distributed more than $17 billion to fund conservation coast to coast—including creating and maintaining thousands of WMAs.
PHOTO: RMEF
Less than 90 minutes east of Seattle, almost 380,000 acres of state wildlife areas grace the eastern face of Washington’s Cascade Range between Yakima and Wenatchee. They’ve all been conserved bit by bit since a 240-acre purchase in the 1940s that started the Oak Creek WA, and all with a central goal of protecting habitat for 17,000 elk that winter there. Over the past 25 years, RMEF has worked diligently with Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife and other partners to add more than 112,000 acres to the Oak Creek, Colockum, LT Murray and Wenas wildlife areas, ensuring vital winter, summer and migration areas will never be lost to development.
Other worthy mentions: Asotin Creek Wildlife Area in the Blue Mountains, where RMEF has so far helped add nearly 10,000 acres of public land and improve more than 5,000 acres. Washington volunteers have also gathered many summers to pull old fences off the WA and complete other work to support wildlife.
PHOTO: Ben Childers
When RMEF volunteers pulled into Tennessee in December 2000 with the state’s first wild elk in 150 years, no one dreamed they’d become the posterchild to help protect tens of thousands of acres in the Cumberland Forest. But in November 2002, with the help of $100,000 from RMEF, Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency purchased 74,000 acres, formerly owned by International Paper Company, near the Kentucky border. The property is now part of the nearly 200,000-acre North Cumberland Wildlife Management Area, which RMEF helped expand by another 850 acres in 2021.
Hunters and all other outdoorspeople have perpetual access to nearly 55,000 acres now known as the Cumberland Forest WMA in eastern Kentucky thanks to a voluntary conservation agreement and partnership by the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources, The Nature Conservancy, RMEF and the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation. KDFWR will manage the acreage—the largest conservation easement in state history—for wildlife habitat and public recreation as well as for sustainable forestry and clean water. Completed late last year, the WMA connects 274,000 acres of habitat stretching into Tennessee. Perched in a prized hunting unit for Kentucky’s more than 10,000 elk, this WMA also hosts ruffed grouse and migratory birds, plus at-risk aquatic species in the many streams that cross the property.
Some of Wyoming’s richest big game habitat lies at the foot of the Wind River and Absaroka ranges east of Dubois. For years, a sign stood at the edge of the 29,000-acre Thunderhead Ranch that read, “Private Property: No Trespassing for the Next 71 Miles.” But in 1992, the ranch’s owners, attorneys Gerry Spence and Ed Moriarity, decided to sell and offered it to RMEF and Wyoming Game and Fish at a bargain price. The No Trespassing sign was soon replaced by one that says Spence & Moriarity Wildlife Habitat Management Area. Combined with the adjacent 17,000-acre East Fork WHMA, it protects a giant swath of spectacular country that winters more than 4,000 elk and 5,000 mule deer, as well as bighorns and pronghorn. It also hosts black bears and grizzlies, bald and golden eagles, sage and blue grouse, peregrine falcons and sandhill cranes. The list goes on, and so will this key habitat.
PHOTO: Branson Reynolds
In 1998, RMEF and Colorado Parks and Wildlife pulled off what is still the largest acquisition CPW has ever completed, protecting and opening to the public nearly 30,000 acres of prime habitat in southern Colorado. The Bosque del Oso State Wildlife Area hosts throngs of elk, mule deer, wild turkeys and other wildlife, as well as brown, rainbow and cutthroat trout in the Purgatoire River on the SWA’s northern border. It’s also the heart of a highly sought-after hunting unit for elk and offers many public recreation opportunities in a county dominated by private lands.
Other worthy mentions: The Centennial SWA west of Gunnison, where RMEF helped purchase 1,800 acres in 1997. RMEF has also helped enhance more than 28,000 acres of habitat on SWAs across Colorado.
In 1988 at the ripe age of four, RMEF catapulted into permanent land protection when it turned the 17,000-acre Robb Creek Ranch in southwest Montana into the Robb-Ledford Wildlife Management Area—public land, open to all. This WMA forever protects winter range for 3,000 elk and 5,000 mule deer, along with superb hunting. RMEF purchased the land on Robb Creek for $1.7 million and held it for the state to purchase once officials raised the funds the following year. The project was made possible by a $500,000 contribution from Anheuser-Busch. When combined with leased grazing lands, the project conserved more than 34,000 acres.
Other worthy mentions: Garrity Mountain WMA and neighboring Mount Haggin WMA, where RMEF has helped add more than 11,400 acres since 2000; and the nearly 5,700-acre Big Snowy Mountains WMA, which RMEF helped create in 2022.
PHOTO: David Jensen
At just three years old, the 15,500-acre Minam River Wildlife Area in north-eastern Oregon is an instant classic. It protects the length of the Minam River canyon from the 361,000-acre Eagle Cap Wilderness clear down to the Wallowa River. More than 1,000 elk and 850 mule deer migrate down it in the winter, while redband trout, salmon, steelhead and bull trout spawn in its waters. Completed in several phases, this project by RMEF, Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife and Manulife Investment Management also improved public access for hunting and other recreation.
Other worthy mentions: Phillip W. Schneider Wildlife Area southwest of John Day, where RMEF helped protect nearly 3,000 acres and enhance 9,000 acres for elk and other wildlife.
The linchpin of West Virginia’s elk restoration since it began in 2015, the Tomblin WMA covers more than 25,000 acres. RMEF partnered with the West Virginia Division of Natural Resources and The Conservation Fund through three phases to bring this WMA to life. It’s hosted every elk release to date, including another 40 elk earlier this year, bringing the Mountain State’s herd to more than 140. Construction will soon begin on an elk viewing tower and $6.7 million visitor center at Tomblin. “This [WMA] would not be possible without the help of key partners like RMEF, which helped fund all stages of the project so far, and The Conservation Fund, which helped the DNR acquire tens of thousands of acres of land,” according to WVDNR.
PHOTO: Jason Loftus
Northeast of Salt Lake, Cinnamon Creek provides habitat for as many as 5,000 elk and 3,000 mule deer, and also now hosts a sparkling new 8,107-acre WMA managed by the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources (see Name That Elk Country to read about how close it came to becoming putting greens). A mix of sagebrush hills, aspen groves and dense forests, it is also a haven for Columbian sharp-tailed grouse and Bonneville cutthroat trout. RMEF played a pivotal role securing this land, collaborating with several partners. And RMEF was instrumental in recently adding 2,600 acres to the East Canyon WMA nearby, which you can read more about here.
Other worthy mentions: Book Cliffs WMA south of Vernal, where RMEF helped add more than 13,000 acres of public land in the early 1990s with the purchase of three ranches from willing sellers.
PHOTO: Terry R Thomas
Established in 1976, the Tex Creek Wildlife Management Area east of Idaho Falls has grown from 12,000 to nearly 36,000 acres of protected sage steppe, forest and grasslands. It winters some 5,000 elk and 3,000 mule deer that migrate up to 70 miles from the Caribou and Snake River ranges. Since 1989, RMEF has helped seed native forage along the banks of Tex Creek, combat invasive cheatgrass after wildfires, and add more than 3,500 acres of land to the WMA, including a 328-acre addition this spring. District biologist Ryan Walker believes conserving habitat like Tex Creek is vital for the future of wildlife. “We’re not making any more land, so we have to protect what we have.”
Other worthy mentions: Craig Mountain WMA south of Lewiston, where RMEF has helped add 870 acres and enhance more than 13,000; and Georgetown Summit WMA southeast of Pocatello, where RMEF has helped add almost 1,700 acres and enhance 1,300.
5,192 acres protected, including purchase of the 4,725-acre Howard Ranch in 1991, setting the table for the transplant of 200 animals to restore elk there a few years after
Through prescribed burns, brush removal and other treatments, RMEF has enhanced more than 75,000 acres
Nearly 2,000 acres protected that also provides habitat enhancement and potential hunting opportunities for elk venturing out of nearby Great Smoky Mountains National Park
3,000 acres protected for more than 2,000 elk as well as pronghorn and Apache trout
RMEF has helped add more than 8,000 acres of WMAs to these habitat oases for Cornhusker elk
6,500 acres of core protected habitat that has helped the Keystone State's herd to grow from a few hundred to more than 1,400
More than 100,000 acres enhanced
More than 1,200 acres protected and opened to public access in a unique hideaway for a herd of Manitoban elk
More than 6,600 acres protected and opened to public access
514 acres conserved and opened to access, part of 80,000 acres RMEF has helped protect or enhance in the Buffalo River Watershed
Cinnamon Creek Wildlife Management Area is a critical summer range in northern Utah’s Cache County, where more than 500 elk and double that number of mule deer kick back for summer vacation. The lush aspens, sagebrush and fields of native grasses and wildflowers also host Columbian sharp-tailed grouse and greater sage grouse, while Cinnamon’s namesake creek holds one of the few populations of genetically pure Bonneville cutthroat trout in the world, which were once thought to have gone extinct.
But for decades what few visitors realized was that this public paradise was living on borrowed time as it was school trust land leased by the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources (DWR) from the Utah School and Institutional Trust Lands Administration for public use and was at risk of development at any moment.
State trust lands are a far different animal than WMAs in both purpose and management. In the 1800s, the federal government granted nearly 46 million acres of land to 30 states, mostly in the West, upon statehood. Making up roughly one out of every 20 acres of land in western states, the aim was to generate revenue for public institutions, such as schools and hospitals. These lands can be leased for anything from grazing to commercial development to mining or even to private parties for fishing, hunting and other recreation, depending on the state.
Nevada sold almost every acre of that land to private interests, while Arizona and New Mexico have retained almost all of it with close to nine million acres each. Arizona leases the majority of its state school trust land to livestock grazers while allowing public access.
According to a report by onX, of the 30 states that received state trust land grants, only 20 states still currently have them, but over 45 million acres of state trust lands still exist. Although many acres are open for public access, it’s not always guaranteed, and some states don’t consider it a priority. Managed by state land offices and governed by land boards, these lands are intended to make money.
Cut back to Cinnamon Creek: This beloved oasis was previously school trust land, leased for decades to the Utah DWR and used for sheep grazing. Having been open to public access and cherished by generations of hunters, it came as a shock to locals as well as Utah DWR when private developers convinced state school trust land managers to put the property up for auction.
Utah DWR, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, RMEF and a host of other partnering organizations launched a stealthy operation to purchase the property for wildlife and recreation. With a bid of a little over $20 million, they outflanked the developers and won the auction, officially crowning Cinnamon Creek a WMA in June 2022 under the full and permanent jurisdiction of the DWR.
Narrowly escaping a necklace of no-trespassing signs, golf courses and mega-mansions, this expanse of rolling hills, deep-cut canyons and tumbling creeks will stay intact and open to all.
With wild spaces shrinking, WMAs are crucial to sustaining both the future of our wildlife and our hunting traditions. As a hunter, you’ve likely encountered a WMA, so next time you’re driving by one, or better yet, hunting on one, celebrate not just the beauty of the landscape but the paramount role they play, and think of the impact that RMEF has had on elk country through WMA work alone.
—Gentry Hale
