Sportsmen push back on oil and gas leasing in western Wyoming mule deer migration corridor

Conservation groups and sportsmen are asking federal land managers to keep oil and gas leases out of a famous mule deer migration corridor in southwest Wyoming, at least until a regional plan exists to mitigate energy development. The 150-mile corridor runs from the Red Desert to an area called Hoback south of Jackson. It is the longest recorded mule deer migration in the world and has attracted significant attention since it was discovered in 2012. Later this year, the Bureau of Land Management will hold an oil and gas lease sale with seven parcels of land, totaling 700,000 acres, located in the mule deer corridor, sportsmen say. Groups including the Muley Fanatatic Foundation, the Wyoming Federation of Union Sportsmen and the Wyoming Wild Sheep Foundation are asking federal land managers to defer those leases until the BLM’s Rock Springs field office has released the Green River Resource Management Plan — a broad bundle of policies and directives on everything from oil and gas development to mule deer...MORE