The Nature Conservancy in Wyoming has announced a $250,000 challenge grant to Wyoming’s Wildlife and Natural Resource Trust for private lands conservation projects that focus on the Shiras moose, an iconic species living on the Wyoming Range’s eastern slope.

“This generous effort...solidifies [the Conservancy's] place as a leader in conservation,” says Wyoming Governor Dave Freudenthal.

The Challenge
The Conservancy’s Shiras Moose Conservation Fund is a challenge: Of the $250,000 donation, $150,000 will kick in only when the Wildlife and Natural Resource Trust has raised another $150,000 in private funds.

Once matched again by the trust and the legislature, the Conservancy’s challenge could amount to $1.2 million dollars in on-the-ground conservation.

“The Nature Conservancy’s grant is a very generous contribution that deserves to be matched,” says Bob Budd, Wyoming’s Wildlife and Natural Resource Trust executive director. “The trust really likes to see these kinds of leveraging opportunities; so does the legislature.”
 
What the Fund Supports
If met, the Conservancy’s fund will support trust-selected conservation easements on a million-acre stretch of private ranch lands harboring what many believe is the largest concentration of Shiras moose in North America. The focus area lies along the Green River between Bondurant and Kemmerer. Moose, a species that depend on this landscape’s wetlands and riparian habitats, face increasing threats from growing residential and energy development. 
 
Longtime Ranching Families
 “This is a tremendous opportunity to work with traditional ranching families to maintain our state’s agricultural heritage, while also safeguarding one of the richest wildlife habitats in Wyoming,” says the Conservancy’s southwest Wyoming program director, Steve Jester.

The Time is Now
Though moose are the primary focus of this conservation initiative, many other wildlife species depend on the vast wetlands that branch out from the Green River, including long-billed curlews, a wading bird undergoing long-term population declines, whooping crane, trumpeter swan, cutthroat trout, and leopard frogs.

Currently, the initiative’s focus landscape remains relatively intact. With large, longtime family ranches and less energy-development potential than surrounding lands, the water-filled area around the Green River could become a major habitat island. “We have a tremendous opportunity right now, before it’s too late, to work with willing landowners to preserve open space for moose and other wildlife,” says Erickson Quiroz.

The Conservancy’s Shiras Moose Conservation Fund is the second grant the nonprofit organization has provided to the Wildlife and Natural Resource Trust. In 2006, the Conservancy announced its Grasslands Conservation Fund, a $250,000 grant for trust-selected projects in the Shirley and Thunder basin grasslands. To date, three projects have used this leveraging opportunity.

“We have great appreciation for the Wildlife and Natural Resource Trust board and the high quality work that they are supporting across Wyoming,” says Erickson Quiroz. “Now we encourage others to get engaged and match our contribution.”

Nature picture credits (top to bottom, left to right): Photos © John Morrow II (moose); © James Kay  (Green River Valley)