Yellowstone National Park is home to some of the most magnificent animals in America. But once iconic American species like the gray wolf, grizzly bear, bighorn sheep and bison leave the protected borders of the park – their death rates rise dramatically!
Animals are killed during severe winters when they wander onto National Forest lands, where ranchers may hold grazing privileges. Under the grazing agreement, federal agents are obligated to kill wildlife to protect livestock.
National Wildlife Federation’s Adopt-a-Wildlife-Acre program solves this conflict through a market-based approach to conservation. We compensate ranchers for retiring their grazing allotments with sufficient funds to allow them to relocate their livestock to locations that don’t have conflict. What began as just a few acres retired has grown to over 566,000 acres of vital habitat secured for wildlife in the Yellowstone region!
Now we’re expanding this successful program into the Charles M. Russell National Wildlife Refuge, which contains more intact prairie habitat than anywhere else in America. Currently, about half of the CMR’s 1.1 million acres is being used for livestock grazing, and wildlife must compete with livestock for habitat — species like bison, sage-grouse, prairie dogs and pronghorn. These animals need these lands to survive and are counting on us to give them their prairie lands back!
THE PROCESS
Here’s how it works. NWF contacts ranchers who hold leases on allotments that are on our priority list for retirement. If the rancher is interested, we negotiate a price.
Next, we approach the land management agency (the U.S. Forest Service) to make sure it’s willing to permanently close the allotment.
When all three parties voluntarily agree, we retire the grazing rights. Through this program, we recognize the economic value of livestock grazing permits and fairly compensate ranchers for retiring their leases. It’s a win-win-win solution!
4 CORE PRIORITIES of Adopt-a-Wildlife-Acre
- Focus on core recovery areas and key wildlife corridors
- Prioritize sheep allotments over cattle allotments (sheep create more conflict with wildlife)
- Give preference to retirements that create large areas without livestock
- Identify allotments with the greatest number and frequency of livestock losses
HABITATS ALREADY RESTORED
We’ve secured more than 620,000 acres of vital wildlife habitat – creating safer areas where bison, wolves, grizzlies, bighorn sheep and other wildlife can roam. Some of our most recent successes are:
- 2011 – 2,000-acre Bull and Bay Pasture on Montana’s Charles M. Russell National Wildlife Refuge.
- 2010 – 10,000 acre Wapiti allotment in Montana’s Gallatin National Forest.
- 2010 – 45,000 acres on the Charles M. Russell National Wildlife Refuge in northeastern Montana.
- 2009 – 6,000 acres for the Royal Teton Ranch Grazing Allotment in Paradise Valley near Gallatin National Forest, Montana.
- 2008 – 9,200 acres for the Cache Eldridge Grazing Allotment, 34,500 acres for the Dunoir Grazing Allotment, and 33,714 acres for the Icehouse/Willow Creek Grazing Allotments.