“wildlife that I feed for six months of the year”. Here is where you lose me, you own the land, great. But the mentality that the animals are only on the pastures because of you is asinine. Those animals were there and thrived at times and starved at times for eons before your gracious care of them came to be. I have no problem with what you do with your land, just leave the rest of us to ours. BTW, I don’t overcharge for you to graze my land do I??? Before you fly off the handle, think for a second of what I have said. I truly mean no disrespect, just an exchange of ideas.

Railroads have done it here in Wisconsin.

Feeding at the Jackson Wyoming feed ground is irrelevant to supplemental feeding in the states with terrible big game winterkill this year. Comparing feed grounds that operate each and every winter, all winter long, to a one time food supplementation for a 50+ year catastrophic starvation event is not looking at this accurately. Losing 80 plus percent of the herd over such a vast area, almost certainly requires an almost total ban on hunting , at least for does, fawns and cow elk. Some who feel entitled to be able to "get one every year" will never understand this. Science based wildlife management such as the North American Model means harvesting excess animals, and slowing down when there are catastrophic events like a winter kill of 80% of the herd. I love the hunt as much as anyone, but there is sometimes a reason to back off.

Is there no such thing as road allowances there?

Here it doesn’t matter if someone owns 10 square miles with no roads. Where ever that mile road would go through is fair travel for anyone.

One Idaho you can close your access across private land same true in most states especially western states. Yes I do grass cattle on public land and sheep on another allotment in a different part of the state. Guess who feeds the wildlife during the winter especially elk and deer not the public land but the private owners. I would guess to venture Wyoming wildlife is 80% fed 6 months out of the year on private land. I pay to graze livestock and do the maintenance on water developments and fences and even a road in one situation. As far as accessing public land by helicopter have at it but the BLM and Forest Service might have some issues with it. I have at times entered into agreements for hunter management and it went south due to off road use, litter illegal camping and poaching also to head of cattle shot with arrows??? yeah hard to mistake a cow at 40 yards.

TCL Come out to Wyoming in the winter especially one like this year and see where the wildlife is trying to survive. Its not BLM or Forest its private. Deer, elk, antelope turkey all on private

Sorry danvee but that is not correct.
Read parts of this : https://www.nfwf.org/sites/default/files/2022-09/wyoming-action-plan.pdf

Wildlife winter on a variety of lands and in some areas it is primarily federal lands not private.
In Eastern Wyo, yes they winter on private lands mostly due to small amounts of public land.
I believe the Bighorns area has private land winter range as well too though.

wytex, That report was from a year ago, this ridiculously deep snow winter has drastically altered normal migration patterns and changed the dynamics of where large ungulates moved to. The Red Desert is a good example right here north of me. The few animals left (and this is where elk normally wintered from the Colorado mountains to the south) as well as the resident deer and antelope, were somewhat stranded on the roads the energy companies kept open to get to wells. Sometimes trucks would kill them by the dozen. This weather changed habits. To be fair I haven't personally seen what shape the herds are in NE Wyoming, but western Colorado and SE Wyoming herds appear to be devastated.

Winterkill happens. Sometimes its really bad. G&F will cut back on things, success rates of course will fall and over time the herds will improve again.

I did not read but skimmed through the document dont have time but Im dang near 80 years old and got a bit of history with wildlife. I know not ALL wildlife winters on private but read historical evidence prior to farming the wildlife was not near what it is now save antelope. We never even had whitetail deer in the state till the late 60s they came in with intensive farming. We would not have near the wildlife without the farming and nothing will change my stance on that. The hay fields and other crops keep the amount of wildlife going in the winter. The document you posted is primarily about migration routes to winter range, much of the historical winter range is now gone and filled with 5 acre ranchettes which makes farm ground more important yet. Just read the literature the Wyoming game is putting out about the historic winter kill this year and they are doing the science on it. Do what you want and kill what you want this year, your choice. Ranchers have had the worst year since 77, 78 even for cattle trying to keep them fed. There is no excess wildlife for the most part this year. Do the research of what happened in the dust bowl and turn of the century there were almost NO elk left in Wyoming and they protected them and after the herd got going actually moved them to other parts of the state to start new herds. If memory serves me right they figured there were less than 1500 head of elk left in the whole state! So WyTex not sure if your part time or a transplant from Texas but this is Wyoming.

The reason there is BLM and national forest is because it never got homesteaded. It was marginal. Takes a lot of acres for a cow calf pair and not suitable for any kind of row crops. Where hay can be cut, water is available, crops can be grown, cattle grazed in numbers, is what became deeded property. Its why antler hunters pay so much to hunt it.

Your right on that Mr. Cliffton, the water was the first and most important thing a homesteader looked for was good available and plenty of water. The game and fish is in the process this year of mapping critical wildlife habitat. They are using everything from first hand knowledge of biologist and guess what ranchers and farmers and even satellite imaging. The first overlay of the map was water, guess where most of the water is located, private land. Rule of thumb in Wyoming is if its got water on it, its usually private and wildlife needs the water, the shrubs and trees for food and protection. The hay and crops that ranchers and farmers grow is not only food but hiding and nesting cover. Wyoming would be a whole different state for wildlife without ranching and farming. Yes the antelope were always here because of oceans of sagebrush but the deer and elk were few compared to what we now have. Even the bison were few in most of Wy. they were in the Dakotas, Mt. Kansas, and other states that had abundant grass and water. Wy. is a high plains desert and rough place to make a living for most wildlife.

danvee I live in Laramie and have for 35 years, yes a transplant and I work part time on a ranch with my husband.
Been watching that wildlife for 35 years now.
Elk are over objective in our area, yes over objective.
Wildlife winters here on both public and private.
Read the parts of the paper I posted about winter range percentages, that is what I mentioned that is wrong in your post. Not all wildlife winters on private and you agreed.
Yes migrations changed this year due to vast areas of deep snow.
Do you think they will stay there or go back to historical ranges next year or so?

I don't need a lesson on ranching and farming, we are currently getting ready for hay irrigation. We have to manage our water for the growing season.

SE Wyoming was not decimated this winter, not by far. Our mule deer are showing close to 80% fawn survival, pronghorn look good right now but yes numbers are down from years past.
Mule deer numbers have been down for years now, we are in the CWD high prevalence area near Sybille, but we take 6+ yr old bucks almost every year now.
Too many elk and that is widely known and an issue due to private lands and not enough hunting allowed.

Hunting in areas that are not affected by this harsh winter will not affect animals across the state. If we allow range to get over used by wildlife then we are open to another bad winter regardless of snow depth, no forage.
I will not feel guilty for hunting populations that are not in peril.
If I lived on the Western side then yes I would take pause and rethink my apps and hunting for Fall.
The sky is not falling all over the state, but it is in some areas.
Outlook for our area is good right now, range is greening up nicely but we need a wet summer.

Nothing personal, good conversation actually.
We all need to take pause and think about our plans for Fall, not advocating for just going to hunt and forgetting about the animals, but there are areas doing ok.
We have had very little winterkill and less roadkill actually than last year on the roads we travel regularly.
Water is everywhere right now and I hope you all don't have flooding issues this year.
It may be a bad high water damage year for many folks.

All I know is my cousin who has lived in Riverton since 2008 says the deer , elk , and antelope are nearly wiped out in his area

FWIW I have cut the lock off more than one gate when it was a county rd going through deeded property. Have cut locks off blm roads too. Have taken down more than one sign posting blm as private no trespassing.

You may pay to graze BLM but its a subsidy. Check what per head cost is to graze deeded ground. Dont pretend that being subsidized provides you rights to special treatment. The couple living on ADC food stamps medicare and section 8 housing think they are entitled too.

Unfortunately, wildlife regs are about the money also. Game depts need to sell license's or there is no allocation for their salaries.

Montana is one of the worst states for land locking public land. Montana has millions of public land locked to the public because they can with their private land. Montana is the worst out there.

If its legal its legal. But locking gates on county roads, locking BLM gates, posting public land is not. Have seen that in CO WY and NM all three and ranchers NEVER get a ticket for it. I quit calling.

Have several times had a rancher ask me to tell him when I am trapping his grass lease. Thats a courtesy I have no problem with. often they are using a dog but its not uncommon to need to remind someone its not deeded property.

Spot on with your comparison Danny. Unfortunately, many are not aware this is how it is done in many areas.

Danny what were you paying blm to run your commercial trapping operation on public land? Not as much as the grazers.