It Would Be a Shame To Lose the Wyoming Migration Initiative
For the last several months there’s been a lot of talk about the Trump administration’s Federal funding cuts. Many Americans recognize and agree, myself included, that something must be done about Federal spending to control the national debt that has ballooned to 36 trillion dollars.
With that said, the 2026 budget request from the White House Office of Management and Budget proposes to wipe out the entire Ecosystems Mission Area (EMA) at the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). What is of particular concern to NAPF is the Cooperative Research Unit (CRU) Program that is within the EMA. There are 43 CRUs that work in tandem with state wildlife agencies to conduct, in part or in full, wildlife research in 41 states. Their partners include state wildlife agencies, universities, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services, and conservation organizations. In FY24, the CRU program was federally funded at 28 million dollars, or 0.0004% of the annual federal budget of around 7 trillion dollars. For reference, if you make $75,000 per year, 0.0004% is .30 cents.
For taxpayers, the beauty of the CRU program is the partner funding. In FY24 the CRUs leveraged their federal funds with partners to secure an additional $48 million dollars to support their wildlife research efforts. Cooperating universities provided another $22 million of in-kind support through facilities, student tuition, and reduced overhead. This makes the research conducted by these CRUs an incredible value for the American taxpayer. The program maximizes taxpayer investment, turning every appropriated Federal dollar into three dollars to fund wildlife research priorities that serve the interest of the public trust beneficiaries (you) and the trust corpus (wildlife).
The Wyoming Migration Initiative (WMI), housed within the Wyoming CRU, is one of the benefactors of this program and may be one of the most well-known research groups in the hunting community. WMI has conducted innovative research that revealed big game migration corridors for elk, deer, and pronghorn. They’ve identified vital areas to sustaining pronghorn populations in the Cowboy State, and insights that will bolster many other states’ populations. If CRUs disappear, it is likely that WMI follows the same fate. WMI Director and lead scientist Matt Kauffman, is already preparing for such a closure. The Wyoming CRU and WMI have done an incredible job with research that our beloved big game species and hunters need, but they aren’t the only ones.
Just specific to pronghorn, the CRUs impacts can be felt today. Art Einerson, former leader of the Oregon Cooperative Wildlife Research Unit at OSU, wrote the first "The Pronghorn Antelope and its management" book for the Wildlife Management Institute in 1948. Einerson also helped support Jim Yoakum's MS study on pronghorn. Mr. Yoakum was a huge advocate for pronghorn, a Berrendo Award recipient (2002), and inducted into the Pronghorn Hall of Fame. Bart O'Gara, another Berrendo Award recipient (2004) and Pronghorn Hall of Fame member, did a lot of pronghorn work in Montana, as the Unit Leader of the Montana CRU. Those are just a few examples of crucial work CRUs have conducted in understanding and conserving pronghorn. Impactful pronghorn research has come from CRU units all over the west: WY, MT, OR, AZ, UT, NM, and OK. That Research may have never been conducted without CRU funding and partner support.
Defunding the CRU program would abruptly end ongoing wildlife research and stifle future research from getting off the ground. It would be a generational setback to wildlife knowledge, dismantling partnerships, destroying institutional knowledge and momentum, and limiting what we know about pronghorn and other big game species. As hunters and conservationists we cannot afford this loss, particularly at such a low cost to the taxpayer.
When conversations arise about reducing government spending, I generally find myself in agreement. However, the wildly beneficial and affordable CRU program is not the place. In fact, it works against the first Trump administration’s actions that took steps to improve the conservation of ungulate migration corridors through the signing of Secretarial Order 3362, “Improving Habitat Quality in Western Big Game Winter Range and Migration Corridors”.
I would encourage you to call your elected US Congressman and urge them to maintain funding for the Cooperative Research Units so they can continue to do the work that carries tremendous benefits to hunters and the wildlife we pursue across the nation, including pronghorn. It needs to be continued.
-Brock Wahl
Find your U.S. Congressman and call the US Capitol switch board at (202) 224-3121 to voice your concerns about eliminating CRU funding.
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