September 2024 - 9

NEWS
Workers install and improve fencing at the Ellis Wildlife Habitat Management Area near Kaycee this summer. (Photo by Christina Schmidt/WGFD)
New WHMA receives
several improvements
SHERIDAN - More than 30 Wyoming
Game and Fish Department employees from
the Services Division's Habitat and Access
Branch descended on Ellis Wildlife Habitat
Management Area in the southern Bighorn
Mountains for a week in late June. With
them came more than two dozen trucks
and trailers, a tractor, four skid-steers,
three dump trucks, two backhoes, two wire
winders and two post pounders. Their goal
was to improve public access and wildlife
habitat and movement on the property.
Ellis, located approximately 25 miles
west of Kaycee, is the newest WHMA in
Wyoming and the first in the Sheridan
Region in 50 years. The Wyoming Game
and Fish Commission purchased the
property from Frank " Pinky " Ellis and his
family in 2022. It includes 2,640 deeded
acres and 1,264 acres of land leased from
the Bureau of Land Management.
The remote area was acquired for its
importance as big game winter range,
an elk calving area and public access
for hunting and fishing. It adjoins and
expands the Ed O. Taylor WHMA, the
last WHMA purchased in the Sheridan
Region in 1972. The property is a priority
habitat area identified in the department's
Strategic Habitat Plan and lies within the
Upper Powder River Mule Deer Initiative
area. The property also hosts populations of
pronghorn, black bear and mountain lion.
" Every year, the regional and statewide
habitat and access crews join efforts on
a large-scale project on a Game and Fish
property somewhere in the state, " said
Nathan Lindsey, Game and Fish habitat and
access coordinator in the Sheridan Region.
" The logistics of travel and shuttling food,
water and equipment into a remote area are
daunting, but this work week is a very costeffective
and efficient way to complete large
projects that would otherwise take months
or even years to accomplish. "
During the week, the crews removed more
than a mile-and-a-half of woven wire fence
that originally secured sheep within the
property but now prevented safe wildlife
movement. Crews refitted or constructed
two miles of four-strand, wildlife-friendly
fence, carefully measuring at each post for a
42-inch top wire and a 16-inch height on the
bottom, smooth wire. These measurements
allow elk and deer to jump over the fence,
while the bottom allows pronghorn safe
passage underneath.
Other crews applied herbicide to treat 80
acres of invasive weeds such as houndstongue
and Canada thistle. A third crew improved
or constructed road and trail access from the
existing parking lot to fishing locations on
Sullivan Creek and the Middle Fork of the
Powder River, both of which traverse the
property and offer excellent trout fishing
opportunities.
" We are excited to have this new property
that offers some of the best trout fishing in
the state, as well as opportunities to hunt
big and trophy game and access lands that
were previously inaccessible, " Lindsey said.
" We hope to continue more efforts like
this not only on this property, but others
that we own and manage across the state,
that provide public access, high-quality
ecosystems and uninterrupted movement
for wildlife. "
- Christina Schmidt, WGFD
Wyoming Wildlife | 9

https://wgfd.wyo.gov/Public-Access/WHMA

September 2024

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of September 2024