Opponents say bike trail could cut off migration route for prized deer herd

In Pinedale, opinions are split over a proposed new nonmotorized trail near Fremont Lake. Some worry that it could cut off a vital mule deer migration route, while others say deer would be unaffected by the project. Each spring and fall, one of Wyoming’s most prized mule deer herds, the 20,000-strong Sublette herd, passes through what locals call “the bottleneck”—a narrow strip between the southern end of Fremont Lake and the town of Pinedale. It’s part of the route they take between summer range in the high country to the north and winter range in the vast, open low country south of Pinedale.

Building new trails near Fremont Lake would put more pressure on the Sublette herd, which is already greatly diminished from its peak number of roughly 30,000 deer in the early 2000s, Bill Ames of Cora and Green River told Cowboy State Daily. “Humans have the opportunity to go recreate wherever they want. We have the choice of multiple locations. The deer have no choice but to use that bottleneck,” said Ames, a member of the Wyoming Mule Deer Alliance. The alliance opposes the proposed new trail and is circulating a petition against it.

However, if and when it’s built, the trail would start on the east side of Fremont Lake and wouldn’t disrupt the bottleneck, countered Ryan Grove, a Pinedale resident and member of the Sublette Trails Association. Concern over the deer migration route might be rooted in a misunderstanding, he said. “We want to get the correct information out there and we want to have conversations with people about the process,” he said. The final project proposal hasn’t been submitted to the Bureau of Land Management yet. Once that happens, it will have to go through the agency’s lengthy approval process, so there’s no set time frame for when ground might be broken, Grove added.

Locals have long expressed interest to the Sublette Trails Association for an easily accessible “non-motorized, multiple-use” trail near Pinedale, Grove said. The plan is to start the trail at an access point off Skyline Road at the turnoff for Half Moon Lake, to be built in two sections, each roughly 6 miles long. The idea isn’t to create a mountain biking destination for mobs of tourists, but rather provide recreation for locals. “It would be a place for local people to go after work if they want to go for a hike, a run, a horseback ride or a bike ride,” he said. The trail association would avoid new development in the bottleneck area, which is subject to seasonal closures in the winter because of the mule deer migration.

Any new development within the migration corridor could deal another blow to the Sublette mule deer herd, Ames said. The herd already has lost significant portions of its winter range to energy development. The mule deer alliance isn’t against the idea of a new recreational trail system; they just don’t think that “crucial mule deer winter range” is the best place for it. “With every little thing we do, wildlife loses something,” he said.

BLM spokeswoman Jacqueline Alderman said that only a draft proposal for the trail is in play, and the plan might be revised over time with a public comment period. “The BLM Pinedale Field Office has received a draft proposal for a potential bike trail project approximately six miles north of Pinedale,” she said. “The proposal is currently under internal review, and no decisions have been made at this time.” Potential changes may be made as part of the BLM’s internal evaluation, and it would be premature to share specifics before that process is complete, she added.