Through a connected landscape approach, the Jackson Hole Wildlife Foundation (JHWF) continues to cultivate a community commitment that values wildlife migration and movement and protects migration routes, including vital stopover sites and key habitat throughout the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem landscape.
Courtesy of JHWF
To ensure this work being accomplished is effective, JHWF is improving monitoring and evaluation of their work. This includes utilizing trail cameras pre and post wildlife friendly fence project implementation. JHWF only had one functioning trail camera to help their efforts. The WYldlife Fund was proud to fund 16 trail cameras in order to help JHWF evaluate and adapt their work. Specifically, these cameras are helping to:
- monitor wildlife fence use before and after fence removals or modifications,
- monitor wildlife crossings over high wildlife-vehicle collision stretches of road,
- measure the success of wildlife crossing structures,
- monitor wildlife navigation of the Snake River levee pre and post levee modification to create wildlife ramps that allow ungulate passage, and
- increase the value of our outreach and education tools demonstrating wildlife use of the landscape in important habitat areas.
Some of these cameras provide simple, informative images. Other cameras provide much-needed video to contribute to outreach campaigns and to understanding wildlife behavior at roads and challenging fences. Some of these cameras even operate by transmitting real-time photos to our computers and phones when understanding an issue is more urgent.
Monitoring and evaluation together provide the necessary data to guide strategic planning, to design and implement programs and projects, and to allocate, and reallocate resources in better ways. What JHWF discovers through this grant, will be lessons learned that will be shared broadly across the conservation community. The WYldlife Fund is proud to support JHWF in this important initiative.
