The Wyoming Game and Fish Department wants to play a role in the county’s new land use plan.

Biologist Tony Mong asked Park County Commissioners on Sept. 6 to consider major antelope, mule deer and elk migration and wintering areas in deciding how to adapt planning and zoning regulations as a new county land use plan is developed.

Both he and planning director Joy Hill said a wildlife overlay could be useful as part of future decisions on development in the county, which could serve to protect crucial habitats.

“You asked what’s important to Park County residents and one of these that fell out as one of the top ones is protecting wildlife habitat corridors,” Mong said in reference to an early community survey. “We can see that importance and not only for our residents of our county.”

He said not only is wildlife important for locals — the vast majority of survey respondents, but for people who come from all over to view and hunt wildlife. 

Mong said what he’d really like is to schedule a time for a longer meeting with commissioners — chair Dossie Overfield suggested following the next round of public comments in October — to go over in detail certain areas that are of vital importance for the three main species that winter around developments. Mong showed maps of the North and South forks of the Shoshone showing the high number of wintering areas amongst elk and mule deer especially. He said as more land in those areas is developed, it alters those herds, often in negative ways. 

Commissioners Lee Livingston, a longtime North Fork resident, questioned whether development up there that takes away agricultural land is only returning conditions more to how they were before irrigation and planting, but Mong said it hasn’t been determined whether ag land is actually better for deer, antelope and elk than the original sagebrush-studded dry land. 

Mong said too that while elk populations are stable, mule deer herds have thinned recently and white tail deer have taken advantage, he said, as they are both more adaptable to human development and more aggressive in securing the good land remaining. 

“I really believe in Park County, we have an opportunity to blaze a new trail with development, make a plan important to citizens of Park County and the the world,” he said. “We can find ways, share suggestions to better share the landscape.”