MISSOULA, Mont. — There are a lot of spokes in the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation’s ever-advancing wheel of conservation. Among them are RMEF members and volunteers, state wildlife agencies, U.S. Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management, conservation and sportsmen groups, and many outdoor industry partners, including those in RMEF’s Elk Country Legacy and Access Elk Country programs.
“We’re grateful for all of our conservation partners for the leadership they show while collaborating with us,” said Riza Lesser, RMEF managing director of marketing. “Specific to our programmatic outdoor industry partners, they are examples by word and deed thanks to their valued support of our programmatic approach of land conservation and access, habitat stewardship, wildlife management and hunting heritage.”
RMEF’s Elk Country Legacy program reflects all aspects of RMEF’s mission. Its sponsors are Benelli, Browning, Fiocchi, Grand View Outdoors, SCHEELS and Winchester.
RMEF’s Access Elk Country program looks to open or improve public access to elk habitat. Sponsors include ALPS OutdoorZ, Bass Pro Shops & Cabela’s, Kimber, Warne Scope Mounts and Yamaha.
Below are a few examples of RMEF’s 2022 conservation successes.
Wyoming – conserved and opened access to 6,659 acres of wildlife habitat
Montana – conserved and opened access to 5,668 acres of habitat
Oregon – continued to raise funds for a two-phase project to conserve and open public access to more than 15,000 acres
Kentucky – helped expand the state’s elk range
Virginia – witnessed the state’s first managed elk hunt and helped raised conservation funding from it
Colorado – conserved 11,752 acres of elk habitat and a key mule deer migration corridor
Nevada – conserved 12,122 acres of habitat
Southern Appalachians – allotted more than $1.45 million to benefit elk and elk habitat in five states
Western States – committed more than $1 million for wildfire restoration
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