NWF, Affiliate Urge Action on Habitat Of Pronghorn - National Wildlife Federation - Brief Article - Statistical Data Included

International Wildlife, May-June, 2001

One of the most dramatic crises affecting America's grasslands is occurring not on the Great Plains but on the nearly 300,000-acre Anderson Mesa, part of the Coconino National Forest near Flagstaff, Arizona.

There, one of the state's majestic pronghorn antelope herds is making its last stand on high, dry grasslands ravaged by more than a century of fence building and overgrazing by cattle and sheep. The pronghorn herd has plummeted from as many as 5,000 animals in the 1930s and 1940s to about 300 today.

NWF and one of its affiliates, the Arizona Wildlife Federation (AWF), are calling on the U.S. Forest Service and the Arizona Game and Fish Department to develop a mesa-wide management plan for pronghorn and to reform grazing practices to preserve wildlife habitat.

Years of overgrazing have reduced the forage supply for pronghorn and largely eliminated hiding cover for newborn fawns, leaving them vulnerable to coyotes. In recent years, fewer than 10 fawns per 100 does have survived, a rate that pronghorn experts say will inevitably lead to extinction of the herd.

A study commissioned by AWF shows that over time much of the mesa's rich mix of grasses, flowers and non-woody plants and shrubs that provided food and cover for pronghorn, raptors, small mammals and songbirds has disappeared. In its place are less nutritious sod-forming grasses, pinyons and junipers, which choke out native grasses.

NWF and AWF are urging the Forest Service to restrict grazing in some areas to restore a mix of vegetation, and to take specific steps to protect pronghorn. This includes keeping cows out of fawning areas and reconstructing fences with a smooth bottom wire 18 to 20 inches off the ground that would allow pronghorn to pass under.