CORRECTION: The fencing project below was managed through a partnership between BLM and NPCA, and did not involve a Technical Implementation Plan as stated in the original article.
The pressure of changing seasons hits hardest in fall. Squirrels cache pine nuts. Hyperphagic grizzly bears eat anything they can find or catch. Ranchers scramble to finish maintenance chores before snow flies.
On one Madison Valley ranch west of Yellowstone National Park, a fencing project nearly stalled when the federal government missed its September 30 deadline to approve the 2026 fiscal budget. Volunteers had to scramble when a scheduled Bureau of Land Management work crew was furloughed.
An estimated 700,000 federal employees have been sent home and another 3 million are working without pay as Congressional Republicans and Democrats push clashing spending plans. The Republican-controlled House of Representatives passed a continuing resolution to keep federal offices funded through November while more complicated negotiations are worked out for the full 2026 budget. Senate Democrats have rejected that, demanding restoration of healthcare subsidies that were cut over their objections in last summer’s “One Big Beautiful Bill.” They are also leery of accepting a congressional spending deal that President Donald Trump has indicated he may not respect.
In Washington, D.C., the government shutdown, which began on October 1, has resulted in closed Smithsonian Institution museums and empty federal office buildings. In Greater Yellowstone, the impact is more subtle. While Yellowstone National Park’s gates remain open for tourists to drive through, most of the National Park Service employees monitoring the geyser boardwalks or winterizing buildings have been ordered off the clock. In the public lands outside the park, millions of acres dedicated to multiple-use activities face multiple challenges while federal managers are stuck at home.
The Papoose Creek fencing project is an example. Fences usually keep things in or out. This one, however, is intended to let things through — specifically pronghorn antelope — while keeping cattle where they belong. It just needed a collaboration of public and private workers to come together on a Technical Implementation Plan run through the BLM.
“We got a call earlier in the week that this was a possibility [that BLM workers wouldn’t be available],” Pat Todd of the National Parks Conservation Association told Mountain Journal. “They were really excited about the project, but we understood if the government shuts down, there’s nothing they can do. Still, I didn’t realize how big an impact this would have. We think about Yellowstone, when a shutdown happens, about not having park staff and park operations. I didn’t realize all the impacts outside of the park.”
Yellowstone has a population of pronghorn that summers in the Lamar Valley. When snow comes, they move west to the Gardiner Basin, along with huge numbers of elk, deer and bison that all compete for what little forage isn’t grazed down by local cattle.
An ancient wildlife migration route extends farther west past Hebgen Lake over Targhee Pass into the Henry’s Lake Basin. To reach that winter range, ungulates have to maneuver through the ranch that leases two grazing allotments: a 285-acre BLM and a 900-acre U.S. Forest Service parcel, each strung with traditional barbed-wire fencing.
“This was a real pinch-point,” said Todd, who works as NPCA’s Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem program manager. “And any barrier to movement has large effects. If we cut off movement by a bad fence design or a subdivision, you can completely cut off access.”
That was the case in the winter of 2000 when much of the pronghorn herd couldn’t make it through Paradise Valley fences and starved in the Gardiner Basin. From a low of 200 animals then, northern Yellowstone pronghorn have bounced back to about 500 today. Providing them access to the Henry’s Lake Basin was expected to further boost their numbers.
“[BLM workers] were really excited about the project, but we understood if the government shuts down, there’s nothing they can do.
pat todd, Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem program manager, NPCA
Elk and deer can usually leap over a barbed-wire fence, although they occasionally get stuck and do extensive damage. Pronghorn are built more to run than to jump. They try to go under the wire, and often either become entangled or abandon the route. Wildlife managers have found that replacing the bottom strand of barbs with smooth wire allows the “speed goats” to zip through the fence while keeping cattle in place.
NPCA, Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, Mule Deer Foundation and the Greater Yellowstone Coalition had partnered with the Madison Valley rancher and federal agencies to upgrade those two allotments. Last year, they installed 1.3 miles of wildlife-friendly fencing on the Forest Service parcel. This year was the BLM’s turn.
Work was set to start October 1, after BLM workers finished their summer firefighting duties. They were going to bring the fencing supplies plus a chainsaw crew for the heavy forest portions of the route, a big dump trailer to haul in materials and haul out debris, and a wire winder. The private groups would provide most of the labor.
“That wire winder does the work of 20 people,” Todd said. “It’s like spaghetti, it spins the wire into a big round and drops it. It’s really fast compared to individuals rolling it up.”
When the shutdown order came, thousands of federal workers were given one day to close down their operations before going home without pay. Todd said the BLM staff arranged to position the fencing materials so a private contractor and team of volunteers could collect it and carry out the project. But the heavy equipment stayed at the shuttered office. And piles of old wire were left in the meadows, waiting for the government to reopen or spring to come.
Similar public lands projects are stumbling across the Rocky Mountain West. Two hundred miles to the northwest, a Lolo Creek streambed restoration project nearly derailed when the Lolo National Forest went dark. Traci Sylte, recently retired Lolo Forest Soil, Water and Fisheries program manager got to see it stay active thanks to private and volunteer efforts.
“That one took 20 years, getting it through planning and NEPA,” Sylte said. “When we work with partners like Trout Unlimited, that’s how we were able to do so much.”
Lolo Creek has been largely channelized since the 1920s to make room for farm pastures and U.S. Highway 12. It was once so meandering, Sylte said, that Lewis and Clark had to sidehill far above the creek bed because of all the brush and debris. But straightening it out degraded one of the biggest trout-spawning tributaries to the fly fishing-famous Bitterroot River.
“Almost all the federal programs we used to work on fish stuff are just gutted. And there’s no information [saying] if or when they’ll come back.”
Rob roberts, program manager, Trout Unlimited
Yet when she was invited to visit the worksite last week, it was just Sylte, the private contractors and some other volunteers carrying out the designs she’d spent much of her career developing. Trout Unlimited Program Manager Rob Roberts told Mountain Journal the shutdown has aggravated other collaborative projects already impeded by widespread federal funding cuts.
“Almost all the federal programs we used to work on fish stuff are just gutted,” Roberts said. “And there’s no information [saying] if or when they’ll come back. The Bureau of Reclamation’s Water Smart program that funds fish-passage and irrigation-efficiency projects, the Fish and Wildlife Service money — it’s all gone dark.”
And getting information about what’s going on is also blocked. The website that handles cabin reservations and activity permits is still functioning, but displays a notice: “Recreation.gov does not maintain a comprehensive list of which locations are open, closed, or offering limited access. We recommend you contact local facilities before your visit.” But ranger stations across the Rocky Mountain West are closed, and no one is answering the phones on information lines.
Along with falling snow and frozen ground, fall also brings NOFO season: Notice Of Funding Opportunity announcements for next year’s grants and project approvals. November 1 is the deadline for federal 2026 Natural Resources Conservation Service fencing grants.
“It’s a lot of work to fill out those applications,” Todd said. “They’re complicated, and you really want to get a site visit from NRCS staff to make your application competitive. Now nobody knows if the deadline is extended or what will happen next. I haven’t had any contact since October 1.”
