Every winter, pronghorn and mule deer travel the same ancient paths across Wyoming's high desert, moving between summer range and the sheltered ground they need to survive the cold months. These migration corridors aren't just trails — they're the difference between a herd that endures and one that collapses.

Now the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has leased 179 square miles of Wyoming land, and more across the border in Colorado, for oil and gas drilling squarely inside the Sublette pronghorn and Baggs mule deer migration corridors east of Rawlins. These herds are already struggling: pronghorn in the leased areas are running as much as two-thirds below population goals, and mule deer aren't far behind.

Two conservation groups, The Wilderness Society and Wilderness Workshop, have sued Interior Secretary Doug Burgum and BLM's acting Wyoming director, arguing the agency skipped its own required steps to protect these corridors before selling the leases. "This administration's energy dominance agenda shows a flagrant disregard for the rule of law and is trampling on decades-old safeguards that ensure we hand our public lands down to our children, not over to industry," said Julia Stuble, Wyoming state director for The Wilderness Society.

Leases are hard to undo once granted — drilling rigs, roads, and pipelines don't pause for wildlife. Once these corridors are broken up, the herds that depend on them may never fully recover.

Secretary Burgum and the BLM should withdraw these leases and give Wyoming's big game herds the corridors they need to survive winter. Sign the petition to protect these migration routes now — before drilling permanently cuts off paths pronghorn and mule deer have traveled for generations.