When a state creates a wildlife management area, or WMA, that is good news for both big game and hunters. It protects important habitat and provides more places to hunt. But when a WMA also improves access to thousands of additional acres surrounding it, the project becomes even better. More than four times better, in the case of the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation’s Pico Mountain land conservation and access project, which helped establish a new WMA in northeastern Utah.
In the Pico Mountain project, RMEF and other partners assisted the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources in purchasing 1,600 acres of critical elk habitat from conservation-minded landowners Dall and Ellen Cook. Located about 7 miles west of the town of Manila, the property became the Cook WMA, named after the former owners and open to the public for hunting and other outdoor recreation.
The new WMA is surrounded by about 7,200 acres owned by the Utah School and Institutional Trust Lands Administration, where public hunting is permitted through an agreement with the Division of Wildlife Resources. The WMA opens and improves access to the administration-owned acreage, portions of which were previously difficult to reach because of bordering private property, which more than quadruples the land accessible to the public for hunting.
Utah’s 149th WMA, the tract serves as important summer range for elk, mule deer and pronghorns, as well as provides habitat for moose, bighorn sheep, black bears and upland birds. RMEF has been working in northeastern Utah for decades, and 35 RMEF-supported habitat stewardship and wildlife management projects near the WMA have enhanced more than 23,000 acres for big game and other species. Since 1987, RMEF has opened or improved public access to almost 35,000 acres in Utah.
ONE SQUARE MILE A DAY.
OVER 10 MILLION ACRES BY 2030.
At RMEF, we’re not just conserving what’s here today, we’re creating what’s possible for tomorrow. That means more access, healthier habitats and a stronger future for all big game.