Volunteers are seen modifying fences to ease the lives and migration patterns of pronghorn in southern Alberta. (Supplied Image)

By Chris Brown

Reducing injuries too

Fence replacement project aiding pronghorn migration

Jun 18, 2021 | 2:52 PM

MEDICINE HAT, AB – What started as a one-off project in 2009 with CFB Suffield to save pronghorn from hurting themselves on the fences surrounding the base has become much more for the Alberta Fish and Game Association.

Back then Fish and Game worked with the base to replace 50 kilometres of barbed wire from the bottom of fences with smooth wire set at 18 inches. The Department of National Defence then decided to modify all fences around the base.

“Now we’re working primarily with private landholders to modify existing cattle fences just so they’re more pronghorn friendly,” says T.J. Schwanky, wildlife projects facilitator with Alberta Fish and Game. “What we’re doing in the case if it’s a three-strand fence we’re just adding a fourth strand to bottom of smooth wire and in the case of four-strand fences we’re removing the bottom strand of barb wire and replacing it with a strand of smooth wire. We’re setting that wire at 18 inches so it facilitates easy movement by the pronghorn underneath it and the added benefit of using this smooth wire is there’s barbs so there’s no hair loss on their backs they don’t get wounds on their backs and things like that.”

Volunteers have installed more than 500 kilometres of smooth wire and manipulated another 1,500 km of barbed wire to wildlife-friendly standards. As well, 50 km of page wire and more than 150 km of barbed wire have been removed from the landscape.

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The project began in 2010 when Fish and Game worked with the Alberta Conservation Association to identify spots in their typical migration areas where pronghorn would have trouble crawling under the fences. As pronghorn don’t usually jump over fences, they are sometimes forced to go well off their preferred route as they move into Montana during severe winters.

“We need to keep a migration route that’s easy for them to pass through open so when we do have severe weather events like we had in 2010-11 it is easier for them to migrate,” explains Schwanky.

Not having such a route can lead to more than just injuries caused by crawling under fences. It puts them at a higher risk to predators and increases the likelihood of incidents on roads and railroad tracks.

Schwanky says most fences built on rural lands in the 1940s and ’50s used page wire, which creates an impenetrable barrier for pronghorn. Old fences simply weren’t built with pronghorn in mind negatively or positively, he says.

That’s changing.

“Most landowners nowadays are very wildlife-friendly and if there’s things they can do that won’t impact their ranching operation they’re more than happy to get involved,” Schwankey says.

He encourages landowners who’ve had fences replace or modified to spread the word about the projects, especially to those building new fences. Schwanky says many of the new fences built now are done with pronghorn migration and safety in mind.

Three fencing events happen each year, usually with about 16-20 volunteers at each.

This year projects are planned for July 17-18 near Orion, August 7-8 near Milk River and Sept. 11-12 near Acadia Valley.

You can email Schwanky at tj-agfa@shaw.ca for more information.

Schwanky says all funding comes from non-profit conservation groups, primarily hunter and angler dollars.

“We do a lot of work with very little money due to volunteers,” he says.