The Arizona Game and Fish Department has been awarded $800,000 in federal grants to restore critical migration routes for mule deer and other native ungulates.
The department will receive funds for a project on the Kaibab Plateau to mechanically remove invasive conifers and restore 1,100 acres of winter range for mule deer.
A half-million dollars will go to another project to remove woody invasive species from 4,000 acres of pronghorn migration areas and grasslands, reduce erosion and facilitate prescribed fire.
It’s part of a federal program to improve migration corridors across 11 western states that suffer from habitat fragmentation causing poor health and reproductive success of herds.