On the Move: Animals, Migration and Rivers
Whether they swim, walk, or fly, many animals must move great distances across diverse landscapes throughout their lives to survive. The routes these animals travel to reach different habitats—be they on land or in the sky—are called migration corridors. Along these corridors, animals forage for food, seek refuge from the cold of winter, and breed and raise their young. Rivers lie at the heart of these pathways, serving as the lifelines that connect and nourish Western landscapes.
River canyons and valleys often provide the most direct and protected routes for wildlife to travel, while riparian areas and water supply sustenance. So it goes that WRC’s work is key to the survival of migratory species. When we buy and permanently conserve riverlands, we're able to keep migratory habitat intact and ensure that animals have access to healthy rivers as they move throughout the West.
From majestic Rocky Mountain elk to delicate monarch butterflies, myriad species rely on migration corridors where WRC is permanently protecting habitat. Here are seven:
On the Move: Animals, Migration and Rivers
These big-eared ungulates are poster children for wildlife migration in the American West. Their tendency to travel nearly identical routes generation after generation paints a clear picture of why keeping migratory habitat intact is so important. In Idaho, mule deer depend on a property that WRC recently purchased in the Teton River basin called Badger Creek Canyon Ranch. The 613-acre property provides critical winter range for two to three thousand mule deer that winter in the Teton River Canyon and spend summers in Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks, passing through and using the ranch on their way. In Oregon, we are working to conserve 674 acres at the confluence of the Little Deschutes River and Paulina Creek, a resting and grazing point for the Crescent Herd of mule deer, who migrate further than any other mule deer in the state.
Highly social animals, Rocky Mountain elk migrate in herds throughout the year across a large home range, spending winter in lower elevation marshlands and summer in subalpine forests. In South Park, one of three major high-altitude basins in Colorado’s Front Range, WRC protected a major migration corridor for thousands of Rocky Mountain elk: In 2024 and 2025, we conserved two properties totaling 1,980 acres in an area these elk use as their primary route into and across South Park on their annual north-south migration. Further north, on Racetrack Creek in Montana, we’re working to conserve a 131-acre property that makes up part of a corridor that Rocky Mountain elk, mule deer and moose use to move between the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem to the south and Crown of the Continent Ecosystem to the north.
As a river conservation organization, salmon are the most iconic beneficiaries of our work. Dozens of WRC projects protect habitat for this enigmatic fish, but perhaps none quite like Blue Creek, the cold-water lifeline of the Klamath River. Here, WRC has been working for over two decades in partnership with the Yurok Tribe to create the 47,097-acre Blue Creek Salmon Sanctuary and Yurok Tribal Community Forest. For salmon returning inland to the Klamath River from the Pacific Ocean, Blue Creek is the first cold-water refuge they encounter. By holding in the creek’s cold water, Chinook can lower their body temperature by up to eight degrees, helping them survive to continue their arduous migration to upstream spawning grounds. Conserving Blue Creek as a cold-water refuge for migrating salmon is imperative to the summer and fall-run fish, and comes at a pivotal moment just after dam removal, which has reopened hundreds of miles of historic habitat in the upper basin.
Canada lynx travel long distances in search of their primary prey: the snowshoe hare. In Washington, one of the places this endangered species depends on is a 2,440-acre property WRC conserved along a stream called Big Sheep Creek. This tract provides habitat connectivity for Canada lynx moving between the Kettle Mountains and the Cascade Mountains. The area is also an integral part of a movement corridor known as The Wedge, which provides migratory habitat for numerous species of large animals. Further southeast in Washington, WRC protected McLoughlin Falls Ranch, a key piece of one of the state’s most important wildlife movement corridors in an area that is home to the country’s healthiest population of Canada lynx.
With their vivid chestnut-colored plumage and sky blue shoulder patches, cinnamon teal are a striking sight. They are found throughout the American West during the summer and fly south to Mexico and Central America in the winter. Cinnamon teal are among the millions of birds that take to the skies along the Pacific Flyway, an aerial super-highway stretching from Patagonia to Alaska. As they travel along this migration corridor in the sky, marshlands provide important refuge for feeding and resting. One major stopping point for these migratory birds is the Klamath Marsh National Wildlife Refuge, which WRC expanded in 2020 to protect 3.3 miles of the upper Williamson River and 2,200 acres of marshlands. The effort enabled the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to begin restoring critical wetlands and return 1,500 acres of water rights to the Williamson, ensuring the river and its surrounding wetlands remain a haven for migratory birds.
One of the world’s oldest species of bird, sandhill cranes are attention-grabbing in every sense. These tall, crimson-capped birds group together by the hundreds and often thousands, blanketing the sky in their raucous migration north and south across the landscape. They spend summers in the southern U.S. and migrate north toward Canada, and sometimes as far as Siberia, in the spring and summer. An important stopover in their journey to northern breeding grounds is the Big Hole Valley of southwest Montana. Here, WRC conserved two critical properties in the Big Hole River system—one on the Wise River and one on a spectacular pair of high-mountain tributary streams—that provide key wetland habitat for sandhill cranes. To the south, in Colorado’s San Luis Valley, we also conserved thousands of acres of sandhill crane habitat along the Rio Grande and Conejos Rivers.
Smaller in stature but no less mighty than their avian counterparts, insects and plant pollinators rely on connected, intact habitat to feed and rest along their aerial journeys. One of the most charismatic of these insects is the monarch butterfly, which travels up to 3,000 miles every spring and fall to reach overwintering sites in Mexico and California and breeding areas further north. Along the Sacramento River in California, WRC just conserved the 288-acre Jelly's Ferry property, which has an abundance of milkweed, a primary food source and breeding habitat for monarch butterflies. Conserving this rapidly disappearing habitat is a big win, as monarch butterfly populations have declined dramatically in the last 20 years.
Images from top: Banner image by Tom and Pat Leeson, mule deer by Elizabeth Boehm, Rocky Mountain elk by Tom and Pat Leeson, Chinook salmon by Thomas Dunklin, monarch butteries by Richard and Susan Day
