Hidden away in southwestern Wyoming lies one of the most unique and spectacular landscapes in North America – The Red Desert. A wondrous and incredible place, dotted with rainbow-colored hoodoos, towering buttes and prehistoric rock art, the Red Desert provides a truly wild “home on the range” for the largest migratory big game herd in the lower 48 states – nearly 50,000 pronghorn antelope. Today the imprints of the pioneers’ wagon wheels are still visible in the Red Desert and a trace of the West’s great animal migrations remains as well.

The Red Desert’s pronghorn have survived for millions of years, but the animals and their habitat are now in jeopardy. To complete their annual migration to crucial winter ranges, pronghorn must run an obstacle course of subdivisions, industrial development, fences and roads. Public lands within the Desert traditionally have provided a refuge from this development, but that refuge may soon be lost. Projections from the Federal Bureau of Land Management call for 10,000 to 15,000 new oil and gas wells on public lands in the Desert. Well pads, roads and pipelines will be carved through the lands where the pronghorn now find forage during the cold Wyoming winter.