That’s a Wrap - 2024 in Review

Absaroka Fence Initiative (AFI) had a very successful 2024. We held eight volunteer projects, starting in January and concluding in December. At the beginning of 2024, AFI members set a goal to increase the number of private land projects we support, in addition to public land projects. This year, we evenly split our efforts, with four projects on private land and four on public land.

AFI and our volunteers removed 4.3 miles of fence and modified 8.6 miles of fence to make it more wildlife-friendly. This meant ensuring the top wire was no higher than 38 inches, the bottom wire was at least 18 inches, and the fence was smooth whenever possible. A total of 223 volunteers participated in our workdays, contributing approximately 700 volunteer hours.

AFI and volunteers celebrating National Public Lands Day with a fence modification. Photo by Sarah Beckwith

In addition to fence projects, we worked with the University of Wyoming and the Beyond Yellowstone Living Lab to develop a fence inventory application for the Absaroka Front. This tool enables AFI and our partners to collect and store fence information in a shared location. We want to acknowledge our partners at Beyond Yellowstone Living Lab for their impressive fence inventory work this summer. The seasonal crew inventoried 110 miles of fence across US Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management managed lands. AFI has already utilized this new inventory to plan upcoming fence projects and we look forward to our continued partnership on fence mapping. 

As AFI looks to the future, we aim to  expand our efforts to create a landscape-level impact. We also deeply appreciate our strong volunteer base and recognize the importance of offering consistent volunteer fence days and projects. These projects help AFI maintain community support through on-the-ground experiences and provide opportunities to educate the public on the importance of wildlife migration and the impact fences have on those migrations. 

This is a breakdown of the statistics for each volunteer project in 2024. An * denotes a private land project.