Habitat Management Areas Closing for Winter

Many of the Wyoming Game and Fish Department Wildlife Habitat Management Areas are closing to provide protections for wildlife on their winter ranges.
Officials for the Game and Fish Department say that the majority of WHMAs close or have restrictions for the winter annually. Ray Bredehoft, habitat and access branch chief for Game and Fish, says that seasonal closures are essential for minimizing stress-causing disturbances to wintering deer, elk, bighorn sheep and other wildlife, adding that the closures also reduce the human and recreational impacts to the forage, which supports the wintering wildlife.
In the Big Horn Basin, the Sunlight Area will be closed to human presence beginning December 16th, re-opening again on May 1st. The Sunshine Area near Meeteetse is closed to vehicles year-round, but is completely closed to human presence from December 1st through May 31st.
However, the Yellowtail Wildlife Habitat Management Area near Lovell remains open all year.