TETON VILLAGE, Wyo. -- From Jackson Hole -- a frequent home for some of the nation's largest herds of elk, bison and antelope -- governors of several western states agreed Sunday to push for greater focus on the migration corridors used by those animals.

The Western Governors' Association meets through Tuesday to discuss water, energy, climate change and power transmission, issues that keynote speaker Dirk Kempthorne said were all related.

"All of this is tied together," said Kempthorne, secretary of of the U.S. Department of the Interior and former governor and U.S. senator for Idaho.

Kempthorne praised Wyoming Gov. Dave Freudenthal, chairman of the association, for leading efforts to create the Wildlife Corridors Initiative, a plan to cooperatively share geographic data among states and the federal government.

The effort will use computer software and maps to overlay scientific data about the location of wildlife habitats and migration routes with energy exploration, land development, energy transmission and transportation corridors.

States will adopt common scientific protocols for gathering and reporting the data, which can be used by local, state and federal planners to help study how development across the West might affect wildlife.

Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter said better managing development's toll on wildlife was an "urgent" issue.

"I think we should do this very quickly," he said, noting that oil and gas leases in Colorado have increased seven-fold over the last decade, "largely without comprehensive planning around wildlife issues."

The initiative was a key step in states recognizing the importance of wildlife corridors, said Erik Molvar, a wildlife biologist with the Laramie-based Biodiversity Conservation Alliance.

Molvar said governors now face a challenge in implementing the goals outlined in their initiative.

The global appetite for both conventional and alternative energy is likely to continue growing for decades, said Steve Elbert, vice chairman for BP America.

That means greater pressure on domestic oil and gas producers to explore in potentially environmentally sensitive areas. But the industry "is pretty good and getting better" at working with regulators to protect wildlife, he said.

But some operators are better than others, Freudenthal said, adding that the same geographic mapping technology could also be used to coordinate information between states and federal agencies about bad players in the industry.

He said such a system could help in "making sure they do what they say they'll do."

Journalist Tom Brokaw, who interviewed Freudenthal and Ritter for Sunday's "Meet the Press" and who was a keynote speaker at the association's meeting, said the public information gathered as part of the initiative should be published on the Internet, "where any citizen can look at it."

Jack Dangermond, head of a leading geographic data mapping company that helped create a demonstration of the technology, also backed making the data available online. He urged governors to aggressively pursue the overall initiative.

"This is monumental if you can pull this off," he said.