About 20 miles east of Lander, Wyo., cliffs rise from a sagebrush-laden basin between the Wind and the Sweetwater rivers. The erosion-carved rocks display unusually intact geological layers from 10 to 53 million years ago. Golden eagles and ferruginous hawks soar high above; greater sage grouse and pronghorn winter at the base. All this helped […]
Wyoming
Posted inWotr
Let the EPA finish its work in Pavillion, Wyoming
Over the last few weeks, the gas industry and their advocates have gone to great lengths to refute the Environmental Protection Agency’s draft report about the effects on groundwater of hydraulic fracturing – fracking — for gas in Pavillion, Wyo. In case you missed the story, on Dec. 8 the EPA released “confirmation of highly […]
Posted inArticles
Feds Link Water Contamination to Fracking for the First Time
In a first, federal environment officials today scientifically linked underground water pollution with hydraulic fracturing, concluding that contaminants found in central Wyoming were likely caused by the gas drilling process. The findings by the Environmental Protection Agency come partway through a separate national study by the agency to determine whether fracking presents a risk to […]
Posted inWotr
The return of the Lords of Yesterday
A couple of decades ago, the West’s conservationists dreamed a lovely dream: The region’s traditional extractive industry base, which had taken such a huge environmental toll, would soon make way for a kinder, gentler economy based on protecting the land for recreation and tourism. And the dream seemed on the verge of coming true; during […]
Posted inJuly 25, 2011: The Global West
The Global West: how foreign investment fuels resource extraction in Western states
Douglas, Wyo., population 5,000 and home of the legendary jackalope, lies in an almost puritanical landscape — beautiful, yet shy about that beauty, concealing it modestly under a beige blanket of grass and shrubs. A collection of low-slung stone and brick buildings sits at the town’s center, with tree-shaded residential neighborhoods radiating out from it. […]
Posted inMay 16, 2011: Ripple Effects
Where has Montana’s water gone?
An old compact may not be enough to keep the Tongue River from running dry
Posted inWotr
We keep annoying Sheila, our GPS navigator
As a career country gal, I take pride in finding the most efficient — or at least the shortest — route between two points. In our mountain country of Wyoming, that is not always a straight line or even the distance the proverbial crow can fly. And whoever thought that following crows was a good […]
Posted inWotr
Wolves: The debate is seldom rational
The wolf pot continues to boil in Montana, Idaho and Wyoming. Now, another state has been added to the stew. In Oregon, environmentalists are protesting the piecemeal removal of wolves from the Endangered Species list, hunters want less competition from wolves, and ranchers complain that wolves are killing their livestock. In eastern Oregon, where there […]
Posted inApril 12, 2010: The Butterfly Sting
March Madness in Indian Country
Wyoming Indian High School dominates the basketball court
Posted inDecember 21, 2009: Wind Resistance
The messy mix of energy and sage grouse
Will turbines deal a deadly blow to the imperiled bird?
Posted inDecember 21, 2009: Wind Resistance
Battle for the core of Wyoming
Sage grouse concerns have pitted fossil fuels against wind
Posted inApril 13, 2009: The Desert That Breaks Annie Proulx’s Heart
The desert that breaks Annie Proulx’s heart
Wyoming storyteller gives an unvarnished view of the Red Desert
Posted inWotr
A town’s downtown is the new (old) way to live
The sun rises over the mountains and floods my room with light. I lie in bed and listen to the cooing of conspiring pigeons on the roof. I’ve lately moved from Cody, Wyo., to Salmon, Idaho. Cody, like other towns surrounding Yellowstone National Park, has become an expensive place to live, especially for a freelance […]
Posted inArticles
Don’t call plugging wolves hunting
It’s been about three months since wolves in the Northern Rockies were removed from the protection of the Endangered Species Act. To date, at least 20 wolves have been reported killed in Wyoming, where they may legally be shot on sight. That’s an average of one wolf killed every four and half days. Five of […]
Posted inWotr
The day the view died
The view of the War Memorial Stadium, seen by westbound drivers barreling down Interstate 80 just east of Laramie, Wyo., died of obstruction in August 2007. The view was 57 years old. It had long been lauded by both newcomers and old timers as the thing that could raise goose bumps as travelers whooshed down […]
Posted inArticles
Red Desert rarity
Wyoming moves to protect Adobe Town –
but will the feds follow suit?