Watching for Water

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Wyoming’s WaterPages 1-7

Around WyomingPage 8

PeoplePage 12

The Va lue of Water in an Ar id Land

Watching for WaterBy Molly Absolon

This summer, I started watching theafternoon buildup over the WindRiver Mountains with a sense of des-

peration. Fluffy cumulus clouds wouldmass up into great gray piles that rumbledand f lashed. The wind blew dirt around thestreets forcing me to squint to protect myeyes. But we never got rain. The hillsabove town were brown almost beforethey were green.

Living in Wyoming is learning to livewith an almost unconscious thirst. I findmyself responding physically to photo-graphs of lush, wet forests or waves lappingagainst a sandy beach. I feel parched attimes, but I’ve also grown to love thebeauty of our raw dry landscape. Here theearth’s history is written on the land. Youcan see where water carved out canyons,where retreating ice left behind mounds oftumbled boulders. A violent afternoon

storm can turn silent sandy draws into rag-ing streams leaving behind new channelsand sculptures in the malleable earth. It’s aland where spring comes with suddennessand heartrending beauty. The hillsidesgreen up and the desert blooms: woolydaisies, bitterroot, death camus, larkspur,Indian paintbrush, phlox. The palate is bril-liant and the display ephemeral. It alwaysmakes me breathless and a little sad,because I know it will be over almost assoon as it begins.

This issue of the Frontline is dedicated towater—lifeblood, nurturer, destroyer—andthe challenges we face moving forwardinto the 21st century. These challenges aremultiple. In the Powder River Basin,aquifers are being drained to releasecoalbed methane. The produced water is ofvarying degrees of purity and is eithermanna from heaven or a curse for dryland

ranchers. For the first time, Wyoming’sDepartment of Environmental Quality isfaced with too much water, raising a ques-tion about the impacts of overabundanceon a land that has evolved in a state ofscarcity. Mountain streams and lakes arebeing acidified by air pollution threateningthe state’s prized trout fisheries. Anddrought is creating a battle over instreamf low between irrigators and wildlife biolo-gists, upstream users and our thirsty neigh-bors to the south. The very definition ofwhat waters are protected under the CleanWater Act is being redefined and couldhave lasting effects on the way Wyoming’sprecious wetlands are managed. And final-ly, as global warming shrinks our glaciersand advances the timing of our seasonalsnowmelt, Wyoming faces fundamentalchanges in where and when it gets itswater. All of us want and need clean, abun-dant water. Read more about what we’redoing to ensure we do. !If there is magic on this planet,it is contained in water.

Loren Eisely, The Immense Journey, 1957

2 Frontline Report Wyoming Outdoor Council Fall 2006

Where Does All the Water Go?Instream f low in Wyoming

By Cale Case

The Middle Fork of the Popo Agie f lows just a block away fromthe home where I have lived my whole life. As a boy the MiddleFork was for me what the Mississippi was to Tom Sawyer. A day

did not pass when I wasn’t fishing, skating or swimming. My 11-yearold son, George, cannot have this relationship with the river. Whilethere are vigorous f lows just three miles upstream, in town thealmost-dry stream is contaminated and unsafe. George and all ouryoung people deserve healthy and vigorous Wyoming streams.

Water Use in WyomingWyoming water is governed by the prior appropriation principle.

This “first in use, first in right” doctrine means that earlier waterrights are superior to later ones. Early rights were largely limited toagriculture or municipal water supplies. In 1986, after a successful citi-zen’s initiative headed by the Wyoming Outdoor Council and otherconservation groups, the Wyoming State Legislature was forced topass an instream f low law. But the law has been a dud. Today we arestill faced with streams that are too contaminated for our children toplay in, too warm to support the trout we brag about, and too low tof loat a boat.

Why? Because the law is overcomplicated, anti-property and nar-rowly administered. Despite the vast importance of water resourcesto our economy and way of life, just 1 percent of 21,000 stream mileswith fisheries have been protected since the law was enacted. Almostall of these are headwaters areas above diversions. Downstreamstretches lack protection.

The law permits instream f lows only for the minimum amount “toestablish or maintain new or existing fisheries.” Aesthetics, healthand safety, water quality, economic and recreational benefits areignored. As implemented, f lows for the benefit of fisheries are justenough to keep them alive—not enough to provide for habitat and thef lushing f lows that mimic natural systems.

Existing water rights, with their historic priority, can only be con-verted to instream f lows if they are permanently surrendered to thestate—something nobody has ever done. Thus, all instream f lows havebeen new appropriations with current priority dates. This means thatany person with a need and an earlier priority can use the water, and,therefore, we really are not protecting anything at all. No abilityexists to address insteam f lows on a temporary basis during droughtyears. And if an owner of senior rights decides to leave his f lows inthe river, they cannot be protected from upstream water rights hold-ers or from those past the next diversion downstream.

It is a “use it or lose it” world. Only the Game and FishDepartment can recommend stream segments to be protected forfisheries, but even then the process is long and complicated, and todate has protected very little.

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By the end of summer, the Middle Fork of the Popo Agie is a mere tricklewhen it reaches Lander.

Fall 2006 Wyoming Outdoor Council Frontline Report 3

Cities Grapple With Water Flow IssuesOur water law doesn’t permit communities to solve

their instream problems locally either. For example, theState Engineer’s Office has been unsuccessful in finding alegal way to allow the City of Pinedale to release its ownwater from Fremont Lake to improve f lows through town.There are lots of Wyoming towns like Pinedale that wouldappreciate more f low for aesthetic, public health andother reasons. While in my hometown of Lander, the cityis applying to withdraw still more water from the MiddleFork of the Popo Agie by acquiring unutilized water rights.This will make our terrible water situation even worse.

To solve these conf licting desires for Wyoming’s pre-cious streams we need dialogue among cities, water rightsholders and citizens. A cooperative means to encouragewater conservation, and more efficient delivery could bejust the ticket to make everyone better off.

The Solution?Instream f low opponents argue that f lows should only

come from new reservoir capacity and that transfers fromexisting users or recoveries from water conservationstrategies should not be permitted. They believe that jun-ior agricultural water-rights holders are entitled to watereven if senior users would prefer to support instreamf lows. And the opponents of instream f low argue thatirrigation return f lows augment streams in late summer—aproposition that occurs only under certain circumstances.

Conservation groups and property owners have beenattempting to advance a new Wyoming instream f low lawfor several years and we are making progress. A majorobstacle continues to be the Joint Agriculture Committee.To date, no major bill has made it out of committeeand a promised interim study turned out to be a farce.A minor bill to deal specifically with the Pinedalesituation passed the committee, but got hung upelsewhere in the legislature.

We will keep trying, but it is becoming more apparentthat the legislature will not be up to the task of a moreliberal instream f low law unless extraordinary pressurefor reform develops. It is time for a citizens’ initiative tomake instream f lows a reality. Our fish and our riversdepend on it, so do our children. !Cale Case represents Lander, Hudson and the Wind River IndianReservation in the Wyoming State Senate where he has sponsoredinstream f low bills for four of his 14 years in office. The WyomingOutdoor Council supports these efforts and will continue to work withSenator Case to revise Wyoming’s antiquated water laws.

I had a friend who was caught up byrivers. Each year, he’d pick a different river tof loat down and he would pull together acadre of his very best friends to join him.They bought raft-loads of beer and beef steak.They planned their campsites and they arrivedfrom all over the country, some driving far,some f lying in. My friend drew people likethat, for he was a good, gentle man with thekind of chuckle that made you smile justhearing it. It was the kind of laugh that madeyou think of a river.

The group laughed their way downstream,over rapids thick with foam from a retreatingspring, through canyons filled with the voiceof the wren, past tamarisk and willow, alwayswith the river.

This past spring, my friend’s good heartgave out and he was gone. He left a smile anda simple request—let the river wash me away.

I think this would have been his prayer:May there always be rivers and fishermen andmay these rivers have personalities asdifferent as the people who enjoy them.”Tom Reed

Trout Unlimited

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By Cory Toye

Aglance at a topographic map ofthe arid lands in the westernUnited States reveals an interest-

ing phenomenon: the drainages areoften filled by intermittent or ephemer-al streams represented on the map bydotted blue lines. For people inWyoming, that doesn’t mean thedrainage isn’t an important waterway—it just means the water dries up by theend of the summer or that it only runsduring a rainstorm. That’s normal for us.But we still recognize these drainagesare integral to our landscape. Theysculpt our lands, create importantwildlife habitat, and provide valuableforage for livestock.

For years, ephemeral streams havebeen considered “waters of the UnitedStates” and, therefore, subject to theClean Water Act. A recent SupremeCourt opinion has thrown this defini-tion into question, however. ForWyoming, the implications of this deci-sion, while still unclear, could be farreaching.

The Supreme Court DecisionOn June 19, 2006, the U.S Supreme

Court issued its opinion in Rapanos v.United States and Carabell v. United States.The cases dealt with the jurisdiction ofthe Environmental Protection Agencyand the Army Corps of Engineers con-cerning claims under the Clean WaterAct. The main issue was what waters inthe country are waters of the UnitedStates and, therefore, under Environ-mental Protection Agency and ArmyCorps jurisdiction.

In the Clean Water Act, the term“navigable waters” means the waters ofthe United States, including the territo-rial seas. The Army Corps regulationsconstrue the term “waters of the UnitedStates” to include not only waters sus-ceptible to use in interstate commerce—the traditional understanding of theterm—but also tributaries of thosewaters and the wetlands adjacent tothem or their tributaries. Using this def-inition, both perennial—or year-roundstreams—and ephemeral tributaries fallunder Army Corps jurisdiction.

The plurality opinion issued byJustice Scalia in the Rapanos and Carabellcases created a new rule that changesthis definition and replaces 30 years ofArmy Corps policies and practices. Scaliaused Webster’s dictionary from 1954 tohelp define whether the Clean WaterAct covers wetlands and ephemeralstreams. The new definition he came upwith requires: 1) the adjacent channelcontains a water of the United States(i.e., relatively permanent body of waterconnected to traditional interstate navi-gable waters); and 2) the wetland has acontinuous surface connection withthat water.

What this means for WyomingThere is no doubt that ephemeral

streams play an important role in thewater quality of Wyoming. If this rule isimplemented, such streams could beopen to less stringent requirements forwater quality because they are not permanent nor are they connecteddirectly to permanent bodies of water.This includes spring runoff from the


When Is WaterConsidered Water?The Supreme Court Considers What Constitutes“Waters of the United States”

In the West,because of the doctrineof prior appropriationand the “use it or loseit” concept, we wasteour water. Water isprecious. Water is life.Without water, none ofus would survive. Waterlaw has to change.Prior appropriation hasoutlived its usefulness.It encourages peopleto waste.” Dick Baldes

Retired U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologist

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Wyoming’s drought situation is becoming more severe,as most of the state has seen scorcher summer tem-peratures and little rain this year. A lot of snow this

winter would help repair the land next year, but one expert saysthere’s another factor contributing to the problem: the timing ofthe snowmelt.

Dr. Kevin Trenberth is the head of climate analysis at theNational Center for Atmospheric Research. He says the snowpackhas been melting two weeks earlier than usual, which means thewater arrives too early.

“The snowpack is less as the summer comes around, and thathas important consequences for soil moisture and also drought,”Trenberth says.

Snow levels vary from year to year according to Trenberth’sfindings, but the timing of the melt has become consistently ear-lier than usual throughout the West. He marks it up to globalwarming and says that it can have significant effects on nativeplants and the animals that rely on them.

“Water is not available in the especially late spring and thepeak summer when many plants need it,” Trenberth says. Lack oflate season water also affects irrigators, he adds.

Not only is snowmelt occurring earlier, glaciers in the state’smountain ranges are retreating at a rapid rate. These glaciers arean important source of late season water particularly in theWind River/ Big Horn watershed. Is there a solution to thisdilemma? Some experts are saying that we may need more damsand water storage projects to get us through dry spells in thefuture. Others are wary of the consequences of reservoirs onwildlife, fisheries, native plants and the landscape. Regardless ofwhich viewpoint one subscribes to, water promises to become ahot issue as the world warms and snow melts. !Adapted from a radio story by Deb Courson,Wyoming News Service.

More Snow This WinterMay Not Be Enough


mountains and dry creek beds in the desert. And itincludes coalbed methane-produced waters that produc-ers often discharge into existing ephemeral streambeds.Coalbed methane-produced water can contain pollutantsthat could harm water quality in the state. These streamsare tributaries to larger bodies of water in the state andnation, which means the pollution can migrate down-stream causing consequences far from the source.

A more reasonable approach to determining watersof the United States was offered by the opinion ofJustice Kennedy. Kennedy requires a link—what hecalled “a reasonable inference of ecological intercon-nection”—between a body of water and a navigable bodyof water. This rule makes more sense for western statessuch as Wyoming because an interconnection betweenephemeral tributaries and larger bodies of water canusually be easily shown. However, this rule still poses aproblem for wetlands such as the Great Divide Basin,where water does not leave the basin and there is nolink between the basin and waters of the United States.

Congress needs to create legislation that would pro-vide accurate guidance for the water quality regulationsin the country by providing a more specific definitionof waters of the United States. The Clean Water Actallows for broad interpretation with the intention ofprotecting as much water in the country as possible.Different administrations and courts have f luctuated onthe definition of waters of the United States with politi-cal interests in mind. A new rule would afford theephemeral streams and distinct waterways of Wyomingadequate regulations to protect water quality forWyoming. Further, a new definition would take theinterpretation of the Clean Water Act from the courtsand allow the Environmental Protection Agency and theArmy Corps of Engineers to ensure the water quality ofthe country. !Third-year University of Wyoming law student Cory Toye worked asa legal intern for the Wyoming Outdoor Council this summer.

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The first fish [mythree-year-old son]caught he just lookedup and squealed andjumped.… andimmediately I thought,the value of a fishing dayis $57 or was at thattime, what a joke. It’s notjust money. There’s valuein f lowing water and formy son to catch thatlittle brook trout….and Iwouldn’t give up thatmemoryfor anything.”Tom Annear,

Wyo. Game and Fish, instream f low supervisor,FocusWest Interview

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By Steve Jones

In April of 2006, a controversy thathas been brewing for a long timefinally came to a head when Patrick J.

Crank, Wyoming Attorney General, wrotean opinion (Attorney General Opinion,No. 2006-01) on the question of whetherthe Department of Environmental Quality(DEQ) can regulate water quantity. Crankconcluded: “The Environmental QualityAct allows regulation of the quantity ofwater if the quantity has an unacceptableeffect on the quality of the water.”

The attorney general’s opinion should be welcome news to ranchers andfarmers in the Powder River Basin, whohave been dealing with too much of the wrong kind of water. Simply put, pollution can be caused by too muchwater, regardless of its quality. Erosion,siltation, sedimentation and f looding can all have negative environmental consequences, most of them on waterquality. Other things such as temperaturecan also be changed by the amount ofwater added to a stream, especially anintermittent stream.

Since the coalbed methane play beganin the mid 1990s, operators have beenallowed to discharge massive quantitiesof water into drainages of the PowderRiver Basin changing the character of thelandscape. While DEQ permits these dis-charges of pollution, it has said that itcan't do anything about the tremendousvolume of water because they can't regu-late the volume, per se.

But the fact is, DEQ has alwaysregulated the quantity of water pollution.First, as part of any discharge permit,there is a specified “total f low limit.”This is a limitation on the volume ofpollution. Secondly, DEQ can regulatethe concentrations of pollutants beingdischarged. Such a calculation cannotbe done without estimating the quantity

of the discharge and the volume of thereceiving stream or lake.

DEQ has always been reluctant to tella discharger of pollution, “You have toomuch water” or “You can't discharge thatmuch water down this stream channel.”The agency’s approach has been to allowthe polluter to decide on the volume ofwater to be discharged, and then DEQwill simply determine how clean theirdischarge has to be in order to get a dis-charge permit for the pollution. The sys-tem has worked well for oil and gas dis-charges, for instance, because such facili-ties don't have huge quantities of waterto discharge. But with coalbed methane,it is a different story.

Coalbed methane drillers need todewater aquifers lying within a coal seamin order to withdraw the gas. The ques-tion then becomes, what do they do withthe water once it is withdrawn from thecoal seam? The cheapest solution is todischarge the CBM water without treatingit. But the problem with this solution is ithas unacceptable environmental conse-quences such as erosion, siltation andsedimentation. There are other problemstoo, such as the fact that the water isusually not fit for irrigation and cancause the native grasses in stream bot-tomlands to be replaced by more salt-tol-erant grasses (which are less palatableand nutritious for cattle and wildlife).

The attorney general’s opinion on regulating water quantity was ratherequivocal, but it does open the door forthe DEQ to take a more aggressive stanceon the paradoxical challenge of managingtoo much water in a land used to too little. The Wyoming Outdoor Councilcontinues to push the DEQ to accept this role and take the lead on findingworkable solutions to the waterdisposal issue. !

Can You HaveToo Much Water?The Challenge of Abundance in a Land of Scarcity:Regulating Coalbed Methane Water

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Watching for Water

By Andy Blair

On Saturday, September 2, the Wyoming OutdoorCouncil organized a tour of the Barlow Ranchin the Powder River Basin. The ranch’s owner,

Bernie Barlow, led a discussion on the challenges shehas faced with respect to coalbed methane (CBM)development, and local rancher Steve Adami took us ona driving tour of the extensive development onand around his place. Our goal was to have an opendiscussion about ranching in the midst of the currentcoalbed methane boom.

After driving around the back roads in the PowderRiver Basin for a while, one of the first things younotice when you come onto the Barlow place is a rela-

tive absence of roads, transmission lines, well pads, andcontainment ponds. The prairie rolls out in all direc-tions interrupted only by a few buildings and some oldpump jacks left over from a previous boom. Bernie hasbeen working with coalbed methane developers forseveral years over the issue of developing the resourcesthat lie beneath her ground. Like many in the PowderRiver Basin, she owns the surface but the subsurface isadministered by the Bureau of Land Management andleased to individual developers. This arrangement hasresulted in many surface owners in the Powder RiverBasin feeling that their interests are not beingadequately protected by industry or land managers. Upto this point, the Barlow Ranch has not seen significantdevelopment of the CBM resources that lie beneaththe ground, but they have been on the receivingend of produced water discharged from an upstream,in-channel containment pond.

The concerns that landowners have with CBM devel-opment revolve around the significant amount of sur-face disturbance and the abundance of produced waterassociated with putting in a well. Much of the waterthat comes from CBM wells is saline. Many of the claysoils in the Powder River Basin are also saline. Evenwhere the CBM water is acceptable for irrigation andconsumption by livestock, if you run it down an inter-mittent drainage that rarely sees surface water, you willdraw the salts out of the soil onto the surface and ruinwhat was once good grazing land. This is only oneexample of the complexities involved with CBM devel-opment in the Powder River Basin.

Aaron Clark, coordinator of the Governor’s CBM

Task Force, joined us for the tour and was able to offersome perspective on the state’s efforts to grapple withthese complexities. Created during the 2006 legislativesession, the CBM task force is charged with evaluatingimpacts and possible uses of water produced by coalbedmethane operations. Mr. Clark pointed out that theissues surrounding coalbed methane development aremulti-faceted and that each landowner has his or herown opinion on how development should be handled.He also said that the issue of how to manage producedwater is one of the major themes being addressed bythe Governor’s CBM task force.

Like most issues regarding resource management,there is no simple solution. The Wyoming OutdoorCouncil will continue to monitor the progress of theCBM task force and advocate for agreements thataddress the concerns of the surface owner. !

Ranching in Coalbed Methane Country

Ranch tour participants stand beside a well discharging CBM produced water.

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GREATER YELLOWSTONE

Year one of forest planning in review. Asreported in the last Frontline, the Bridger-Teton and Shoshone National Forests are inthe process of updating their forest plans,the overarching documents that establishmanagement goals for the next 10-15 years.The process is estimated to last three yearsand this summer marked the end of yearone. To date, both forests have publisheddraft “desired conditions”—statements thatref lect how the Forest Service would likeareas of the forest to be managed takinginto consideration ecological, social andeconomic concerns. This fall, the forests’planners will pull out maps and begin toapply the desired conditions to places onthe ground. In other words, some areasmay be identified as primitive backcountryareas suitable for non-motorized recre-ation, while other areas may be targetedfor oil and gas development. The WyomingOutdoor Council is actively working to

ensure that both plans emphasize the out-standing backcountry and roadless charac-ter of these forests—qualities that supportnative wildlife populations and sustainhealthy watersheds. In the next year, theseworld-class forests will need vocal sup-porters. Contact: Lisa McGee

New voices in the Wyoming Range campaign. This summer, local residentsalong the eastern side of the WyomingRange decided that they had had enough.In July, at a barbecue near Daniel, thegroup Citizens Protecting the WyomingRange was formed. Led by outfitter GaryAmerine, whose business relies on huntingin the range, the group includes more than250 citizens, outfitters, sportsmen, sports-women, and others. Many of its membershave not traditionally been comfortablealigning themselves with environmentalgroups, but the pressure to lease lands inpopular hunting and recreational areas iscreating unusual bedfellows. Citizens

Protecting the Wyoming Range formallyprotested the sale of leases in theWyoming Range in August and advancedmany of the arguments we spelled out inour lease protests. The creation of thisgroup ref lects a larger movement in theWest as hunters and anglers are increasing-ly finding their favorite areas threatened byenergy development. Contact: Lisa McGee

Feeding elk or feeding disease? TheWyoming Outdoor Council and two otherconservation groups recently filed a briefon our lawsuit challenging federal agencyapproval of permits for the state-sponsoredelk-feeding program in western Wyoming.The lawsuit by Wyoming Outdoor Council,Greater Yellowstone Coalition and JacksonHole Conservation Alliance asked theWyoming District Court to order the U.S.Forest Service and Bureau of LandManagement to study alternatives—includ-ing phasing out feeding—for reducing thespread of disease at 15 elk feedgroundslocated on federal land in westernWyoming.

The lawsuit also challenges the ForestService’s authorization of the feedgroundsbeing used for a test-and-slaughter pro-gram, which includes a complex of pensand chutes that has been dubbed the“mother of all elk traps” by state officials.The lawsuit seeks to halt the test-and-slaughter program pending the completion

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Citizens Protecting the Wyoming Range members, Gary Amerine (L) and Justin Childs (R) takeGovernor Freudenthal's policy analyst, Temple Stevenson, for a ride into the Wyoming Range.

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A recently published study in the scientificjournal Frontiers in Ecology confirmed theWyoming Outdoor Council’s position thatmanaging elk like livestock—that is, feedingthem in concentrated groups throughout thewinter—only exacerbates the prevalence ofdisease in the herds.


of an adequate environmentalreview. We expect the case to beheard on October 19, 2006.Contact: Meredith Taylor

Clearing the haze over Jonah.On June 28, the Interior Board ofLand Appeals denied our requestfor a “stay” on BLM’s approval ofthe Jonah Infill natural gas proj-ect, which allows for 3,100 addi-tional new wells. While disap-pointing, the decision was notunexpected. On August 7, 2006,we submitted a request forreconsideration of the denial.Our request was based on twonew lines of evidence that hadnot been available previously,one of which is a letter from theEnvironmental Protection Agency(EPA) debunking industry’s claimthat ozone exceedances in theJonah Field were due to weatherconditions. Such conditions werevery unlikely, according to theEPA’s findings. The other newinformation regards the tech-niques used by the BLM for pre-dicting ozone pollution, whichhave been recently shown to beout of date. We hope this newevidence will cause the IBLA toreconsider its initial decision sometimeearly this fall. Contact: Bruce Pendery

RED DESERT

BLM issues long-awaited Jack MorrowHills decision. After nearly two years anddespite extensive public involvement—over80,000 people submitted comments sup-porting protection of the Jack MorrowHills—the BLM released a Record ofDecision in July that made few changes toits prior plan. Although some improve-ments from the Final EIS were made—namely the BLM qualified some languagesuggesting it might be more protective ofsensitive resources and important habi-tats—the basic development scenario of255 wells in the area remains the same.This is troubling because 255 wells is anestimate, not a cap.

Friends of the Red Desert, the WyomingOutdoor Council and other groups haveadvocated for a balanced approach to man-aging this area, which could be realizedthrough designating parts of the desert aNational Conservation Area. This approachrequires Congressional action and wouldensure all current uses remain, but new oiland gas development would be prohibited.Some places in Wyoming deserve protec-tion and the Jack Morrow Hills area of theRed Desert is one of them.

Senator Thomas is cautiously waitingto see how the public responds to theplan, but is keeping the option of NationalConservation Area designation openfor discussion. Please write to him insupport of long-term protection for partsof the Red Desert. You can contact SenatorThomas through a link on his web page:http://thomas.senate.gov/. Contact: Lisa McGee or Bruce Pendery

STATEWIDE

Hiking, biking and sitting aroundtalking. This summer, theWyoming Outdoor Council offereda number of outings to draw atten-tion to some of the special areaswe are working to protect.Highlights of the season includedtouring a wind farm near Rawlins,mountain biking and hiking in theWyoming Range, exploring the JackMorrow Hills, and visiting theBernadette and Eric Barlow Ranchin the middle of coalbed methanecountry. We have also sponsoredspeakers, participated in communi-ty events, hosted forums, and givenslide presentations to reach newaudiences and include more peoplein our efforts to protect Wyoming’samazing outdoor heritage. If youhave ideas for a field trip or areinterested in hosting an event, giveus a call. Contact: Andy Blair

Legislators approve electric utilitybill. In late August, the JointMinerals Interim Committee unani-mously approved a bill that wouldrequire electric utilities with more

than 50,000 Wyoming residential cus-tomers to develop an “integrated resourceplan” for new power plants or transmissionlines. The plan would describe a utility’sfuture need for electricity and the mannerin which electricity would be generatedand distributed. The bill also establishesElectricity Cost Recovery, a process thatallows a utility to recover its investment ina timely fashion. (Electricity Cost Recoveryrefers to the actual cost of electricity that autility pays to supply electricity to theircustomers. That cost would be paid by cus-tomers on a dollar-for-dollar basis.) TheWyoming Outdoor Council is concernedabout the bill because it does not containany environmental standards or sustainabil-ity principles that the Wyoming PublicService Commission should apply inreviewing the integrated resource plans.The full legislature will debate the bill inJanuary 2007. Contact: Michele Barlow

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Wyoming Outdoor Council staff explores the Red Desert’sHoneycomb Buttes on a recent outing.

NEWS


Ancient Corridors — Following thePrehistoric Path of the PronghornNow Out in DVD

By Molly Absolon

The Wyoming Outdoor Council is pleased toannounce the release of Ancient Corridors—Following the Prehistoric Path of the Pronghorn on

DVD. These DVDs are free and available to the public.They will also be given to schools and libraries acrossthe state for educational purposes.

The program follows pronghorn through westernWyoming along the path they have used for thousandsof years from wintering grounds in the Red Desert tolush summer range at the foot of the Tetons. Today, theroute represents one of North America’s last andlongest remaining big game migrations.

Conservationists, landowners, ranchers, and wildlifeexperts are working to preserve this migration by des-ignating the route — which largely follows public landand is only about a mile wide — a National MigrationCorridor.

“Since the dawn of humankind, ancient culturesaround the world depended on hunting wildlife fortheir survival. In western Wyoming, early people reliedalmost entirely on big game species like the pronghornwhose ancient migration pattern we follow in this pro-gram,” says Meredith Taylor, the wildlife coordinator forthe Wyoming Outdoor Council and creator of theAncient Corridors program.

“This story is about people, animals, survival, adver-sity, culture and history. It brings together all the ele-ments of great drama,” she adds.

Archaeological evidence shows that pronghorn andtheir human predators have traveled this ancient corri-

dor through Greater Yellowstone for at least 6,000years. Despite this conservation success story, themigration path is in jeopardy. Today the pronghornmust travel past several geographic bottlenecks that arethreatened by encroaching urbanization and oil and gasdevelopment, as well as by fences and roads. Such pres-sures could sever the route and mean the end of prong-horn in Grand Teton National Park, thereby disturbingthe predator-prey balance long established in the park.

“Today you can still go out in the spring and the falland watch the pronghorn on their journey. This experi-ence is found in very few places in the world. We arefortunate to have such an incredible opportunity here

in Wyoming,” says Mark Preiss, theexecutive director of the WyomingOutdoor Council. “The AncientCorridors program is designed toeducate people about the prong-horn migration and to motivatethem to help make sure it remainsintact for our kids and their kids toenjoy.”

The Ancient Corridors programwas first presented at a symposiumin 2002. It then became part of theWyoming Speaker’s Bureau. TheWyoming Council for theHumanities provided financial sup-port for the program and for the

production of the DVD. Wyoming Council for theHumanities scholars Richard Adams, Mark Miller andAnn Noble supplied many historic and prehistoricdetails, which were integral to the program’s success.

“Ancient Corridors was one of the more popularprograms in the Wyoming Speaker’s Bureau,” saysMarcia Wolter Britton, the executive director for theWyoming Council of the Humanities. “The programtells a uniquely Wyoming story. We’re excited to see itin a DVD format making it easily accessible to a wideraudience across the state.”

The Wyoming Outdoor Council is distributing freecopies of the DVD to libraries and school districts inWyoming. To obtain a copy of the DVD, contact Bonnieat 307-332-7031 ext. 17. For more information on theAncient Corridors program by the Wyoming OutdoorCouncil, please go to the web site: www.wyomingout-doorcouncil.org !

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Archaeological evidence shows that pronghorn have followed the same ancient migration path throughGreater Yellowstone for at least 6,000 years.

By Lisa McGee

On a clear morning last August, Idrove west from Merna as my hus-band, Matthew, navigated from the

passenger seat. The object of our trip was toget a personal sense of this landscape—theWyoming Range—that has been a focus ofmy work for the past year. Although we’dboth seen the range from a distance, nei-ther of us had spent any time here. This tripwould remedy that.

Matthew and I drove in and around someof the lease parcels, which were predomi-nantly lodgepole pine forest with someopen areas of sage and willow. There waslittle traffic along the road—a few truckstowing horse trailers—but otherwise it waspretty quiet. We stopped to have lunchalong Horse Creek and to let our dog out ofthe car to play in the water. We talkedabout what a very different experience wewould be having if this peaceful area wasopened to large-scale energy development.

Later that afternoon we found the roadalong Dry Beaver Creek and followed ituntil it became trail. Our plan was to hikeup Lookout Mountain, a spot from whichwe’d be able to see many of the areas in theWyoming Range that have been offered forlease sale in an oil and

gas lease auction. There were stillpatches of snow on the mountain,which was grassy to its summit andf lanked in places with deep purplelupine and yellow asters. We hadclear views of the parcels and ofthe Wind River Range in thedistance. We camped that nighton the east side of the mountainand had the area all to ourselves.

The mountains and forestsare part of the reason I chooseto live in Wyoming; theseplaces are also the inspiration for thework I do. When hiking or backpacking,I’m often struck by such beauty that I amliterally stopped in my tracks. I frequentlyfind myself exclaiming, “Wow” unable tofind another appropriate descriptor. Ourexperience in the Wyoming Range hadmany such “wow” moments—from theviews to the wildf lowers. I was pensive,however, knowing that energy developmentthreatens to change this place dramatically.

Over the past ten months and in fourseparate auctions, 44,600 acres have beenoffered for oil and gas lease sale in theWyoming Range. Throughout this time, the

WyomingOutdoor Councilhas been part ofa working groupcomprised oflocal residents,AFL-CIO mem-bers, hunters,anglers, outfit-ters, motorizedand non-motorizedrecreationalusers andotherconservationgroups whosegoal is toensure theseleases are

never developed—and that the Wyoming Range is permanent-ly protected from oil and gas development.

Recent SuccessOur role in this effort has been largely

a legal one and this past summer and fallwe had some preliminary, but excitingsuccesses. As part of our appeals of the firsttwo oil and gas lease sales, we requestedthe Interior Board of Land Appeals grantstays, which effectively halts any on-the-ground activities until the board decides themerits of the appeals. The board determinedthat we were likely to be successful basedon the issues we raised and granted bothstay requests. We are hopeful these deci-sions will set precedents for the remainingparcels. A stay affords temporary but impor-tant protection and allows the agencies anopportunity to change their decision todevelop this widely popular place in theBridger-Teton National Forest.

The Wyoming Range is a place that isbecoming increasingly rare—a place of easyaccess and quiet beauty. It is also a placewith many attributes that have won the sup-port of a diverse group of advocates. TheWyoming Outdoor Council is hopeful thatwith the continued hard work of the manypeople who care about this place, theWyoming Range will remain the specialplace it is today. !


On the Ground in the Wyoming RangeGetting to Know the Lands We Work to Protect

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Matthew McGee and his dog Kodi take a break to enjoy a view of the

Wyoming Range.

Lisa McGee and Kodi in the Wyoming Range.

PEOPLE


By Molly Absolon

Keith Rittle’sfirst impression ofthe West was awe.He was ten yearsold and his familyhad traveled by

train from their home inPennsylvania to Gardner, Mont..From there they headed souththrough Yellowstone to Grand TetonNational Park.

“My main memories are of dayhikes in the Tetons, the mudpots inYellowstone, Mammoth HotSprings,” Keith recalls. “I thought itwas all pretty out of this world.”

Those memories stuck and fedhis love for the outdoors. He gotinto scouting and went on tobecome an Eagle Scout; somethinghe says has made a lasting impres-sion on his life.

“I know it sounds kind of cheesy, but scouting was an invalu-able experience for me,” Keith says.“I learned at an early age how tomake a fire, how to read a compassand a topographic map—all sorts ofskills that allow me to enjoy theoutdoors today.”

This same passion is whatbrought him west again and ultimately shaped his career. In 1991 he moved to Laramie to get hismasters degree in geology from theUniversity of Wyoming. There hemet his wife, Kathleen and found ahome. Keith, Kathleen and theirthree-year-old son Ted still live inLaramie where they enjoy hiking,biking and cross-country skiing in the National Forest lands around town.

Keith comes to the WyomingOutdoor Council board with thehope that he can help bridge the gapbetween industry and conservation.He works for Trihydro, a Laramie-based engineering consulting firmthat works with a number of indus-tries, including oil and gas.

“My goal is to increase the com-munication—to explore ways to findsolutions that both industry andconservationists can live with,”Keith says.

The Wyoming Outdoor Councilwelcomes Keith’s insights and looksforward to his participation on the board.

Tom Bell ReceivesTwo Awards forConservation WorkBy Molly Absolon

Tom Bell, our founder, mentor, supplier of tomatoes,and smiling friend, has been honored yet again for hisyears of tireless service to Wyoming’s people, land andwildlife. He was inducted into the Wyoming OutdoorHall of Fame on September 8 and received a lifetimeachievement award from The Wilderness Society on

September 15.The Outdoor Hall of Fame rec-

ognizes individuals who have madesignificant, lasting lifetime contri-butions toward conservingWyoming’s outdoor heritagethrough volunteer service, environ-mental restoration, educational

activities, visual and written media, the arts, and politi-cal and individual leadership. Those of us who know andrevere Tom know he represents all these things andgives himself self lessly to his community, his values andhis dreams. We feel honored by his association with ourorganization and are thrilled by his award.

Tom was specifically recognized for being a “stalwartvoice of conservation in the West for over six decades,”and for his “groundbreaking work in outdoor education,journalism, legislation and policy.” He joins a number ofoutdoor luminaries including Frank and John Craighead,Curt Gowdy, Olaus and Mardi Murie, Paul Petzoldt,President Theodore Roosevelt, and many others in theHall of Fame. Inductees are honored on a Wall of Fameat the Buffalo Bill Historical Center/Draper Museum ofNatural History in Cody.

The Wilderness Society also honored Tom for hisyears of service to conservation. He received this awardat a celebration in Jackson where author Terry TempestWilliams was also recognized. She received the RobertMarshall Award, which goes to a person who has devot-ed long-term service to conservation and the fosteringof an American land ethic.

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Welcome New BoardMember Keith Rittle

WYOMING OUTDOORSURVEY RESULTS IN!

Thanks to everyone who responded to oursurvey this summer. We had a remarkable rateof return (20 percent) and are now in theprocess of analyzing the information to deter-mine how best to integrate it into our strategyfor the future. Look for details in the winterissue of Frontline.

Congratulations to Ken Bosworthof Pocatello, Idaho and Roxanne Moore ofDubois, Wyo. winners of our incentive prizes—$150 gift certificates from Sierra Trading Postand Wild Iris Sports.

Changes at the WyomingOutdoor Council

As we go to press with this issue of Frontline and our 2005 AnnualReport, we are sorry to report that our executive director, Mark Preiss,is resigning from his post. Laurie Milford, our current developmentdirector and a former member of the board of directors, has acceptedthe position of acting executive director. The board of directors willbegin the hiring process for a new executive director in the comingweeks. If you know of a strong candidate for the position, please con-tact our board president, Scott Kane, at (307) 332-3410 [email protected].

Mark served as our executive director from August 2004 untilOctober of 2006. Under Mark’s focused leadership, the WyomingOutdoor Council developed a new strategic plan, initiated an organization-wide branding process, successfully reached out to newand important partner organizations, implemented a renewable energyprogram, and scored several major legal advances including two IBLArulings on oil and gas leases in the Wyoming Range. Our deepest thanksgo to Mark for his dedicated service working to protect Wyoming’senvironment and quality of life.

Documents

Watching for Water