The Wyoming Legislature’s 2023 session is over. What comes next?
Join the Wyoming Outdoor Council staff to learn about key bills, review our Conservation Vote Report, and find out what’s to come for the legislature in the months ahead.
All events begin at 7 p.m. and drinks will be provided.
Please come out to say hello to the WOC team, enjoy a cold beverage with your fellow members, and hear all the latest news from the legislature!
At all levels of government, elected officials in Wyoming make daily decisions that impact our public lands, wildlife, climate, and communities — now and for future generations. And while big-ticket national races tend to get most of the attention, you’re more likely to be directly affected by the work of your local state legislator or county commissioner.
On Tuesday, Nov. 8, make sure your values are being represented by heading to the polls for Election Day.
Here’s what you need to know if you’re voting in Wyoming’s 2022 general election:
Now’s a great time to make a plan to vote and put a reminder on your calendar. For answers to any questions about participating in the election, visit letsvotewyo.org or contact your county clerk’s office.
Thanks for voting!
The Wyoming Outdoor Council was proud to help support a Halloween Masquerade hosted by the Indigenous Land Alliance of Wyoming on Oct. 14 in Riverton. Costumed kids came dressed to impress, the crowd strutted for cake walk prizes, and everyone had the chance to learn about how Tribal and community members can stay engaged in environmental issues on the Wind River Reservation and statewide.
Photos by Big Wind Carpenter and Meghan Riley
The eighth annual Run the Red trail race took off from South Pass City Saturday, Sept. 24, 2022 celebrating Wyoming Public Lands day with a testament to our incredible public lands. Over 260 runners — the most in the history of the event — stepped up to the challenge, venturing into the vast and beautiful Red Desert to tackle either the half marathon, 50K or grueling 100K distances.
Together with co-sponsors Wyoming Wilderness Association and National Outdoor Leadership School, the Wyoming Outdoor Council has anchored conservation into the character of this nationally recognized trail race: all participants supported Citizens for the Red Desert with a small donation or participated in a volunteer stewardship project at South Pass. Special thanks to WOC engagement coordinator Kyle Elmquist, our partners, and everyone who volunteered to make the day memorable!
Photos courtesy of our race directors at Everlong Endurance.
Kara Choquette is director of communications and government relations for wind energy developer Power Company of Wyoming, as well as the TransWest Express transmission line project. Earlier this year, she joined the board of the Wyoming Energy Authority. She shared her thoughts about the Energy Authority and the role of renewable energy in Wyoming’s future in a quick Q&A with the Outdoor Council.
I’ve been working directly in the renewable energy space since 2009. That’s when I joined a company that is developing the nation’s largest single wind power project, in Carbon County, Wyoming, and is also developing a major new interregional electricity transmission line for Wyoming. It was a natural career transition for me and a compelling opportunity after spending over a decade working in the technology and water industries – which each include important energy-related aspects. I liked the fact that wind turbines create electricity without requiring any water. Having grown up on a family farm/ranch, I wanted to help bring more kinds of good-paying, stable, family-supporting jobs to a rural area. And I liked that wind energy is compatible with agricultural operations and multiple environmental objectives.
I’ve been an active participant in some manner with the Wyoming Energy Authority and with one of its predecessors, the Wyoming Infrastructure Authority, since 2009. Recently, I’ve been part of two multi-stakeholder state groups – the governor’s Platte Valley Mule Deer Local Area Working Group, and the University of Wyoming-led Renewable Energy Siting Collaborative. I was honored to join the WEA board because the WEA is at the forefront of “all things energy,” in the nation’s top Energy State, during a fascinating period of energy opportunity and evolution.
To me, renewable energy is entirely consistent with Wyoming’s pioneering and pathfinding DNA. Wyoming’s history is filled with so many stories about developing new trails, exploring diverse opportunities, and responding creatively and decisively to changing markets and conditions. Renewable energy also can help maintain Wyoming’s longstanding leadership as an energy producer and exporter. The completion of the Union Pacific Railroad in 1869 opened up new access to new markets for otherwise-stranded resources in Wyoming, such as coal produced from Wyoming’s original coal-mining county (Carbon County). Similarly, new high-voltage interregional transmission lines will open up access to new markets for otherwise-stranded clean electricity resources in Wyoming. The state does not have in-state demand for all of the abundant mineral and non-mineral resources it can provide. When new non-mineral power plants can compete and can secure customers out-of-state, that will create more new energy jobs and new sources of energy revenues in-state.
The Wyoming Energy Authority is a relatively new entity, created by the state in 2019 (via Senate File 37). The WEA’s primary purpose is straightforward: “diversify and expand the Wyoming economy through improvements in the state’s electric and energy transmission infrastructure and facilitate Wyoming’s production, development and transmission of energy and associated natural resources.” I would like to be part of the WEA continuing to grow and achieve its purpose, especially in areas related to the clean energy technologies that are increasingly in demand today and in the near future. I hope to add value by bringing diverse expertise specifically in the renewable energy sector, and an enthusiasm for other important energy aspects like energy efficiency. The WEA is fortunate to have an outstanding executive director, smart and dedicated staff, and top mineral and non-mineral energy experts who have been on the board since its inception; I’m glad to be part of this team.
The following blog post was written by Shane Heavin, our 2022 summer migration policy and outreach intern.
What would it feel like to stand in front of the Wyoming Game and Fish Commission and ask them to spend $2 million to create access to public lands that are landlocked by private land? As an intern for the Wyoming Outdoor Council, I did just that. And I’m here to tell you it’s not as scary as it sounds.
The Wyoming Game and Fish Department recently made a deal with Uinta Livestock Grazing Partnership, Belle Butte Grazing Partnership, and Bear River Land and Grazing to lease approximately 91,760 acres of private lands bordering roughly 110,000 acres of public lands. The payout will be $400,000 per year for five years and will also lock in public access to the private land for an additional 25 years, ensuring 30 years of public access to public lands inside the Bear River Divide Hunter Management Area. WOC favors this deal as it provides access to public lands, and public lands are what WOC is all about. The Outdoor Council’s long history of public lands advocacy is why I spoke to the commission in support of the Bear River HMA project.
Game and Fish makes it simple to give public comments at a meeting, and there are two ways to sign up to testify. The first is to fill out an electronic form regarding the topic you want to discuss while attending the meeting via Zoom. The second way is to fill out the same document on paper while signing in to attend the meeting in person. You do not have to tell the Game and Fish Commission whether you agree or disagree with the WGFD on the subject or specifically what you want to say, just that you have an opinion you want them to hear.
My supervisor, WOC’s program director, Kristen Gunther, introduced me to WGFD personnel Sean Bibbey, who is knowledgeable about this topic and has put tremendous work into making the Bear River project a reality. I was allowed to ask questions about the undertaking and given complete information about the Bear River HMA project. This made it easy to better understand the issue and write an informed testimony to present to the commission.
The last pieces of the puzzle to effectively speaking to an authoritative group are moral support and building relationships. Moral support and building relationships are among the most significant factors in effectively addressing an audience. Kristen introduced me to several employees of the WGFD and other experts so that I could learn as much as possible about the Bear River HMA project. Kristen also helped me edit my testimony to ensure it was clear and competent. Again, the point of the testimony is not to agree or disagree with WGFD’s position but to effectively convey the interests of the Wyoming Outdoor Council.
Kristen provided moral support by going with me to meet key members of the Bear River HMA project and was present when I testified in front of the Game and Fish Commission in support of the Bear River HMA. Kristen’s moral support also allowed me to build relationships with WGFD staff that will last well into the future. The fantastic thing about these relationships is that the people you have formed them with will also provide moral support once established. Relationships are like a snowballing effect into moral support. I am not saying that people will always agree with you, but they will want the best for you and sometimes point out things you do not see or understand that may change your point of view.
In this case, attending preceding WGFD events and meetings was a critical part of relationship building. Speaking with WGFD personnel about the subject you are interested in shows them that you are willing to put in the work to research the topic and listen to their point of view. For example, I attended all three days of July’s Game and Fish Commission meeting. Daily attendance allowed me to become more familiar with the commission members and also allowed me to meet some of the commissioners before I had to speak in front of them.
“Speaking with WGFD personnel about the subject you are interested in shows them that you are willing to put in the work to research the topic and listen to their point of view.”
— SHANE HEAVIN, migration policy and outreach intern
Studying the Bear River HMA project materials, speaking with the WGFD about the project, attending many Game and Fish meetings, and having Kristen’s support gave me the confidence I needed to convey WOC’s interest to the Wyoming Game and Fish Commission.
And so, on July 19, I gave testimony to the Wyoming Game and Fish Commission. I thanked the WGFD, Uinta Livestock Grazing Partnership, Belle Butte Grazing Partnership, and Bear River Land and Grazing for the work they did on this project. I also asked them to approve WGFD’s request to spend $2 million to ensure public access to public lands inside the Bear River HMA. Whether or not my testimony had any effect on the outcome, I do not know. What I do know is that the Wyoming Outdoor Council gave me the confidence I needed to testify and that my voice was heard. If my voice can be heard, so can yours.
By the way, the Wyoming Game and Fish Commission unanimously passed the request to lease public access to the Bear River HMA.
On Wyoming Public Lands Day, we gathered in South Pass City with hundreds of you to cheer on the Run the Red trail race runners and celebrate all our public lands have to offer us. After the 2020 event and many other in-person gatherings were cancelled due to COVID-19, being together in the Northern Red Desert with our community of members, partners, and friends was that much more special. Thank you to all the runners, volunteers, musicians, dancers, and everyone who joined us in the desert!
You can read more about the day in this story from the Casper Star-Tribune.
This Saturday, Sept. 25, is Wyoming Public Lands Day.
Beginning in 2016, the Keep it Public, Wyoming coalition pushed back against attempts in the Wyoming Legislature to facilitate the transfer of federal public lands to the state. Were such a scheme successful, Wyoming would have needed to sell off the bulk of these lands to afford to manage the rest. In response to these efforts, the coalition decided to push for legislation that would instead celebrate public lands in Wyoming and their many values. In 2019, a bill sponsored by Rep. Andy Schwartz passed the legislature to create Wyoming Public Lands Day.
As we approach this state holiday, we’re also acutely aware that public lands are ancestral lands. Indigenous people called these lands home for millennia, until the U.S. government forcibly removed them. The Northern Red Desert — where the Wyoming Outdoor Council will be co-hosting the Run the Red trail races on Saturday — was used by Tribes including the Ute, Goshute, Paiute, Bannock, Arapaho, Cheyenne, Lakota, and Crow, and in particular was home to the Eastern Shoshone and Bannock people for at least 13,000 years. The first Fort Bridger Treaty recognized 44 million acres as those of the Eastern Shoshone Tribe, but within five years, due to the discovery of gold and other minerals and the settling of immigrants, the U.S. government reduced the boundaries to roughly 2 million acres — what is now the Wind River Reservation. In 1878 the Northern Arapaho and Eastern Shoshone people were forced to live on the reservation together after the U.S. government broke its promise to the Northern Arapaho Tribe that it would have its own reservation. Eastern Shoshone and Northern Arapaho people — as well as citizens from numerous other tribes including the Shoshone Bannock, Ute, Mountain Ute, Southern Ute, and Paiute — retain strong ties to the Red Desert.
Today, our public lands offer an array of experiences: from ceremonial to recreational. Even if you don’t have the opportunity to get out and enjoy our public lands on Saturday, we hope you’ll take a moment to appreciate how fortunate we are to have these lands at our doorstep — and the shared responsibility to care for them now and for future generations.
Most of the Wyoming Outdoor Council staff will be spending the day at the Wyoming Public Lands Day celebration in South Pass City. If you’re in the neighborhood, we hope you’ll stop through to enjoy some great food, live music, the Wind River Dancers and Big Wind Singers, and fellowship with folks who love public lands — and this special corner of Wyoming in particular.
The Wyoming Outdoor Council recently welcomed Yufna Soldier Wolf to the staff. Yufna grew up on the Wind River Reservation, has degrees from the University of Wyoming and Montana State University, and is the former director of the Northern Arapaho Tribal Historic Preservation Office. She got involved with the Outdoor Council last summer as part of the FIELD Training conservation leadership program, and now she’s making an impact as our Wind River Organizer.
I was born and raised on the Wind River Reservation. Early on in my life we were taught to dance at pow wows. I learned to dance fancy shawl and we traveled the pow wow trail every summer. While traveling we would stop in areas that were once sacred and, as my dad would say, “important to our old people.” As we traveled the states he would tell us traditional stories of various locations, why those areas are important to us, and that we should never forget. Knowing these stories of the land is important in the modern day. I went as far as high school on the reservation and attended college away from the reservation. My cultural identity helped me gain a perspective on education. I have gone to school nearly as long as I’ve worked, and that is nearly my entire life. Now, I have been accepted to two graduate school programs and am deciding which one I will attend.
I love Wyoming’s outdoors because in all the vastness and beauty you feel free. Where I live I see deer, moose, owls, sage-grouse — just about every critter Wyoming is known for lives in my backyard. I’ve been to big cities and they are overrated. I like Wyoming because I can fish, hunt, and gather where my ancestors once did. I can carry stories and prayers back to those places and connect in a way that many cannot. I love Wyoming because it is a magical place to see it snow, rain, and watch the seasons. It is the best place to grow strong in determination and grow strong in cultural identity and community. They say this is God’s country, but to carry a big stick because who knows when there might be a mountain lion waiting around the corner! Kidding aside, I love Wyoming. We are isolated enough to appreciate the beauty and still enjoy the day-to-day life that Wyoming has to offer.
My job at the Wyoming Outdoor Council is Wind River Organizer. My main job is to bring a tribal narrative to the Red Desert and incorporate tribal involvement into our work. I recently finished a renewable energy project for a Mountain Sentinels fellowship. I researched how tribes transitioned to solar panels and how this would benefit the tribes and others who want to navigate a diverse economy in the future. My solar project was titled “Hiisiisiiceheekuuni Tei’ehiit = Solar Power – Tribal Traditions – Tribal Transitions.” The other projects I am currently working and collaborating on are mainly related to the Red Desert, including Run the Red, a tribal tour of the desert, tribal media training, and getting involved with Citizens for the Red Desert.
I am currently trying to work on getting these groups to collaborate. I think it’s good to find where tribal grassroots and conservation groups can work together, because they don’t always have the resources to fund their ideas to make impacts on various social issues. I see many opportunities for grassroots groups on and off the reservation to collaborate, exist and honor each other’s boundaries. I see many of those allies who can benefit from each other and learn from one another. I also see how unified we are strong, and alone we struggle. I would love to see the future full of programs and organizations who benefit and honor each other to make a better, safer, and healthier environment for all of us.
In a disappointing move, the Teton District Board of Health declined to adopt a proposed rule that would alert residents when increasing levels of harmful nitrates are detected in drinking water. The rule, drafted by the Wyoming Outdoor Council and Protect Our Water Jackson Hole, would have required the county health department to notify the public when elevated levels of nitrates are detected in any of the county’s 114 public water systems and investigate the source of the pollution.
While this is an unfortunate delay, the residents of Teton County have made it clear that clean, safe drinking water should be a priority in their community. Together with our partners, the Outdoor Council will continue working with county officials to enact this important safeguard.
In late January, the Biden administration announced an executive order pausing new oil and gas leasing on public lands so the Department of the Interior can conduct a “rigorous review of all existing leasing and permitting practices related to fossil fuel development on public lands and waters.”
The oil and gas industry is an important part of Wyoming’s economy and, when done properly, development has a place on our public lands. However, the federal leasing program is decades out of date. We’ll continue to push for common-sense leasing reforms that will place the many other uses and values of our public lands (like wildlife habitat, historic cultural sites, and outdoor recreation) on equal footing with development, while also ensuring a fair return for taxpayers. Importantly, we want to see an end to noncompetitive “over-the-counter” leases as well as leasing of lands with low potential for producing oil and gas.
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