Editor’s Note – Next Issue
Issue 14 will explore conserving and managing wildlife in large landscapes around the world, with implications for the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem.
Healing in the Outdoors
An opportunity for all
Perspective by Ashlee Lundvall
One August morning in 1999, I swung my legs out of my bunk and pulled on a stiff, new pair of Wrangler jeans. I was at a teen camp in Wyoming, and I had chores to complete before we left that afternoon on a backpacking trip. Little did I know that day would be the last day I stood on my own.
Over Look / Under Foot
Two artists road trip through Utah’s national parks
Text and photographs by Katie Hargrave and Meredith Lynn
Captions by Birch Malotky
As tent campers and national parks enthusiasts, we spend a lot of time in the company of Airstreams, Winnebagos, and Jaycos, and have come to appreciate that for many, the RV makes a kind of relationship to nature possible.
Amenity Trap
Skyrocketing housing prices drive residents out of desirable outdoor recreation communities
By Kristen Pope
Jackson, Wyoming, is famous for its amazing outdoor access, but finding an affordable place to live there is a perpetual struggle.
Fair Game
Who should pay for wildlife management?
By Hilary Byerly Flint
“We’re pretty darn lucky,” says Brian Nesvik, director of the Wyoming Game and Fish Department.
Cliff Notes
How place and technology meanings shape conflict around outdoor recreation development
By Wes Eaton and Curt Davidson
In the fall of my first semester as a visiting professor at the University of Wyoming, a stranger knocked on the half-open door to my new office and said, “There’s a town in Wyoming where people are saying that an outdoor recreation development proposal is tearing their community apart. Want to look into it with me?”
Foraging for Data
The power of mushroom hunting as both outdoor recreation and community science
By Shelby Nivitanont
While off-path and crouching at the base of a stoic fir, I took in my surroundings with an exhalation and fresh eyes. Huge, ruby-red mushroom caps pushed up through the earth around me—countless Boletus rubriceps, or Rocky Mountain porcini.
Happy Trails
Lessons from Curt Gowdy State Park on outdoor recreation design
By Katie Klingsporn
Between Laramie and Cheyenne, amid the rocky shrubland and aspen groves of Curt Gowdy State Park, 45 miles of trail unfurl in ribbons of dirt, ramps, jumps, and berms.
When You Gotta Go—Pack It Out
Finding solutions for human waste in the backcountry
By Kristen Pope
Among stunning red arches, balancing rocks, canyons, pinyon-juniper, and cacti, a hiker in southern Utah sees something white in the distance. Is it a wildflower? Approaching the “blossom,” the hiker instead finds something far less picturesque—used toilet paper and human feces.
Editor’s Note
Issue 13: Sustainable Outdoor Recreation and Tourism
By Emilene Ostlind
On a search for a place with “a combination of adventure, culture, and affordability,” Outside magazine recently named my hometown of Laramie, Wyoming, “the most affordable mountain town in the West.”
Wild and Working
The promise of western lands
Perspective by John L. Koprowski
I was a youngster in Cleveland, Ohio, when the Cuyahoga River started on fire…again!
Reciprocity and Sovereignty
An interview with Wes Martel on tribal wildlife conservation
By Temple Stoellinger
Wes Martel is the Senior Wind River Conservation Associate for the Greater Yellowstone Coalition. Previously, Martel served on the Eastern Shoshone Business Council for twenty years where he oversaw programs and legislation dealing with water, taxation, energy, and environment.
Redefining Thrive
Lessons from my children in the context of climate change
By Corrie Knapp
When she was a baby, my eldest daughter had a strong latch and I enjoyed focusing on her breathing and feeling my milk let down. Allowing myself into this flow that was both release and connection at the same time was a lesson for me, the first of many.
Flight Interrupted
Biologist works to protect eagles on collision course with wind power
By Jill Bergman
There are places in Wyoming where the sky is more imposing than the land. The force of wind and emptiness define this spare country.
Leave it to Beaver
Returning to past practices for future water management
By Tesia Lin
In 2014, John Coffman arrived in Wyoming as The Nature Conservancy’s new steward for the Red Canyon Ranch and quickly encountered an unforgettable lesson.
Creating a Sustainable Destination
Jackson Hole seeks a better tourism future
By Kristen Pope
Hiking mountain trails festooned with larkspur, lupine, and arrowleaf balsamroot flowers; paddleboarding on an alpine lake beneath the Tetons; seeing playful bear cubs frolic; and watching bison graze by the Moulton Barn with a backdrop of towering peaks—these are just a few of the reasons people come to Jackson Hole.
Bison on Wind River
Restoring a wildlife economy and revitalizing culture
By Janey Fugate
Rolling over a dirt road hemmed in sagebrush, Patti Baldes steered her ATV down to the bison herd that she and her husband, Jason Baldes, restored to the Wind River Indian Reservation after a 130-year absence.
Not Fade Away
Communities in rural Montana reach beyond agriculture
By Samuel Western
I’m in upper eastern Montana, a land of undulating drainages, heading north on Highway 87.
Silver Linings
How Colorado coal country could save the Yampa River
By Randy Rea
The Yampa River Basin is in trouble.
Living in a Natural Resource Economy
What can Wyoming learn from studies of the “natural resource curse”?
By Emilene Ostlind
Wyoming has long produced the most coal of any US state and lands in the top ten states for natural gas and oil production. In a fossil fuel driven economy, all that mineral wealth should make Wyoming rich, and sometimes it truly does.