From the Editor (summer 2014)

From the Editor (summer 2014)

2014-summer-editor-trees

The forests that cloak mountainsides are one of the defining ecosystems of the western US. Recent big bark beetle outbreaks and wildfires raise questions about how forests are changing and how we should respond.

Beetle Kill

Beetle-Kill Fuels Bioenergy

Innovations Turn a Rocky Mountain Disaster into a Clean Energy Opportunity

On a morning in early March, I ride with Cody Neff, owner of West Range Reclamation (WRR), in his truck from Frisco, Colorado, to the company’s nearby worksite

Up in Flames

Up in Flames

The Economics of Protecting Homes in the Wildland Urban Interface

This photo, taken by Casper Star-Tribune photographer Alan Rogers during the 2012 Sheep Herder Hill fire on Casper Mountain, says it all:

On Fire

On Fire

An Artist Reckons with the Blaze that Consumed His Family’s Home

On a June morning Bently Spang’s mother, son, niece, and nephew watched a column of smoke climb into the sky about eight miles north of their home.

Zombie Trees

Zombie Trees

If Bark-Beetle-Killed Trees Aren’t Using the Water, Where is it Going?

“We call them zombie trees.”

Rails to Trails

Rails-to-Trails… Derailed?

The US Supreme Court Decides a Wyoming Property Rights Case

In 1909 the United States granted the Laramie, Hahn’s Peak & Pacific Railway Company a right-of-way to construct a railroad in southeast Wyoming from Laramie to Centennial, south to Albany, through Fox Park, and on to Coalmont, Colorado.

Collaboration in Action

Collaboration in Action

Wilderness and Livestock Advocates Advise US Forest Service on New Planning Rule

When Jim Magagna, Executive Vice President of the Wyoming Stock Growers Association, arrived at the first national advisory committee meeting for forest planning, he looked around

The Bird that Tore the West Apart

The Bird that Tore the West Apart

Editor:

I was shocked to read, in the winter 2014 edition article on sage grouse, the statement that the State of Wyoming has broad authority to enforce the core area policy on non-federal land. While the State of Wyoming has authority over state lands