Time Warp
Wyoming plants of bygone eras
We have all seen movies where characters step back in time.
After the Burn
Fontenelle fire sparks collaboration to protect local ecosystems and economies
In late June of 2012, the Fontenelle fire ripped across the Wyoming Range, torching forests and shrublands.
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
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:
Zombie Trees
If Bark-Beetle-Killed Trees Aren’t Using the Water, Where is it Going?
“We call them zombie trees.”
Prescribed Burns, Toppling Trees, and Vulnerable Cabins, Oh My
Social Scientists Reveal what the Public Thinks of Post-beetle Forest Management
At the height of the mountain pine beetle epidemic in northern Colorado and southeastern Wyoming, Phil Cruz, Forest Supervisor
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
Essay: The Ancient History and Uncertain Future of Western Forests
Throughout the western states, trees grow abundantly over large areas only on the higher mountain ranges.
“Regen”: An ecologist’s retrospective on the wildfires of 2012
My own home was surrounded by one of the massive wildfires that swept the Rocky Mountain region in 2012. While the house and barn made it, many of the neighbors’ homes did not.
Humans: The wildest animal in the forest
Social science bolsters a massive management plan