Elk Heyday
Booming elk numbers create a rare opportunity for hunting and tourism
By Janey Fugate
While scouting for mule deer on a chilly October evening in southeast Wyoming, the last thing I expected to see was several hundred elk.
The Outdoor Recreation Ecosystem
How accounting for human behavior can improve wildlife management
By Molly Caldwell
On a summer evening in a Grand Teton National Park campground, the smell of barbecue drifts along a cooling breeze, signaling dinner time to nearby red foxes.
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?”
Wings Over Wyoming
Cultivating pollinator support at state parks
By Amy Marie Storey
In 2019, a plain mowed field in Oklahoma’s Sequoyah State Park transformed into an acre of wildflowers. The verdant space served both visitors and pollinators.
Untethered
Managing off-leash dogs on public trails
By Sabrina White
“Boulder, as a town, has always been super supportive of dogs and people recreating together off-leash,” says Lisa Gonҫalo, recreation management coordinator for the City of Boulder Open Space and Mountain Parks.
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.
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.
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.
A New Lease on State Land
How conservation is hoping to buy a seat at the land management table
By Birch Malotky
In early November 2020, the Wyoming Outdoor Council’s (WOC) staff huddled around a laptop and logged into their freshly minted account on energynet.com, an online marketplace where 199 leases for oil and gas development on Wyoming state trust lands were up for auction.
Science of Road Ecology
Researchers are changing the ways we see, think about, and manage our roadways
By Kristen Pope
“People don’t really think about this impact that roads have because roads and cars are such an important part of our life in North America,” says Western Transportation Institute (WTI) senior research scientist Tony Clevenger.
A Last Leap Towards Flowers
By Morgan Heim
Who are these animals, their lights gone out? What journeys have fallen apart here? —Barry Lopez, Apologia
Ride for Roadkill
Montana cyclists are helping make the state’s roads safer for wildlife and people
By Birch Malotky
Crowell Herrick, 63, rides his gravel bike down Montana Highway 1, wearing a high-vis vest.
Amphibian Crossing
By Rhiannon Jakopak
Carrying salamanders across roadways helps local populations persist
On a rainy April night when temperatures peeked just above freezing, around 30 people spread out along a well-traveled street next to a city park in Laramie, Wyoming.
Crouching Scientist, Hidden Dragonfly
A researcher’s quest to protect an endangered dragonfly
By Amber Furness
I stand on a large, cement bridge on Interstate 355 over the Des Plaines River Valley in northern Illinois. Waves of air blow over me as vehicles whiz by.
Road Noise
Traffic sounds disturb wildlife far beyond the asphalt
By Kristen Pope
Leather-clad motorcyclists cruised around Devils Tower National Monument in August 2015
Repairing a Fragmented Landscape
Interstate 80 severed wildlife habitats 50 years ago. Can we reconnect them?
By Gregory Nickerson
When I drove across Wyoming’s stretch of Interstate 80 to film a wildlife documentary in fall 2019, I saw animals confronting the highway barrier again and again.
Wildlife Crossing Innovation
Research shows the promise and peril of a new material
By Kylie Mohr
Scientist Rob Ament and then-grad student Matthew Bell were on a quest.
Paving Paradise to Put Up Parking Lots
Can Western cities grow without displacing their neighboring natural wonders?
By Aubin Douglas
My first visit to the Great Salt Lake was a graduate course field trip to the Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge.