Flight Interrupted

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

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

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.

A building on a truck with construction in the foreground

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

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.

road at dusk with mountains

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.

Bicyclist photographs a roadkill deer on a smartphone. Photo credit: Adventure Scientists

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.

View inside a white bucket with several tiger salamanders and a ruler for scale. Photo credit: Cody Porter

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.

Hine's Emerald Dragonfly clings to a dried plant.

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.

two people on motorcycle ride past devils tower

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

Pelican Swimming Utah's Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge

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. 

Professor Pete Stahl, Ecosystem Science and Management and Director of the Wyoming Reclamation and Restoration Center.

After the Road

How to restore sagebrush habitat on decommissioned roads

By Tessa Wittman

In the natural gas fields of western Wyoming, innumerable dirt roads cut through the sagebrush steppe, connecting gas wells and carrying heavy equipment.

Driving Through Medicine Bow Forest at the beginning of a snow storm

Road Wager

Agencies bet that hundreds of miles of temporary new roads can help a forest

By Nathan C. Martin

The Medicine Bow National Forest is the most densely roaded forest in Wyoming. Interstate 80 borders it to the north, and winding byways bisect its major mountain ranges—the Sierra Madre and the Snowy Range.

Pronghorn walking through grass with mountains in background.

Hikers and Wildlife Cross Paths

Researchers investigate non-motorized recreation’s ecological impacts

By Meghan Kent

Following his GPS, University of Wyoming field technician Michael Gjellum descends into a canyon between the folded foothills of Pilot Hill, keeping a careful eye out for mountain lion activity.

Rocky Mountain Elk in the prairie, with a dirt road in the background

Intersecting Roads

The need to value and safeguard wildlife movements

Perspective From Corinna Riginos

Roads may well be humankind’s greatest source of metaphors, inspiration for a plethora of phrases about journeys and all the bumps, bends, twists, and turns along them.

Cheatgrass field

Cheatgrass on Fire

The race to save an ecosystem

Locals speculate that Nevada’s largest fire may have started with a Fourth of July firework launched in a canyon. But no one really knows. The 2018 Martin Fire seemed small and innocuous, until a weather cell moved into northern Nevada.