Wyoming Outdoor Council
Encyclopedia
The Wyoming Outdoor Council is Wyoming’s oldest, independent, membership-based conservation
organization. Wyoming native Tom Bell founded the group in 1967, along with Carrol R. Noble, Margaret E. “Mardy” Murie, Dr. Harold McCracken, Ann Lindahl and others. The group was originally called the Wyoming Outdoor Coordinating Council.
The Outdoor Council is a non-profit environmental advocacy organization with roughly 1,400 members, and offices in Lander
and Laramie
, Wyoming. The group's slogan is “Working to protect public lands and wildlife since 1967”. On its website, the group states: “The Outdoor Council has worked for more than four decades to protect Wyoming’s iconic western landscapes, its world-renowned wildlife, and its clean air
and water.”
The Wyoming Outdoor Council’s stated mission since 2008 is to “protect Wyoming’s environment and quality of life
for future generations.” In December 2008, the Outdoor Council’s board of directors
adopted a new strategic plan, which puts an emphasis on making sure energy development
is undertaken in Wyoming with the “best available technology” and with minimum environmental impact.
The new plan also focuses on ensuring good stewardship for Wyoming’s 30 million acres (121,405.8 km²) of federal public lands, with a particular emphasis on protecting the state’s iconic landscapes, as identified by the Council. These landscapes, which the group calls Wyoming’s “heritage landscapes”, are all on public lands, and they have “significant environmental, historic, cultural, or social values”, according to the Wyoming Outdoor Council. Because of this, the group believes energy development should be off-limits in these heritage landscapes (see list of heritage landscapes below).
, and they include the Wyoming Toad
, three subspecies of the Pika
, White-tailed Prairie Dog
, the Dwarf Shrew
, the Uinta Ground Squirrel
, the Uinta Chipmunk
and the Wyoming Pocket Gopher
.
. He was born on April 12, 1924, descended from Civil War soldier Edward Alton, who moved to Milford, Wyoming, in 1878.
Bell is a decorated World War II
veteran, who flew with the 15th of the US Army's Air Forces on bombing missions throughout central and southern Europe. He successfully completed 32 combat sorties and earned the rank of 1st Lieutenant with the 455 Bombardment Group.
He was awarded the Silver Star
for gallantry in action on the 2nd of May, 1944. On May 10, 1944, Lieutenant Bell was bombardier of a B-24 on a mission to bomb an enemy aircraft factory in Austria
, when he was severely wounded by a burst of flak, causing him to lose his right eye and suffer shock and loss of blood
.
When he returned home he said he found sanctuary in Wyoming’s wide-open spaces. Bell attended the University of Wyoming
where he earned a bachelor’s
and then a master’s degree
in wildlife conservation and game management. His course of study
emphasized ecology
and zoology
.
Bell said he founded the Wyoming Outdoor Council because, by the mid-1960s, he could no longer ignore the threats facing his “beloved homeland”. His vision, he said, was to bring together various organizations in the state to speak as one voice on conservation issues.
“The first meeting was held in Casper,” Bell said. “I remember a sense of excitement. Maybe we could all pull together to work on some of these issues and get something accomplished. And we did.”
He resigned as director of the Wyoming Outdoor Council in the early 1970s to found the High Country News a paper that started as a small local camping magazine that he built into an award-winning national news journal on Western environmental issues.
Although he resigned as director of the Wyoming Outdoor Council, he later returned as a board member, and today continues to serve as a board member emeritus. Bell was featured in the 2006 documentary A Land Out of Time which describes the effects of energy development on the western landscape and the people that live there.
Bell has won many awards for his conservation work, including the National Wildlife Federation’s Jay N. “Ding” Darling Award, for Conservationist of the Year in 2002. The award was established “to honor individuals who have made exceptional lifetime contributions to the cause of conservation”, according to the National Wildlife Federation. Previous recipients of the award include President Jimmy Carter
, oceanographer Sylvia Earle
and U.S. Sen. John Chafee
.
Bell also received the Greater Yellowstone Coalition’s Sargent Award for Lifetime Achievement in Conservation in 2007, and the Wyoming Citizen of the Century from the University of Wyoming’s American Heritage Center in 2000
near Pinedale
, and the other to clear-cut large sections of the Bridger-Teton National Forest and Shoshone National Forest near Dubois. Both proposals were ultimately quashed. The group also fought to eliminate illegal and/or excessive fencing on public lands, in order to allow for freer movement of wildlife.
The Wyoming Outdoor Council also strenuously opposed and campaigned against the so-called Wagon Wheel project — a federal proposal to explode nuclear bombs underground in the Upper Green River Valley to release natural gas
that was trapped in the rocks. Regional residents protested the project vigorously, and the plan was ultimately abandoned.
The Wyoming Outdoor Council also laid the groundwork — through surveys and catalogs — for future designations of wilderness areas in the state, including those areas eventually identified in the Wyoming Wilderness Act of 1984 (see “The 1980s and 1990s” below).
In 1975, the Council joined with the Sierra Club to create a “citizen’s lobby” that would have a presence in the state capital, Cheyenne
, during Wyoming’s legislative session. That year the citizen’s lobby helped secure the passage of the Industrial Development, Information and Siting Act, which strengthened the state’s clean air and water regulations and bolstered its regulatory power.
The Wyoming Outdoor Council, through Tom Bell’s advocacy in the 1960s, helped lay the groundwork for this Industrial Siting Bill.
The group also advocated for the Wyoming Environmental Quality Act, which passed in 1973, and which created the Wyoming Environmental Quality Council, the state’s environmental rulemaking body.
The Wyoming Wilderness Association, once an affiliate of the Wyoming Outdoor Council, led the grassroots effort to build broad-based local support to help ensure passage of the measure. Wyoming's congressional delegation — Senators Alan Simpson
and Malcolm Wallop
and then-Representaive Dick Cheney
— used that overwhelming public support to win approval in Congress. Cheney, the former vice president, called it one of his "proudest achievements".
In the early 1990s, the Wyoming Outdoor Council challenged the validity of the Pathfinder Mine’s bond for uranium pit reclamation in southern Wyoming. The Council sued, and the state ultimately supported the Council’s case. The Wyoming Outdoor Council won the lawsuit, ensuring the company would properly fund the environmental reclamation of the mine.
The Outdoor Council also fought against legislation in the early 1990s that would have created a site in central Wyoming for storing America's radioactive waste, called the Monitored Retrievable Storage project. The Wyoming Outdoor Council mounted a statewide campaign against the initiative, and in 1992 helped convince Governor Mike Sullivan to veto the bill.
The Wyoming Outdoor Council also played critical roles in protecting the Shoshone National Forest
from oil and gas development and in stopping the proposed Noranda gold mine
on the border of Yellowstone National Park
in the name of safeguarding the environment.
s, coal-bed methane operations, utility-scale wind farm
s, a proposed coal-to-liquids plant and four proposed new coal-fired power plants
in the state.
“The boom that began in the 1990s now influences all aspects of our work to protect Wyoming’s public lands and wildlife, as basin after basin fills with drill rigs,” the group wrote in its Fall 2007 newsletter.
The Wyoming Outdoor Council’s most recent work has included an effort to bring national attention to Wyoming’s Red Desert
, which, the group argues, contains extremely rare, National Park-worthy sites and landscapes that deserve protection.
The group has also worked to raise awareness of the state’s Upper Green River Valley, where high levels of air pollution caused by energy development have led Wyoming to recommend the Environmental Protection Agency designate the area “nonattainment” for national ambient air quality standards
for ground-level ozone
levels.
The Outdoor Council has also worked on issues related to massive water production and documented contamination resulting from coal-bed methane development in northeast Wyoming’s Powder River Basin.
The Wyoming Outdoor Council was also part of a broad coalition that worked to ensure passage of the Wyoming Range Legacy Act, a bill modeled after legislation that Wyoming Republican Senator Craig Thomas had intended to introduce before his death, and which was later introduced by his successor, John Barrasso
. The legislation safeguards the Wyoming Range in western Wyoming from future oil and gas leases while creating a mechanism for the buy-back and retiring of existing oil and gas leases.
The Wyoming Range Legacy Act passed as part of the Omnibus Public Lands Management Act of 2009 and was signed into law by President Barack Obama
on March 30, 2009.
Conservation movement
The conservation movement, also known as nature conservation, is a political, environmental and a social movement that seeks to protect natural resources including animal, fungus and plant species as well as their habitat for the future....
organization. Wyoming native Tom Bell founded the group in 1967, along with Carrol R. Noble, Margaret E. “Mardy” Murie, Dr. Harold McCracken, Ann Lindahl and others. The group was originally called the Wyoming Outdoor Coordinating Council.
The Outdoor Council is a non-profit environmental advocacy organization with roughly 1,400 members, and offices in Lander
Lander, Wyoming
Lander is a city in, and the county seat of, Fremont County, Wyoming, United States. Named for transcontinental explorer Frederick W. Lander, Lander is located in central Wyoming, along the Middle Fork of the Popo Agie River. A tourism center with several dude ranches nearby, Lander is located just...
and Laramie
Laramie, Wyoming
Laramie is a city in and the county seat of Albany County, Wyoming, United States. The population was 30,816 at the . Located on the Laramie River in southeastern Wyoming, the city is west of Cheyenne, at the junction of Interstate 80 and U.S. Route 287....
, Wyoming. The group's slogan is “Working to protect public lands and wildlife since 1967”. On its website, the group states: “The Outdoor Council has worked for more than four decades to protect Wyoming’s iconic western landscapes, its world-renowned wildlife, and its clean air
Air pollution
Air pollution is the introduction of chemicals, particulate matter, or biological materials that cause harm or discomfort to humans or other living organisms, or cause damage to the natural environment or built environment, into the atmosphere....
and water.”
The Wyoming Outdoor Council’s stated mission since 2008 is to “protect Wyoming’s environment and quality of life
Quality of life
The term quality of life is used to evaluate the general well-being of individuals and societies. The term is used in a wide range of contexts, including the fields of international development, healthcare, and politics. Quality of life should not be confused with the concept of standard of...
for future generations.” In December 2008, the Outdoor Council’s board of directors
Board of directors
A board of directors is a body of elected or appointed members who jointly oversee the activities of a company or organization. Other names include board of governors, board of managers, board of regents, board of trustees, and board of visitors...
adopted a new strategic plan, which puts an emphasis on making sure energy development
Energy development
Energy development is the effort to provide sufficient primary energy sources and secondary energy forms for supply, cost, impact on air pollution and water pollution, mitigation of climate change with renewable energy....
is undertaken in Wyoming with the “best available technology” and with minimum environmental impact.
The new plan also focuses on ensuring good stewardship for Wyoming’s 30 million acres (121,405.8 km²) of federal public lands, with a particular emphasis on protecting the state’s iconic landscapes, as identified by the Council. These landscapes, which the group calls Wyoming’s “heritage landscapes”, are all on public lands, and they have “significant environmental, historic, cultural, or social values”, according to the Wyoming Outdoor Council. Because of this, the group believes energy development should be off-limits in these heritage landscapes (see list of heritage landscapes below).
Wyoming’s heritage landscapes
The Wyoming Outdoor Council has identified the following areas as Wyoming’s heritage landscapes:- All national forests in Wyoming
- National parks, national monuments, and national wildlife refuges
- Bureau of Land Management areas of critical environmental concern
- The Wyoming Range
- The Wind River Front
- Jack Morrow Hills
- Adobe Town
- Fortification Creek
- Beartooth Front
- Shirley Basin
- Citizens’ proposed wilderness areas on BLM lands
Conserving Wyoming’s endemic species
The Wyoming Outdoor Council also works to preserve wildlife whose home ranges are located primarily in Wyoming. These animals are referred to by the group as Wyoming’s endemic speciesEndemic (ecology)
Endemism is the ecological state of being unique to a defined geographic location, such as an island, nation or other defined zone, or habitat type; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsewhere. For example, all species of lemur are endemic to the...
, and they include the Wyoming Toad
Wyoming Toad
The Wyoming Toad or Baxter's Toad is an extremely rare amphibian that exists only in captivity and within Mortenson Lake National Wildlife Refuge in the U.S. state of Wyoming. The Wyoming Toad was listed as an endangered species in 1984, and listed as extinct in the wild since 1991...
, three subspecies of the Pika
Pika
The pika is a small mammal, with short limbs, rounded ears, and short tail. The name pika is used for any member of the Ochotonidae, a family within the order of lagomorphs, which also includes the Leporidae . One genus, Ochotona, is recognised within the family, and it includes 30 species...
, White-tailed Prairie Dog
White-tailed Prairie Dog
The white-tailed prairie dog is found in western Wyoming and western Colorado with small areas in eastern Utah and southern Montana. The largest populations are in Wyoming where they are known colloquially as "chiselers". This prairie dog species lives between 5,000 and 10,000 feet, generally a...
, the Dwarf Shrew
Dwarf Shrew
The Dwarf Shrew is a species of mammal in the family Soricidae. It is endemic to Arizona, Colorado, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico, South Dakota, Utah and Wyoming in the United States....
, the Uinta Ground Squirrel
Uinta Ground Squirrel
The Uinta ground squirrel , commonly called a Potgut in northern Utah, is a native of the northern Rocky Mountains and surrounding foothills of the United States including Idaho, Montana, Utah, and Wyoming...
, the Uinta Chipmunk
Uinta Chipmunk
The Uinta chipmunk, Neotamias umbrinus, is a species of Chipmunk, a rodent in the family Sciuridae. It is endemic to the United States.-Habitat:...
and the Wyoming Pocket Gopher
Wyoming Pocket Gopher
The Wyoming Pocket Gopher is a species of rodent in the Geomyidae family. It is endemic to the United States.This animal is approximately 6.5-7.5 inches long and weighs around one to two ounces. It lives underground in tunnels and burrows that are made possible by its digging abilities. It digs...
.
Tom Bell, founder
Tom Bell, founder of the Wyoming Outdoor Council, grew up on a ranch outside Lander during the Great DepressionGreat Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
. He was born on April 12, 1924, descended from Civil War soldier Edward Alton, who moved to Milford, Wyoming, in 1878.
Bell is a decorated World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
veteran, who flew with the 15th of the US Army's Air Forces on bombing missions throughout central and southern Europe. He successfully completed 32 combat sorties and earned the rank of 1st Lieutenant with the 455 Bombardment Group.
He was awarded the Silver Star
Silver Star
The Silver Star is the third-highest combat military decoration that can be awarded to a member of any branch of the United States armed forces for valor in the face of the enemy....
for gallantry in action on the 2nd of May, 1944. On May 10, 1944, Lieutenant Bell was bombardier of a B-24 on a mission to bomb an enemy aircraft factory in Austria
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
, when he was severely wounded by a burst of flak, causing him to lose his right eye and suffer shock and loss of blood
Bleeding
Bleeding, technically known as hemorrhaging or haemorrhaging is the loss of blood or blood escape from the circulatory system...
.
When he returned home he said he found sanctuary in Wyoming’s wide-open spaces. Bell attended the University of Wyoming
University of Wyoming
The University of Wyoming is a land-grant university located in Laramie, Wyoming, situated on Wyoming's high Laramie Plains, at an elevation of 7,200 feet , between the Laramie and Snowy Range mountains. It is known as UW to people close to the university...
where he earned a bachelor’s
Bachelor's degree
A bachelor's degree is usually an academic degree awarded for an undergraduate course or major that generally lasts for three or four years, but can range anywhere from two to six years depending on the region of the world...
and then a master’s degree
Master's degree
A master's is an academic degree granted to individuals who have undergone study demonstrating a mastery or high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice...
in wildlife conservation and game management. His course of study
Academic major
In the United States and Canada, an academic major or major concentration is the academic discipline to which an undergraduate student formally commits....
emphasized ecology
Ecology
Ecology is the scientific study of the relations that living organisms have with respect to each other and their natural environment. Variables of interest to ecologists include the composition, distribution, amount , number, and changing states of organisms within and among ecosystems...
and zoology
Zoology
Zoology |zoölogy]]), is the branch of biology that relates to the animal kingdom, including the structure, embryology, evolution, classification, habits, and distribution of all animals, both living and extinct...
.
Bell said he founded the Wyoming Outdoor Council because, by the mid-1960s, he could no longer ignore the threats facing his “beloved homeland”. His vision, he said, was to bring together various organizations in the state to speak as one voice on conservation issues.
“The first meeting was held in Casper,” Bell said. “I remember a sense of excitement. Maybe we could all pull together to work on some of these issues and get something accomplished. And we did.”
He resigned as director of the Wyoming Outdoor Council in the early 1970s to found the High Country News a paper that started as a small local camping magazine that he built into an award-winning national news journal on Western environmental issues.
Although he resigned as director of the Wyoming Outdoor Council, he later returned as a board member, and today continues to serve as a board member emeritus. Bell was featured in the 2006 documentary A Land Out of Time which describes the effects of energy development on the western landscape and the people that live there.
Bell has won many awards for his conservation work, including the National Wildlife Federation’s Jay N. “Ding” Darling Award, for Conservationist of the Year in 2002. The award was established “to honor individuals who have made exceptional lifetime contributions to the cause of conservation”, according to the National Wildlife Federation. Previous recipients of the award include President Jimmy Carter
Jimmy Carter
James Earl "Jimmy" Carter, Jr. is an American politician who served as the 39th President of the United States and was the recipient of the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize, the only U.S. President to have received the Prize after leaving office...
, oceanographer Sylvia Earle
Sylvia Earle
Sylvia Alice Earle is an American oceanographer. She was chief scientist for the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration from 1990–1992. She is a National Geographic explorer-in-residence, sometimes called "Her Deepness" or "The Sturgeon General".-Education and career:Earle received a...
and U.S. Sen. John Chafee
John Chafee
John Lester Hubbard Chafee was an American politician. He served as an officer in the United States Marine Corps, as the 66th Governor of Rhode Island, as the Secretary of the Navy, and as a United States Senator.-Early life and family:...
.
Bell also received the Greater Yellowstone Coalition’s Sargent Award for Lifetime Achievement in Conservation in 2007, and the Wyoming Citizen of the Century from the University of Wyoming’s American Heritage Center in 2000
The early days
The Wyoming Outdoor Council’s early work in the late 1960s and early 1970s included public opposition to two major plans — one was to dam the Upper Green RiverGreen River (Utah)
The Green River, located in the western United States, is the chief tributary of the Colorado River. The watershed of the river, known as the Green River Basin, covers parts of Wyoming, Utah, and Colorado. The Green River is long, beginning in the Wind River Mountains of Wyoming and flowing...
near Pinedale
Pinedale, Wyoming
Pinedale is a town in and the county seat of Sublette County, Wyoming, United States. The population was 1,412 at the 2000 census. Pinedale is an important hunting outfitting town and a gateway to the Wind River Mountains. It is also a major gateway to the Jackson Hole area in Wyoming. Pinedale is...
, and the other to clear-cut large sections of the Bridger-Teton National Forest and Shoshone National Forest near Dubois. Both proposals were ultimately quashed. The group also fought to eliminate illegal and/or excessive fencing on public lands, in order to allow for freer movement of wildlife.
The Wyoming Outdoor Council also strenuously opposed and campaigned against the so-called Wagon Wheel project — a federal proposal to explode nuclear bombs underground in the Upper Green River Valley to release natural gas
Natural gas
Natural gas is a naturally occurring gas mixture consisting primarily of methane, typically with 0–20% higher hydrocarbons . It is found associated with other hydrocarbon fuel, in coal beds, as methane clathrates, and is an important fuel source and a major feedstock for fertilizers.Most natural...
that was trapped in the rocks. Regional residents protested the project vigorously, and the plan was ultimately abandoned.
The Wyoming Outdoor Council also laid the groundwork — through surveys and catalogs — for future designations of wilderness areas in the state, including those areas eventually identified in the Wyoming Wilderness Act of 1984 (see “The 1980s and 1990s” below).
In 1975, the Council joined with the Sierra Club to create a “citizen’s lobby” that would have a presence in the state capital, Cheyenne
Cheyenne, Wyoming
Cheyenne is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Wyoming and the county seat of Laramie County. It is the principal city of the Cheyenne, Wyoming, Metropolitan Statistical Area which encompasses all of Laramie County. The population is 59,466 at the 2010 census. Cheyenne is the...
, during Wyoming’s legislative session. That year the citizen’s lobby helped secure the passage of the Industrial Development, Information and Siting Act, which strengthened the state’s clean air and water regulations and bolstered its regulatory power.
The Wyoming Outdoor Council, through Tom Bell’s advocacy in the 1960s, helped lay the groundwork for this Industrial Siting Bill.
The group also advocated for the Wyoming Environmental Quality Act, which passed in 1973, and which created the Wyoming Environmental Quality Council, the state’s environmental rulemaking body.
The 1980s and 1990s
The Wyoming Wilderness Act, passed by the U.S. Congress in October 1984, was arguably the biggest victory for Wyoming conservationists in the 1980s. To this day, the bill protects nearly 1 million acres (4,046.9 km²), more than 1500 square miles (3,885 km²), of wilderness in the state.The Wyoming Wilderness Association, once an affiliate of the Wyoming Outdoor Council, led the grassroots effort to build broad-based local support to help ensure passage of the measure. Wyoming's congressional delegation — Senators Alan Simpson
Alan K. Simpson
Alan Kooi Simpson is an American politician who served from 1979 to 1997 as a United States Senator from Wyoming as a member of the Republican Party. His father, Milward L. Simpson, was also a member of the U.S...
and Malcolm Wallop
Malcolm Wallop
Malcolm Wallop was a Republican politician and former three-term United States Senator from Wyoming.-Early years:...
and then-Representaive Dick Cheney
Dick Cheney
Richard Bruce "Dick" Cheney served as the 46th Vice President of the United States , under George W. Bush....
— used that overwhelming public support to win approval in Congress. Cheney, the former vice president, called it one of his "proudest achievements".
In the early 1990s, the Wyoming Outdoor Council challenged the validity of the Pathfinder Mine’s bond for uranium pit reclamation in southern Wyoming. The Council sued, and the state ultimately supported the Council’s case. The Wyoming Outdoor Council won the lawsuit, ensuring the company would properly fund the environmental reclamation of the mine.
The Outdoor Council also fought against legislation in the early 1990s that would have created a site in central Wyoming for storing America's radioactive waste, called the Monitored Retrievable Storage project. The Wyoming Outdoor Council mounted a statewide campaign against the initiative, and in 1992 helped convince Governor Mike Sullivan to veto the bill.
The Wyoming Outdoor Council also played critical roles in protecting the Shoshone National Forest
Shoshone National Forest
Shoshone National Forest is the first federally protected National Forest in the United States and covers nearly 2.5 million acres in the state of Wyoming. Originally a part of the Yellowstone Timberland Reserve, the forest was created by an act of Congress and signed into law by U.S....
from oil and gas development and in stopping the proposed Noranda gold mine
Gold mining
Gold mining is the removal of gold from the ground. There are several techniques and processes by which gold may be extracted from the earth.-History:...
on the border of Yellowstone National Park
Yellowstone National Park
Yellowstone National Park, established by the U.S. Congress and signed into law by President Ulysses S. Grant on March 1, 1872, is a national park located primarily in the U.S. state of Wyoming, although it also extends into Montana and Idaho...
in the name of safeguarding the environment.
The 21st century
Wyoming’s latest energy boom started in the late 1990s and exploded in the early 21st century. In response, the Wyoming Outdoor Council has shifted much of its focus toward watchdogging the unprecedented, fast-paced development of natural gas fieldNatural gas field
Oil and natural gas are produced by the same geological process according fossil fuel suggestion: anaerobic decay of organic matter deep under the Earth's surface. As a consequence, oil and natural gas are often found together...
s, coal-bed methane operations, utility-scale wind farm
Wind farm
A wind farm is a group of wind turbines in the same location used to produce electric power. A large wind farm may consist of several hundred individual wind turbines, and cover an extended area of hundreds of square miles, but the land between the turbines may be used for agricultural or other...
s, a proposed coal-to-liquids plant and four proposed new coal-fired power plants
Fossil fuel power plant
A fossil-fuel power station is a power station that burns fossil fuels such as coal, natural gas or petroleum to produce electricity. Central station fossil-fuel power plants are designed on a large scale for continuous operation...
in the state.
“The boom that began in the 1990s now influences all aspects of our work to protect Wyoming’s public lands and wildlife, as basin after basin fills with drill rigs,” the group wrote in its Fall 2007 newsletter.
The Wyoming Outdoor Council’s most recent work has included an effort to bring national attention to Wyoming’s Red Desert
Red Desert (Wyoming)
The Red Desert is a high altitude desert and sagebrush steppe located in south central Wyoming, comprising approximately 9,320 square miles...
, which, the group argues, contains extremely rare, National Park-worthy sites and landscapes that deserve protection.
The group has also worked to raise awareness of the state’s Upper Green River Valley, where high levels of air pollution caused by energy development have led Wyoming to recommend the Environmental Protection Agency designate the area “nonattainment” for national ambient air quality standards
National Ambient Air Quality Standards
The National Ambient Air Quality Standards are standards established by the United States Environmental Protection Agency under authority of the Clean Air Act that apply for outdoor air throughout the country...
for ground-level ozone
Tropospheric ozone
Ozone is a constituent of the troposphere . Photochemical and chemical reactions involving it drive many of the chemical processes that occur in the atmosphere by day and by night...
levels.
The Outdoor Council has also worked on issues related to massive water production and documented contamination resulting from coal-bed methane development in northeast Wyoming’s Powder River Basin.
The Wyoming Outdoor Council was also part of a broad coalition that worked to ensure passage of the Wyoming Range Legacy Act, a bill modeled after legislation that Wyoming Republican Senator Craig Thomas had intended to introduce before his death, and which was later introduced by his successor, John Barrasso
John Barrasso
John Anthony Barrasso is the junior U.S. Senator from Wyoming and a member of the Republican Party. He was appointed to the Senate following Craig L. Thomas's death and won a special election in 2008 to fill the remaining four years of Thomas's term....
. The legislation safeguards the Wyoming Range in western Wyoming from future oil and gas leases while creating a mechanism for the buy-back and retiring of existing oil and gas leases.
The Wyoming Range Legacy Act passed as part of the Omnibus Public Lands Management Act of 2009 and was signed into law by President Barack Obama
Barack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II is the 44th and current President of the United States. He is the first African American to hold the office. Obama previously served as a United States Senator from Illinois, from January 2005 until he resigned following his victory in the 2008 presidential election.Born in...
on March 30, 2009.
Original Board of Directors, Wyoming Outdoor Coordinating Council
- Tom Bell — Lander
- Margaret E. “Mardy” Murie' — Jackson, The Wilderness Society
- Ann Lindahl — Laramie, League of Women Voters
- Dr. Oliver Scott — Casper, Audubon Society
- Carrol R. Noble — Cora, National Wildlife Federation
- Clayton Trosper — Cheyenne, Isaak Walton League of America
- Dr. Harold McCracken — Cody, director of the Whitney Gallery of Western Art
- Burton Marston — Laramie, Isaak Walton League of America
- Charles Piersal — Casper, Isaak Walton League of America
- Roger Budrow — Lander, publisher of the Wyoming State Journal
- Bruce Ward — Casper, Casper Credit Bureau, and outdoors photographer
- L.W. Bill Isaacs — Pinedale, Wyoming Wildlife Federation
- Ralph Hallock — Casper, Isaak Walton League of America
- Les Shoemaker' — Dubois, dude rancher and outfitter
- Olin Atwood — Lander, Wyoming Rockhounds