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Field Notes


What They Have to Give

Posted on by Claire Cella

what they have to give

The Wyoming Outdoor Council’s mission is to protect Wyoming’s environment and quality of life now and for future generations. I’ll admit that sometimes those two words, “future generations,” feel far off to me. They refer to my newly-born niece, yes, but also grandchildren and great grandchildren who I may never meet. Although none of us has a crystal ball to predict the future, we each have the present moment to make decisions that will have ripple effects into the future. That’s how we can all make an impact.

I recently talked to two Outdoor Council members who might be characterized as “the next generation.” One, Ted Rittle, is 18 years old and just enrolled at the University of Wyoming. The other, Nicole Gautier, is in her early thirties and works for UW as a research scientist. They both have chosen to donate to the Outdoor Council, and we wanted to find out why. 

Their reasons are layered, but there was a similar thread of seeing their parents and others committed to a cause, be it conservation, or botany, or the outdoors, and supporting the things they loved. It was these real-life experiences that played a role in their own decisions to become Outdoor Council members. The actions they’re taking as young adults ensure a better future for Wyoming and for those who come after them.

THE FIRST YEAR COLLEGE STUDENT 

Ted Rittle was born and raised in Laramie, Wyoming, where he currently lives and studies math education at UW. Talking to him, he has a prolific sense of place that I wish I had had when I was his age. He’s a self-taught fly fisherman who has developed his own favorite spots in the nearby mountains and rivers in just a few years. Although the rest of his family doesn’t fish as often, Rittle said his parents took him outdoors frequently growing up, where they would hike, camp, and Nordic ski. It was there that he learned to appreciate nature, especially wildlife. 

When it came to acting on this value, Rittle also had his parents to look up to. His father, Keith, served on the Outdoor Council board for many years and both his parents talked about the importance of donating 10 percent of one’s income to causes you support. 

“I came to really love the wildlife and want to support it,” he said. “There are certainly some special places in Wyoming that helped instill this in me — the Platte River Wilderness, for example. We’ve gone there since I was young. It’s so neat how much wildlife there was there. That really emphasized the importance of preserving the wilderness. I guess that helped me see the value of protected open spaces, too.” 

Wanting to go along with this idea and only just having started working, Rittle joined the Outdoor Council in 2021 and became one of our youngest members. (You may remember a story we did last year about our youngest, Jules Goldwarg, who was just six.) 

“Protecting wildlife in Wyoming’s open spaces is one of the reasons I chose to donate to the Outdoor Council,” he said of the decision. He said he’s seen WOC’s work on migration corridors and wildlife habitat, and donating felt in line with his values of promoting wildlife habitat.

“To me, it’s so neat to see other species out there, just going about their lives. I want to make sure they’re able to keep being here.” 

He plans to donate every year, he says, as well as stay involved in other conservation efforts such as citizen science efforts led by the local branch of the Audubon Society and Rocky Mountain Amphibian Project.

THE YOUNG PROFESSIONAL

Nicole Gautier, too, had a childhood steeped in the outdoors. She grew up in Oregon, with parents who had botany backgrounds. She remembers many hikes where her parents would eagerly identify the plants along their route. She remembers, too, that they were active in their state’s Native Plant Society. What she remembers most was always being outside — a value that’s remained a throughline in her life.

Gautier moved to Wyoming six years ago as a student in the Teton Science Schools’ graduate program, which has a focus on place-based, natural science education. Prior to that, she had led outdoor education programs at a variety of small organizations in the West but had found that the science component was lacking.  When she found the Science Schools’ program, and its partnership with the Haub School of Environment and Natural Resources at UW, she applied enthusiastically. After finishing the program, she was offered a position at the Haub School and, again, eagerly accepted.

“I wanted to stay in Wyoming and I was excited to stay in Laramie because of its access to public lands. Being an avid recreationist, climbing and running is how I like to spend my time. The variety of landscapes in Wyoming, from mountains to desert, still leaves me feeling that there’s so much to explore here,” she said. 

Her first introduction to the Outdoor Council was through Run the Red in 2017, where she ran and the Outdoor Council was a sponsor. She had never been to the Red Desert before and was impressed — both by the rugged beauty of the area as well as the work of the conservation groups advocating its protection. 

It was 2020 when she decided she wanted to give back and chose the Outdoor Council based on the good, recognizable work she saw, through our communications and events, as well as her own network of friends and colleagues. 

“The projects [WOC is] working on are very tangible. I’ve been to the Red Desert and seen how special that place is,” she said. “That personal connection was part of it, too.” 

She encourages other people to engage with their values in the same way.

“Consider the landscapes you’ve spent time in in Wyoming,” she said, “and then ask yourself, how might I give back?’ Giving $20 can be an easy way to feel a small part of this organization that has similar values,” she said. 

THE RIPPLE EFFECT

I write this at that time of year when many of us get reflective — looking back and making plans, seeing where we can improve, and setting goals to do so. There are many ways to engage in this practice, and many involve asking thoughtful questions of yourself. It can be framed as simply as Gautier’s: “What do I have to give?” Perhaps your answer is 15 minutes to write an email to your local legislator, or $20 to become a member supporting a cause you value, or a weekend to do volunteer trail work. 

Or the question could be as big as, “What’s the legacy I want to leave behind for future generations, and that I could start now?” The answer could be the same. You don’t know who is watching even your smallest action.

We commend and thank Rittle and Gautier for their support. Along with them, and countless others, we look forward to creating a strong, more connected community of members, this and every year.

Field Notes


Story behind the photo: BRANDON WARD

Posted on by Claire Cella

Join Brandon and other photographers by submitting your own shot of Wyoming for the Outdoor Council’s 2022 Calendar Contest. You can enter your photos via Instagram or email. To submit your photo(s) via Instagram, you must have a public Instagram account so that we’re able to view your submission. Upload your photo(s) and add the hashtag #OurWyoming.

To submit your photo(s) via email, send your photo(s) to claire@wyomingoutdoorcouncil.org.

For more information about the contest, visit our calendar contest page.

In the 2021 Wyoming Outdoor Council calendar, Brandon Ward’s three sons and their dog make two appearances within the pages: once perched at the smoky summit of Continental Peak, and later aboard pack rafts on the Sweetwater River. If anyone follows Brandon on Instagram (@wyoutside), you’ll see more appearances of his sons, Henry, Tucker, and Sawyer, and their dog, Shep. Brandon, of course, is there behind the lens. 

True to his username, there is only one picture of recent, or within reasonable scrolling distance, on his page that’s taken inside. And his images look rugged, but only because Wyoming is rugged — there are wide sweeping vistas of undulating striated badlands, and clouds forming unique bulges and deep pockets in the dense blue sky. There are steep canyons, and gushing rivers, and granite mountain summits, sure, but there are also his boys, down low and up close, exploring and discovering nature. A reminder that there’s plenty of easy, accessible, kid-sized adventures to be had in this state, too. 

In August, Brandon’s wife Karly goes back to work as a principal in Riverton, earlier than their sons return to school in Lander where the Wards live. Which leaves Brandon as the sole parent during the day for the rest of the month. It’s those few weeks where Brandon gets to spend quality time with his growing boys, which always, always involves the outdoors. 

“We get after it pretty hard, me and the boys,” he said with a laugh. “And while it would be really fun to stomp up into the Winds, it’s really equipment heavy.” And so he often takes them out into the Northern Red Desert, a quick drive from Lander, because the recreation out there is easier. “You can have an epic day hike, come back to your car for some car camping, and still see a lot of country.” The photo of his kids up on Continental Peak is something they do together once or twice a year because it’s a hike with “no bugs, no heavy packs, kid-friendly.”

Personally, Brandon likes the Red Desert for numerous other reasons, too. With a big honest grin, he told me that he doesn’t “like a lot of people around.” It’s the reason he moved to Wyoming in the first place after growing up in rural South Carolina and living in places like Georgia, Tennessee, and Colorado. “I’ve lived in big cities. I value low populations. There’s something to me about the lack of people. Even in the Red Desert, although it’s checkerboard with private and public lands, you can still generally pick a cardinal direction and go that way.”

When he takes his kids out, he tries to teach them to appreciate that fact.

“I think all kids in Wyoming sometimes are oblivious to the fact of how good they have it, if their interest is in outdoor recreation and public lands. Everything else in other states seems to be permit- or reservation-based or costs money to see. We have none of that here. Things are the way they are, unaltered by man. And that’s pretty precious and these places are becoming less and less. So I try to tell them to just appreciate it, because who knows what it will look like in 20 years.”

“I don’t know if they get it,” he follows with a laugh, “but at least I try.”

Brandon also has an affinity for the rivers in Wyoming, so another annual Ward family trip includes floating down the Sweetwater. It’s an adventure Brandon has gone on by himself, with friends, and with his family over 20 times, he estimates. Locally, he’s come to be known as the “Sweetwater Whisperer” for the knowledge he’s built over the years.

“I’ve been a river boater in one way or another my whole life,” he said. “From my earliest outings on rivers with my father in my home state to now passing that passion on to my kids here locally on the rivers in my backyard. I hope that they find the joy I have out there on this special river.”

He described the Sweetwater as mostly a gentle gradient, with grass- and willow-lined banks, and never-ending meanders that makes it great for a family adventure. His boys learned to paddle there. And its remoteness contributes to how special he finds it: “It feels like we are completely alone out there and exploring it for the first time.”

He’s been saddened by its degradation and continued levels of pollution, however. And over the years, he’s felt that he’s become more and more conservation-minded in proportion to the time he spends outdoors. 

“It’s hard not to care about these places when you’re within them so much. I’ve come to the realization that I’ve only ever been a recreationalist. I rationalize it as I’ve been a taker, not a giver, and for a rash of reasons this suddenly doesn’t sit well with me. My passion for the outdoors has taken me to many wonderful places and helped mold me into the person I am today. Many of those places are in danger from various threats, including the good-intentioned recreationalist.”

As he’s gotten older and more mature, he’s shifted his focus beyond recreation and has tried to learn about the environment he’s in as well as the current threats to that environment, even if that means grappling with his own impact as a recreationist. He began asking himself, “What can I do to lessen or remove my impacts?” and he’s found interest in sharing what he’s learned, especially with his kids and also as a photographer.

“I like to think that sharing these scenes that I photograph helps people to appreciate wild places they may have never heard of or will never get to go to or do it in the way I often do,” he said. “We are spoiled here in Wyoming with our scenery and remoteness. As a photographer, it’s hard to beat. Around every corner is a place worth appreciating and sharing.”

Field Notes


With $2 gift, first-grader becomes the Outdoor Council’s youngest donor

Posted on by Alan Rogers

For 54 years the work of the Wyoming Outdoor Council has carried on, made possible by the support of our members. Your passion for Wyoming’s outdoors and willingness to take action to protect it have been a constant. Of course, financial support is also critical to our success, but we learned long ago not to gauge the dedication or generosity of our members based on the dollar amount contributed. In fact, our most generous gift in recent memory was also one of the smallest: $2.

We don’t have a way to confirm this, but those eight quarters may also have come from our youngest donor ever. 

Jules Goldwarg is a 6-year-old from Bozeman, Montana. He’s the son of Outdoor Council members Eric Goldwarg and Emily Ridgway, a great nephew of former board member Hap Ridgway, and a big brother to Alden, 4, and Louisa, 1. 

The family has a cabin in Sunlight Basin near Cody, where Emily is part owner of the dude ranch and summer camp her family has operated since the 1950s. They spend as much time there as they’re able.

“Jules just decided he loves Wyoming,” Eric said. Horseback riding and exploring the area around the cabin are some of his favorite things to do, and this summer he hiked up Windy Mountain in the Absaroka Range with his cousins. Catching grasshoppers to study (or feed to the trout in Elk Creek) is another popular pastime. 

“I also like looking for animal bones with my brother,” Jules said. “We’ve found like 12 cow skulls, and jaws of animals too. And we’ve found antlers up there.”

Jules with his brother, Alden.
Jules with his cousins at Elk Creek Ranch.

Back home in Bozeman, the whole family skis, hikes, and mountain bikes, and Jules accompanies his dad on pheasant hunts. But they work hard, too. Eric is an attorney, Emily is a physician, and Jules has an ambitious list of chores. 

Helping with the dishes, making his bed, and fetching firewood for the cabin are priorities, but he also cleans his room, feeds the dogs, and keeps his things organized for school. And he picks up pine cones in the yard, even though that’s too much fun to be considered a chore. 

The payoff: 25 cents a day in allowance, or slightly less if he’s gotten an advance to buy a gumball. 

“I get my allowance on Sunday. Once I get it, I put it in my piggy bank to save. My idea is to save it for college even though I have absolutely not enough… I don’t even have enough for one year of college.”

Mom and dad are putting some money aside too, Eric assures him. 

Late last year, the Outdoor Council’s annual photo calendar had just arrived and Jules was flipping through it. 

“You were looking through the calendar and enjoying it, and there was that little donation envelope, right?” Eric reminded him. “And you read the envelope and wanted to know what it meant and why they ask for money.”

After some thought, Jules decided he should send $2 to help the places in Wyoming he loves most, like the mountains he explores with his family and the creek where he catches grasshoppers. 

It’s not every day someone recognizes that what they value most about Wyoming needs to be protected if it is to endure, and that they have the power to make that possible. And it’s certainly not every day that someone feels moved to give two weeks’ of their hard-earned pay to an organization like ours. We’re grateful for all of our members, but a special thanks goes out to Jules for surprising us with his thoughtful generosity — and his parents for inspiring a new generation to be good stewards of Wyoming’s outdoors. 

Field Notes


Video: Thank you for supporting the Outdoor Council in 2020!

Posted on by Alan Rogers

THANK YOU FOR SUPPORTING THE OUTDOOR COUNCIL IN 2020!

It’s hard to express how grateful we are for the support of Wyoming Outdoor Council members and the greater Wyoming conservation community. During a turbulent year, your dedication has remained constant and been a source of hope and motivation. The staff put together this short video as a virtual thank-you card for all you do.

If you’d like to be part of the Wyoming Outdoor Council community and help make sure our work has a fighting chance in 2021, you can join today or renew your membership.

Field Notes


FIELD Training Profile: Yufna Soldier Wolf

Posted on by Alan Rogers

No matter how much Yufna Soldier Wolf insists she has more to learn about advocating for her community, her work already speaks for itself. 

Yufna is the former director of the Northern Arapaho Tribal Historic Preservation Office, where she worked for 12 years. During her time with the office, she was responsible for repatriating the remains of three Northern Arapaho children — Little Chief, Horse, and Little Plume — to the Wind River Reservation from the site of a government boarding school in Carlisle, Pennsylvania where they died in the late 1800s. More recently she’s been doing consulting work related to environmental policy, preservation of cultural resources, and the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, as well as Arapaho history. 

Yufna grew up in St. Stephens,  located just outside Riverton on the reservation, as the youngest of 10 children. She now has three kids of her own and lives in the house her father built, which is fitting given that she’s walking in his footsteps. 

Mark Soldier Wolf, who passed away in 2018 at the age of 90, was Yufna’s introduction to dealing with tribal cultural resources and land management issues. Before the Northern Arapaho Tribe had an official historic preservation officer, he filled that role and a young Yufna was there to help. She quickly came up to speed on Section 106 — a portion of the National Historic Preservation Act that requires federal agencies to consider impacts on cultural sites and artifacts — and other policies. 

“Him being older, he didn’t really know computers or all this other stuff, so I’d be sitting there helping him read an [environmental impact statement] or an [environmental assessment],” Yufna said. “And I was in high school.”

Yufna has degrees from Montana State University and the University of Wyoming, and is currently taking courses at UW with her eye on another diploma. At the same time, she’s transitioned from student to teacher, sharing the traditional knowledge passed down by her parents through speaking engagements and her consulting work. 

And, this summer, she decided to venture down a new path of learning when she heard about FIELD Training, the Wyoming Outdoor Council’s conservation leadership program. It’s a natural fit for Yufna, whose career has been based largely around stewarding tribal lands and cultural resources — and focusing on “things that are important to me that, if I didn’t do them, probably would never have gotten done.”

Even though she has served as a Fremont County historic preservation commissioner, Yufna felt her experience in county and state government didn’t match her familiarity with the tribal and federal levels. Now, she’s expanding her comfort zone in FIELD Training, WOC’s free eight-week program designed to give engaged citizens the skills they need to be effective advocates for conservation in their communities. This year’s curriculum centers around public lands and covers the basics of Wyoming government and policymaking through the process of creating and carrying out a grassroots campaign. 

For a small group project, Yufna and several other participants opted to research renewable energy development. Just like the state of Wyoming, she points out, the Northern Arapaho and Eastern Shoshone tribes rely heavily on oil and gas severance taxes for revenue and need to be prepared for a future with lower prices or less demand. 

“Education, healthcare, roads, maintenance … you name it, it’s going to be impacted. So that’s why we’re going to talk about renewable energy and how it can be incorporated into land use.”

As a tribal member, Yufna says public lands carry a special significance. 

“That’s where we came from, that’s who we are. Just being able to connect to areas that are special or sacred to us is important. I think that’s why I work as hard as I do with these various entities and land issues. Land is the biggest resource we have.”

Yufna Soldier Wolf

She isn’t sure where the future will take her, but she hopes to use her experiences to make sure Indigenous voices are heard at all levels of government, educate tribal members in Wyoming and elsewhere about the tribal impacts of county and state policies — like taxation and voting law — and encourage people to “help Wyoming be the best, most successful state we can be.”

Field Notes


Conservation advocacy in a time of quarantine: we’re going remote!

Posted on by Kristen Gunther

The current COVID-19 pandemic is dramatically reshaping everything about how we live, work, recreate, and spend time with our families. At the Wyoming Outdoor Council, much of our work involves traveling to communities around the state and ensuring that you have the tools and information necessary to be an informed, engaged citizen and conservation advocate. Over the last few weeks, we’ve been challenging ourselves to think about how we can continue to do this work and we’re excited to offer the below new events and resources. We encourage you to stay tuned as we’ll be reaching out to you in new ways, too! 

We’re also taking this opportunity to announce a new way that we’ll be talking about our community engagement work. From now on, you can find information about conservation leadership training, volunteer and internship opportunities, public events, citizen workshops, and more, under a brand new page we’re calling FIELD — Fostering Impact through Environmental Leadership Development.

To learn how you can take action “in the field” with our citizen engagement programs, check out the new FIELD page. 


Virtual community engagement events 

This week, we’re holding our first-ever, all-online Beers & Bills! This Friday, join us at 3:30 p.m. for a “happy hour” Beers & Bills (it’s BYOB this time!) where we’ll recap the 2020 Wyoming Legislative Session, follow up on bills that we worked on throughout session, and answer your questions about what happened as well as what’s next. 

We’ll continue hosting “drop-in” events and brown bag lunches, too — they’ll just be online! Keep your eyes on your inbox for special invites to roundtable, conversational events where we discuss some of the most pressing conservation issues in your community.


NEW! Live from the FIELD: Lessons for K-12 Wyoming students

Are you a parent looking for engaging educational content for your kid? Are you a student curious about conservation issues and science in the state? Join us for online lessons about topics ranging from mule deer to climate change to wildlife disease! We’re kicking things off next week with two lessons about mule deer with two Wyoming migration scientists, one for elementary schoolers and one for high schoolers. Visit our FIELD page for more information and to RSVP.


Conservation leadership training goes online!

In 2018, the Outdoor Council conducted our first 8-week conservation leadership training in Lander. In 2020, we will be offering this course again … now online, and open to a statewide audience! If you’re interested in learning the nuts and bolts of policymaking, developing a toolbox of organizing and advocacy skills, and getting field-tested advice from Wyoming organizers and leaders, watch your inbox for information on how to apply in the coming weeks. If you have questions in the meantime, drop me a line.


Remote public comment opportunities

While much of our normal lives has slowed or stopped, some important state and federal processes affecting our natural resources continue to move forward  — meaning that it’s just as important as ever that you raise your voice for Wyoming conservation values. We’ll work to provide resources online and by mail to help you weigh-in to ensure that wildlife, public lands, and clean air and water in Wyoming receive the robust protections that Wyomingites favor. Make sure we have your contact information correct and up-to-date here!

Have an idea? A lesson for K-12 you’d like our help with or that your kids are interested in? A topic or issue you’d like us to address with some remote programming? Email me and let me know — we want to know how we can best help you! 

While we’re all wrestling with the big changes that COVID-19 has brought to our lives, the Outdoor Council is committed to doing all that we can to bring resources to Wyoming communities. We’ll continue working daily to protect Wyoming conservation values. Thank you for standing alongside us through this uniquely challenging time — your support and membership makes our continued advocacy possible.

Field Notes


Outdoor Council member donates plug-in hybrid to spark conversation about fuel efficiency

Posted on by Alan Rogers

Let’s be honest: We in Wyoming love our trucks and SUVs. It makes sense in a place where the winters tend to stretch on, so many people work in the energy industry or agriculture, and enjoying the outdoors requires getting off the pavement. But can hybrid and electric vehicles have their place on the state’s roads too? That’s the conversation one Wyoming Outdoor Council member wants to jump-start. 

To that end, he donated a Toyota Prius Prime plug-in hybrid to the Outdoor Council. 

If you need a refresher on how these vehicles work, a hybrid car uses a combination of a gas engine and one or more electric motors. The system switches between the two power sources — or uses a combination of both — depending on the car’s speed and battery charge, and recharges itself when the gas engine is running and by recapturing energy while braking. A plug-in hybrid has a larger battery pack and, as the name suggests, can be charged from an electrical outlet. That means it can travel further and faster while relying exclusively on battery power. When that initial charge is depleted it functions like any other hybrid. 

We are grateful for this generous gift and excited for the conversations that are sure to follow as we drive it around the state. The donor of the Prius asked to remain anonymous but was happy to answer a few questions. 

WHAT INSPIRED YOU TO DONATE THE VEHICLE?

Climate change is a big motivator. I’ve had Priuses since 2005, I think, and they’re really fuel-efficient cars.

I just bought a new Prius Prime and when I was looking to donate this one I thought there could be some kind of classes or education locally on the new generation of fuel-efficient cars. WOC had some seminars last year, talking about the nuclear fuel storage issue, climate change, and the solar net metering issue that [they were] instrumental in getting some action on. I thought they would be a good group to talk about fuel efficiency also. 

WHAT DO YOU HOPE WE CAN ACCOMPLISH? 

Teach people that hybrids and plug-ins can be used here in Wyoming. That’s what I’d like to see. At least get people to try it. This could be a way to start that. It’s a great car to take to Casper, it’s a great car to take to Cheyenne. But more than that, you can show people we’re making progress one car at a time. What if everyone on staff took it home for a night, plugged it in, used it? Told their family and friends about it. The best advocacy is to have one yourself. 

WHAT IMPACT HAS DRIVING A HYBRID CAR HAD ON YOU? 

I had this car for about two years. I keep meticulous records: 148 gallons of gas, $361 spent on gas. And I drove it 18,191 miles. If you just consider the gas, the car averaged 122 miles per gallon. I don’t have accurate data for this, but the electricity cost was about $4-6 per month. 

Just to compare, if you had a Subaru, which many people here drive, it would have used 627 gallons of gas to travel the same distance. This Prius used 75 percent less gas. I’ve kept these kinds of records for every car I’ve ever had and when you get done with it you say, “Hey, I really did save a lot of money.” Basically at the end of the year, it pays your entire car insurance bill. 

In the summer, a plug-in Prius has a range of about 40 miles on battery power alone. In the winter it’s about 20 miles. For most people, that’s enough to commute. If you’ve got an outlet or charging station at your place of work, 80 percent of the population would never need the gas engine. 

WHAT PLACE DO HYBRIDS HAVE IN WYOMING? DO YOU THINK THAT CAN CHANGE?

Wyoming runs the whole gamut, from people who drive fuel-efficient cars to people who think electric cars are not the wave of the future and are going to ruin Wyoming’s economy. But there are a lot of Priuses around.

The problem is, people don’t like to change. They think it’s not suitable for them and they don’t want to make the transition from gas to electric or hybrid. The president of Ford came out and said electric and hybrid vehicles haven’t made it mainstream because people are worried about them. They worry, “What if I run out of electricity? What if I can’t find a place to plug it in?” 

It’s this mindset that people have. Some people don’t understand that a hybrid still has a gas engine. If it’s got gas in it you’re going to get wherever you’re trying to go just like in your old car. 

Note: This interview has been edited for clarity and length. 

Field Notes


Story behind the photo: “Mule Deer Buck” by Debbie Tubridy

Posted on by Claire Cella

Many wildlife photographers will say that “perfect” shots involve luck and being in the right place at the right time. The real trick, said Debbie Tubridy, is observing and interpreting the animals and their signs. It’s a skill she used to capture the foraging mule deer buck that we featured in our 2019 calendar. As an avid and longtime wildlife photographer, Turbidy knew this shot was special. 

“Usually animals put their heads up and look right at you, but this guy just continued to reach his head right up to get those leaves,” she said, “as if I weren’t even there.”

The autumn morning the image was taken, Debbie was out on a drive with her husband and a friend. They were just leaving Grand Teton National Park when they came upon the buck.

“It had just finished raining,” she remembered, “and we had gone out to see what we could find. This was one of the last shots I took that day, and it’s the type of scene that brought me out West.”

Although Debbie closely follows the guidelines for wildlife photography — using cars as blinds, approaching cautiously, always giving animals adequate space — her underlying ethic is not to disturb animals. 

“They shouldn’t change their behavior because I’m there,” she said. “I want them to act as they are. A lot of my shots are not the close-ups of their faces, but catching them in their natural state and environment. That’s part of the story, and you need to show that.” 

Her philosophy is similar to the Wyoming Outdoor Council’s approach to wildlife advocacy — especially around mule deer migration corridors. Science shows that disturbance inside corridors isn’t good for mule deer herds. It’s an issue Turbidy has been following as an Outdoor Council member. She said she wishes more people took responsibility for the impact their decisions have on wildlife. 

“That’s why I like to photograph wildlife, because I can help tell the animals’ story, and help show people that we’re all connected. I like to think I’m helping increase people’s awareness and appreciation for animals with my images.”

There is just something special about stopping and sharing a moment with an animal, she said. 

“It’s like all time stands still for me. It’s super cool. And I just wish other people could have this same experience — could go and see, touch, feel, understand nature. And then think about the decisions we make regarding wildlife and the environment.”

Debbie and her husband moved to Fruita, Colorado, from southern Florida two years ago after years of traveling West. “I did the math,” Turbidy laughed, “and Fruita was the spot because it was within a day’s drive of all of the places we loved to visit — Wyoming included.” 

“There’s a certain amount of truth here,” she said of the West. “People stand up for their values — for the wildlife and landscapes. And, being from populated southern Florida, we love the solitude of the wilderness we find here. The unspoiled beauty that remains in these varied terrains.” 

“I just think, if we’re good stewards of the environment, everything else — flora and fauna — also falls into place.”

Join Debbie and other photographers by submitting your own shot of Wyoming for the Outdoor Council’s 2020 Calendar Contest. You can enter your photos via Instagram or email. To submit your photo(s) via Instagram, you must have a public Instagram account so that we’re able to view your submission. Upload your photo(s) and add the hashtag #MyWyoming.

To submit your photo(s) via email, send your photo(s) to claire@wyomingoutdoorcouncil.org.

For more information about the contest, visit our Calendar Contest page.

Field Notes


Member Profile: Kathy Jenkins

Posted on by Stefani Farris

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One of the first things Kathy Jenkins did after retiring from her position as a staff attorney for a Wyoming Supreme Court justice was reach out to a Wyoming Outdoor Council board member to ask about volunteer opportunities. After a career in which she’d felt limited in her ability to get involved in advocacy and nonprofit work, Kathy was ready to roll up her sleeves to protect a place she loved.

That was back in 2016. Now Kathy serves on the executive committee of the Outdoor Council’s board of directors and has hosted two successful outreach events in her Cheyenne home with her husband, Mike Shonsey.

She has also become one of the Council’s staunchest supporters.

“The energy at WOC these days is palpable,” Kathy said. “Lisa McGee has pulled together a highly skilled, energetic, and committed staff and it’s exciting to watch them do their work at the legislature and in other public arenas around the state.”

Born and raised in Casper, Kathy’s passion for conservation stems from a lifelong connection to Wyoming first forged by her parents, who moved here in 1948 so her father could pursue a master’s degree in geology. Despite their different backgrounds — Kathy’s mother grew up in a comfortable home in Oakland, Calif., and her father on a small farm in the Appalachian Mountains with no indoor plumbing or electricity — they both embraced Wyoming’s wild places.

It was a shared love they passed down to their daughter. “Thanks to my father, I grew up learning about the unrivaled geology in Wyoming. And thanks to both my parents, I grew up camping, hiking, and fishing all over the state.”

Those firsthand experiences with Wyoming’s rugged backyard nurtured Kathy as a child, and they continue to nurture her today. An avid hiker, backpacker, and cross-country skier, Kathy understands the importance of preserving Wyoming’s special public lands, wildlife, and clean air and water — not only for her own enjoyment, but for the benefit of generations to come.  

She also understands just how much is at stake right now.

New policies out of Washington, D.C., that prioritize fossil fuel extraction over other uses of public lands have put millions of acres of wild lands and sensitive habitat — the heart of our state’s outdoor heritage — in the crosshairs. The same policies also threaten Wyoming’s clean air and water, and exacerbate conditions that cause climate change.

“These are perilous times for our environment,” Kathy said. “It’s urgent that we do all we can to protect what makes Wyoming unique.”

For Kathy, doing all she can to protect Wyoming means donating not only her time, energy, and experience to the Outdoor Council, but giving her financial support as well.

She understands the importance of ensuring that Wyoming’s homegrown statewide conservation group has the necessary resources — year after year — to advocate effectively for the issues she cares so deeply about. And she urges others who share her concern for Wyoming’s wild places to join her in making a meaningful gift to the Council.

“Do it,” she said. “Give as much as you can.”

“Every dollar you give will be thoughtfully, strategically, and carefully spent to protect the things you love most about Wyoming.”

— KATHY JENKINS, BOARD MEMBER

WOC is doing incredible work right now,” she added. “It’s great to be a part of that.”

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Field Notes


Member Profile: Day Scott

Posted on by Stefani Farris

Listen to naturalist, outdoor educator, and new WOC member Day Scott talk about her journey from Los Angeles to Wyoming and it’s clear she’s hardwired to forge connections and build community.

In the six months since moving to Lander, Day has become a regular volunteer and photographer with a pet rescue organization, helped out at the farmers’ market, served as a wilderness first responder for local events, and had her wildlife photography featured on the Only in Wyoming media company’s Facebook page. The connections she’s made have led to continuous house- and dog-sitting opportunities, a marketing job at NOLS, dinner invitations from nearby campers, and, most recently, to meeting a group of likeminded people eager to learn the ins and outs of advocacy.

Last month, Day graduated from WOC’s inaugural Conservation Leadership Institute. Of everything she learned, she was especially interested to discover that nearly all the presenters over the eight-week course highlighted one theme as the basis of successful advocacy: relationship building. That term is used a lot these days, “but it really is the basis of life,” she said. “It’s so important. This is it!”

  Day moved to Lander last spring, after taking a class with the Wilderness Medicine Institute of NOLS. She’d been living in L.A. for more than a decade, where she’d worked as a technical writer for a major social media company and then as a naturalist and manager of environmental education and outreach for a state ecological reserve. She also spearheaded a wetlands restoration project and, most recently, had started an environmental-based summer camp for kids. She enjoyed her work, but needed a change from the crowds and the pace.

  She found that change in Wyoming. Soon after coming to Lander, Day drove through Sinks Canyon and up to a lake on the Shoshone National Forest. “I literally cried. I thought, how can this exist here? It’s just here and I have access to it. And how can people in L.A. survive and be happy when they don’t have this?”

  Day admitted that in the beginning she didn’t know what to expect from Lander. She was nervous about how she’d be perceived as a black woman in a predominantly white small town. “At first, I got a lot of stares,” she said. But she pushed through the discomfort of being alone, and began making friends and connections. Soon, word was out that she needed a place to live, and one thing led to another. “Someone let me stay at their house who didn’t even know me — turned over their dogs and house to me … that gave me such a sense of community and total trust. And that’s happened here more than once.”

  That sense of community, coupled with Wyoming’s awe-inspiring landscapes, have made Day feel she’s found her home here. “I feel like I need Lander in my life,” she said. As for why she joined WOC, she said that after belonging to bigger, national groups, she was excited to be part of a local, statewide conservation organization. “When I found out about WOC and what they do, making a difference just seemed easier.”