Statewide Briefs

Gov's appointments

Governor Dave Freudenthal has made the following appointments:

Dan Budd of Big Piney, Anne Mackinnon of Casper and Bill Bensel of Ranchester were appointed to the Wyoming Water Development Commission.

Ron Lovercheck of LaGrange and Bill Williams of Thermopolis have been appointed to the Wyoming Game and Fish Commission.

Bill Taliaferro of Rock Springs joins Phil Marton of Casper and Donna Wells-Phipps of Lingle on the Wyoming Livestock Board.

Shivler appointed

In a meeting in Cheyenne last weekend, newly appointed members of the School Facilities Commission elected former legislator Jim Bubba Shivler to direct the commission.

Commission members appointed by Freudenthal include Chairman Gregg Olson of Rawlins, representing building/ facility engineering, construction and operations; Bruce Perryman of Cheyenne, representing estimating, bidding and building construction; Jeff Marsh of Torrington, representing the Board of Education; and Rande Pouppirt of Cheyenne, representing building design and specifications.

Superintendent of Public Instruction Trent Blankenship also sits on the commission, and he will be making two additional appointments.

Saturday's vote was unanimous in favor of Shivler, a 62-year-old Republican. Shivler has a background in architecture and general contracting, as well as two years as cochairperson of the state Select Committee on School Capital Construction.

Spring Stampede

Environmentalists will be conducting a "Spring Stampede" in Washington, D.C. from March 16 - 20 to rally support for their proposal for the federal government to buy out grazing permits. Information on the National Public Land Grazing Campaign can be found at their website: www.publiclandsranching.org. While there is little chance the proposal will make any progress in Congress, the Public Lands Council will still be taking steps to promote the benefits of public land ranching.

Stewardship

The Omnibus Appropriations Act for Fiscal Year 2003 authorizes the Bureau of Land Management and Forest Service to enter into stewardship contracts with private persons to achieve land management goals for the national forests and public lands such as reducing fire hazards or controlling noxious weeds. What this means is that ranchers may enter into contracts to reduce fuel loads in return for the use of forage equal in value to the service performed by reducing fuel loads. The forage would be outside the areas of existing permitted allotments.

Cattlemen

The Green River Valley Cattlemen's Association will hold its annual business meeting Saturday, March 8, at the Sublette County Library in Pinedale. The roundtable discussion will focus on revising the Pinedale Resource Area management plan, Bureau of Land Management grazing policies, monitoring and sage grouse, among other topics. The annual banquet and awards ceremony will begin at 5:30 p.m. in the Pinedale Entertainment Center.

BLM plan revision

The Bureau of Land Management has scheduled two open houses for next week as part of the process of updating the Pinedale Resource Management Plan. Monday, March 10, the open house will be in the Pinedale library from 3 to 8 p.m. Tuesday, March 11, the meeting will be held in the Marbleton Fire Hall, also from 3 to 8 p.m.

Woolgrowers

Sublette County woolgrowers are invited to attend a meeting at the Sublette County Extension Service office Wednesday, March 12, at 7 p.m. The purpose of the meeting is to schedule a shearer to provide services to producers in the county, discuss a wool pool for marketing purposes and to re-invigorate the county organization.