Cat Urbigkit selected outstanding news reporter

Sublette Examiner reporter Cat Urbigkit learned recently that she was selected as the 2003 Wyoming Association of Conservation Districts Outstanding News Reporter.

The Sweetwater County Conservation District nominated Urbigkit for the honor with the following statements:

"Cat Urbigkit has an innate ability to know what is newsworthy and is not afraid to tackle the journalistic mine fields surrounding contentious conservation issues."

Cat became a writer when Pinedale Roundup editor Janet Montgomery hired her to cover the government beat in 1996. She has focused her writing efforts on environmental and agricultural issues since then. Cat has won Wyoming Press Association awards for coverage of a variety of issues, including brucellosis and disease conflicts between domestic sheep and bighorn sheep.

In 1998, with Cat's writing, the Pinedale Roundup received the National Newspaper Association's (NNA) first-place honor for best coverage of agricultural news. In 1999, Cat's writing won third place nationally in the same NNA awards program for both best coverage of agricultural issues and environmental issues. The next year she took second place nationally for the environmental issues coverage, competing with both daily and non-daily newspapers.

In early 2001, when the Pinedale Roundup sold to a new owner, Cat and three former Pinedale Roundup employees started a new community newspaper, the Sublette Examiner. Cat is also a correspondent for the Wyoming Livestock Roundup and writes on occasion for other publications as well.

Cat's coverage of the Range Reform lawsuit took honors in the state press association that year as well. In January 2003, the Examiner won Wyoming Press Association awards for Cat's coverage of RS-2477 - the Erramouspe Road, a series she authored on instream flow, and her coverage of the proposed food storage order.

Under Cat's leadership, the Sublette Examiner has become one of the few papers in the state to cover natural resource issues in a fair and objective way. Her paper is often the only paper reporting on many of the current issues that are so important to our western way of life. Sweetwater County Conservation District feels she is the best and much deserving of the Outstanding Conservation News Reporter.