Reporter’s Notes

Bruce Babbitt

Bruce Babbitt has been elected chairman of the Board of Directors of World Wildlife Fund. Babbitt served as Secretary of the Interior from 1993 to 2001, as governor of Arizona from 1978 to 1987 and as attorney general of Arizona from 1975 to 1978. He has served as a director of World Wildlife Fund since 2001.

World Wildlife Fund is the largest conservation organization in the world. WWF works in 100 countries on more than 2,000 conservation programs. WWF has 1.2 million members in the United States and nearly 5 million supporters worldwide.

Elk feedgrounds

Last Thursday, a federal court in Cheyenne heard oral arguments in the lawsuit over elk feedgrounds in western Wyoming. According to a press release from Earthjustice, the Forest Service and federal Bureau of Land Management for years have authorized the Wyoming Game and Fish Department to construct and operate winter elk feedgrounds on federal lands with little public involvement, virtually no environmental analysis and serious adverse consequences. The feeding program has led to high levels of brucellosis among the thousands of Wyoming elk that congregate on the feedgrounds.

The lawsuit was brought forth by the Greater Yellowstone Coalition, Jackson Hole Conservation Alliance and Wyoming Outdoor Council, and seeks a ruling that would order the U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management to begin an environmental review of 12 feedgrounds located on federal lands in western Wyoming. The requested review would include a study of feedground alternatives, including closing the feedgrounds. The lawsuit also seeks to halt the test-and-slaughter program at the Muddy Creek feedground.

Too wild to drill

A new national report highlights four natural areas in Wyoming that are especially vulnerable to oil and gas drilling that is spreading into many western wildlands.

“Too Wild to Drill,” is a new analysis released by The Wilderness Society that documents 17 locations across the United States – including Wyoming’s Red Desert, Beartooth Front, Wyoming Range and Upper Green River Valley. Proposed energy development threatens the first three Wyoming locations, while the Upper Green River Valley has already seen tremendous drilling that is beginning to harm air quality along with wildlife populations in the southern Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, according to the report.

“If the drilling boom in the Upper Green is an indication of what the future holds, Wyoming is in serious trouble,” said Peter Aengst, energy campaign coordinator in the Northern Rockies office of The Wilderness Society.