Outdoor Council Summer 2019

FRONTLINEWorking to protect Wyoming’s environment and quality of life since 1967

INSIDE: THE SCIENCE IS CLEAR: DON’T POISON BOYSEN Holding the line in southwest Wyoming

AND MORE!

Image: Claire Cella A Message from the Director xperience has shown Founded in 1967, we are a statewide citizen advocacy us time and again that group, working to protect public lands, wildlife, and clean E air and water in Wyoming. We believe conservation is not a if conservation success is partisan issue, and that informed and engaged citizens matter. to be durable in Wyoming, it must have strong citizen 262 Lincoln Street, Lander, WY 82520 support. Short-term wins wyomingoutdoorcouncil.org 307.332.7031 | [email protected] LISA McGEE without grassroots support Executive Director are vulnerable, whether BOARD OF DIRECTORS STAFF in the courts or with changing White House policies. That is why NEIL SHORT, Casper LISA McGEE President Executive Director the Wyoming Outdoor Council is committed to working not only with federal land TIM WILSON, Lander DUSTIN BLEIZEFFER managers, but also in local communities and Vice President Communications Director in Cheyenne to propose solutions and KATHY JENKINS, Cheyenne KRISTEN BROWN In a canoe help craft collaborative, long-lasting Secretary Membership Director with kids, conservation policies. paddling for KEITH RITTLE, Laramie JOHN BURROWS As you’ll read, our staff has been camp! Treasurer Conservation Advocate busy doing just that for the last few HAROLD BERGMAN, CLAIRE CELLA months. And we’re incredibly encouraged by Laramie Creative Content Director the number of citizens who are speaking up LIZA CUTHBERT-MILLETT, STEFANI FARRIS for Wyoming. Whether it’s demanding that Laramie Associate Director the state do a better job of protecting a Class MATT GAFFNEY, Pinedale MARY JOYNER GREENE 1 river that people rely on for drinking water Donor Relations Director and their livelihoods, or working together DAVE HOHL, Pinedale to find the best way to protect our wildlife, KRISTEN GUNTHER MICHELE IRWIN, Green River Conservation Advocate Wyomingites are rolling up their sleeves right alongside our policy experts and making NIC PATRICK, Cody DAN HEILIG Senior Conservation a real impact. I want to say thank you. To HAP RIDGWAY, Cody Advocate everyone who’s helping us work for lasting solutions for this place we all love: it’s making SEAN STAUTH, Jackson STEFF KESSLER Program Director a difference. RON SURDAM, Jackson Having a JOHN RADER picnic and Conservation Advocate swimming with my LINDA SISCO Administrative Coordinator daughters WHAT’S YOUR in Jackson FAVORITE WAY Lake. Summer sailing on TO ENJOY Yellowstone Lake! WYOMING’S 2 | wyomingoutdoorcouncil.org WATERS? GOOD POLICY TAKES TEAMWORK he people of Wyoming the past year. Robust big game herds, a point T have a long history of of pride and passion for most Wyomingites, shaping conservation policy. depend on the habitat migration corridors Sometimes that happens provide. We’re grateful that Gov. Gordon when citizens contact has recognized the importance of migration decision makers directly. corridors by convening a citizens’ group to KRISTEN GUNTHER Often, though, groups develop recommendations to guide state Conservation Advocate of Wyomingites from a migration policies. While we don’t serve range of backgrounds on the advisory group, we have presented come together with a specific task: to create information and other resources — a forward-looking proposal that tackles a including policy guidance — and attended specific problem. meetings around the state to take part in the In recent years, Wyoming Outdoor discussions. We’ll keep you posted about Council staff have represented our members what recommendations emerge from this on county-level committees, statewide task committee, and how you can help. forces run by the governor’s office, and federal advisory councils. This year I’m Wyoming Game and Fish Chronic pleased to be involved in two such groups Wasting Disease Working Group related to wildlife. Wyoming’s mule deer herds face a barrage

of challenges, all of which have contributed Gov. Gordon’s Big Game Migration to statewide declines for the species. One Corridor Advisory Group major emerging threat to our deer — and Protecting Wyoming’s big game migrations also to elk, whitetail deer, and moose — is has been a major focus of our work during CONTINUED ON PAGE 6

Image: Tayler LaSharr 3 | wyomingoutdoorcouncil.org A T W H A T C O S T ? Wyoming Doesn’t Have to Risk Clean Water for Energy Development

his past spring, But the company’s plan includes dumping up T snowmelt unleashed to 8.27 million gallons per day of “produced” just as heavy rains fell for oilfield wastewater — groundwater mixed in several weeks, swelling the oil- and gas-bearing formations — into the reservoir at Boysen tributaries of Boysen Reservoir. State Park to capacity. The The Wyoming Department of Bureau of Reclamation Environmental Quality relied on modeling DUSTIN BLEIZEFFER increased flows to 7,000 from a consultant hired by Aethon to Communications Director cubic feet per second determine that decreases in water quality in below the dam, pushing the Class 1 were insignificant. water high along the banks of the Wind The DEQ’s analysis also found that impacts and Bighorn rivers, creating a challenge for to Alkali and Badwater creeks would meet drifters. regulatory requirements. As it turned out, But the fishing was still hot. neither conclusion was correct. “Yesterday we had two boats out, and Although some residents want to see the each of our boats hooked up to about 40 fish drilling project move forward for the jobs and — all in that 18- to 20-inch range,” fishing revenue, many worry that Aethon and the guide John Schwalbe said back in June. state didn’t do a thorough job of analyzing the Schwalbe, owner of Wyoming Adventures plan and didn’t provide safeguards to ensure in Thermopolis, has guided on the Bighorn the viability of livelihoods that are tied to for 25 years, owing his livelihood to the Boysen and to the Wind and Bighorn rivers. Blue Ribbon trout fishery that produces big “There’s a responsibility that we have rainbows, browns, and cutthroat. “I wouldn’t here to manage our state well, but also put live in Thermopolis, Wyoming, if it were not people to work. I’m all for that,” Schwalbe for the that runs through it. said. “But not at the cost of our watersheds It’s my livelihood, it’s the reason why I stuck and natural resources. Not at all.” around this area,” Schwalbe said. A lot of his regular clients are locals Clean water is too important to risk who work in the oil and gas industry, and With the help of partners and members, in addition to navigating the high water and the Wyoming Outdoor Council hired figuring out what flies trout were hitting, the hydrologists, aquatic biologists, and other big topic of discussion this spring was the scientists to conduct a detailed, expert future of this fishery. analysis of the proposal by Aethon and Upstream in the watershed is the Moneta the DEQ. The results were troubling. The Divide oil and gas field, where Texas-based analysis revealed significant flaws in the plan Aethon Energy proposes to drill 4,100 new that would severely threaten aquatic life and wells over the next 15 years — an economic municipal drinking water sources, as well boost for many communities in a part of the as the economic and cultural values that tie state that desperately needs jobs and revenue. 4 | wyomingoutdoorcouncil.org Schwalbe and so many others to these iconic a huge part of the community’s identity. Wyoming waters. That’s why this proposal is so troubling. “This proposal violates the Clean Water “I’ve got a five- and seven-year-old — Act, the Wyoming Environmental Quality Act, Fischer and Fletcher — and they are outdoor and the DEQ’s own rules about implementing junkies,” Lewis said. “They would be some these important laws,” attorney and Outdoor little angry rugrats if something happened. Council Senior Conservation Advocate Dan They would be like, ‘Dad, why didn’t you Heilig said. “Fundamentally, though, the act more responsibly and help the river get proposal unnecessarily risks the health and saved?’ So I think about it for them. The next livelihoods of Wyomingites. It doesn’t have to generation coming up has a lot to overcome.” be this way. There are other solutions.” Lewis also serves on the town council I wouldn’t live in Thermopolis, Wyoming, if it were not for the Bighorn River ... It’s my livelihood, it’s the reason why I stuck around.”

— JOHN SCHWALBE, RIVER GUIDE

The Outdoor Council is not the only voice in Thermopolis. The town draws from the pointing out that good jobs and economic Bighorn for its municipal water. A change in development should not be at odds with clean water quality could add to operational costs water and healthy fisheries. In many cases, at the town’s water treatment plant. Alternate they’re“ one and the same. Dusty Lewis is sources for municipal water come with their among a growing number of locals in Hot own costs. Locals worry that tapping aquifers Springs County who hope to boost tourism nearby could affect the town’s world-famous in the area. Lewis owns Rent Adventure in hot springs, and tapping aquifers elsewhere Thermopolis, renting out drift boats, rafts, would come at a significant expense. kayaks, and paddle boards. “There’s a lot of variables when you talk “We spend a lot of time in the water, and about changing water sources,” said Lewis. we do a lot of fishing,” he said. While Aethon and the DEQ assured the Sustaining clean water is a win-win public that there’s no risk associated with the Based on the scientific and legal analysis, the plan to use Boysen Reservoir as an oilfield Outdoor Council submitted comments to the wastewater mixing zone, Lewis and others DEQ in July asking that the agency go back to were not fully convinced. There’s too much at the drawing board. “A careful look revealed so stake, said Lewis. many significant flaws in this plan that we’re “If the fishery were damaged, that would confident it won’t stand without a fundamental probably be the worst thing.” revision to ensure that water quality standards He noted that everyone in Thermopolis are met, and that downstream users and recognizes the outsized role the Bighorn livelihoods are protected,” Heilig said. plays in the community, and suggested that This story went to press before we could economics is only part of the equation. The learn of the DEQ’s response to the Outdoor river and the outdoor way of life it supports is Council’s comments or its proposed next

5 | wyomingoutdoorcouncil.org Image: Claire Cella steps. We were encouraged, however, by that energy development doesn’t come at the the number of public comments urging the expense of Wyoming’s clean air and water and DEQ to deny the permit — including healthy wildlife populations will a powerful letter from the U.S. continue to be a challenge. Environmental Protection Agency It’s one worth meeting head that identified numerous significant on. flaws in the draft permit. “Wyoming residents were If the DEQ forwards its plan given a false choice — that we for Aethon Energy’s wastewater It doesn’t must accept lower water quality surface discharge permit without have to and unknown risks in return for meaningful revision, the state economic development,” Heilig may still face challenges to hold be this said. “We know better. We hope it accountable for safeguarding way. There that the DEQ takes into account clean water resources. The are“ other the thousands of residents who Outdoor Council is committed to rely on these iconic waters today insisting that Wyoming’s clean solutions.” and for generations to come.” water is protected. As oil and gas leasing — DAN HEILIG, picks up around Wyoming, WYOMING OUTDOOR COUNCIL and as the Moneta Divide project expands, making sure

GOOD POLICY chronic wasting disease, an insidious disorder from it. It’s a difficult disease to plan for: affecting the central nervous system that has there’s no silver bullet for wildlife managers, increased in prevalence in Wyoming’s herds and strategies may differ for herds where the over the last several decades. disease is well established compared to those CWD belongs to a rare class of CWD has not yet reached. diseases called “transmissible spongiform The Wyoming Game and Fish encephalopathies,” which are disorders Department recognizes the need for a caused by prions — basically, a misfolded complex, well-vetted management plan to protein. Mad cow disease is the most address this emerging issue — especially as commonly known prion disease. CWD is CWD-positive animals are identified in new transmitted through bodily fluids (saliva, areas — and has convened a task force of urine, feces) or through the environment — citizens representing a range of interests to prions shed by affected animals can persist in revise the current CWD plan. While we don’t the environment for more than a decade. frequently focus on wildlife disease issues, Most CWD-positive animals don’t appear CWD management has broad implications to be ill. To know whether a harvested animal for wildlife management and the future of our has the disease, hunters must have it tested. big game herds. I’m eager to work with this There’s no cure for CWD — once an elk or diverse group, and am honored to co-chair deer has the disease, it will eventually die the committee alongside Josh Coursey of the Muley Fanatic Foundation. 6 | wyomingoutdoorcouncil.org A CLOSER LOOK In July, we submitted expert analysis of the DEQ’s proposed wastewater discharge permit, modeling, and analysis. Here’s what we found:

» The daily discharge of millions of gallons of contaminated oilfield wastewater will violate water quality standards for Alkali Creek and Badwater Creek — a 40-mile riparian stream lined with cottonwoods and willows. These important streams are already impaired by existing oilfield wastewater discharges. » Polluted wastewater entering Boysen Reservoir’s Badwater Bay, a proposed mixing zone, will most likely harm an important nursery area for sauger, a species of fish related to the walleye. » The blue ribbon Wind River will be degraded, despite a strict anti- degradation standard for the Class 1 river. » Chemicals used in hydraulic fracturing may enter Boysen Reservoir and contaminate drinking water supplies used by the Town of Thermopolis. » The DEQ’s model finding that the project would not violate water quality standards in the Wind River is so fundamentally deficient that it cannot be used for regulatory compliance or agency decision making. SOLUTIONS WE PROPOSE

» The DEQ should analyze other options. If surface discharge is necessary, the produced water should be purified and piped to Boysen Reservoir, as originally proposed by Encana, the previous operator, not dumped into Alkali and Badwater creeks where environmental impacts will be devastating. » The DEQ should end the unlawful practice of “grandfathering” pollution concentration limits based on industrial discharges in the Moneta field that predate the adoption of DEQ’s point source discharge regulations. The various owners of this field have had decades to bring the discharge into compliance with modern standards. Developers have access to modern water cleanup technologies and methods to meet standards required to safeguard Wyoming’s clean water resources. » The DEQ should require Aethon to publicly disclose the names and amounts of chemicals that will be used in fracking operations, and require assurances that those chemicals will be completely removed from the flowback water before being discharged in surface waters.

Images courtesy Dusty Lewis and John Schwalbe S O U T H W E S T W Y O M I N G : A working landscape worth protecting outhwest Wyoming Local voices lost and the northern S Every twenty years or so, the BLM revises Red Desert are known its “resource management plans,” which for iconic geologic features and breathtaking guide how the agency prioritizes uses and landscapes that look much protections for particular places. The current plan, in effect since 1997, protects unique DUSTIN BLEIZEFFER the same today as they Communications did millennia ago: Adobe places like Steamboat Mountain, the South Director Town, the Killpecker Sand Pass Historic Landscape, and National Dunes, Boars Tusk, White Historic Trails, while allowing development in Mountain. The Golden Triangle at the base of other areas. A revision has been underway for the Wind River Mountains is one of the most nearly 10 years, and the last important Greater sage-grouse habitats on time the public was allowed to earth, and the ancient Red Desert-to-Hoback weigh in was 2011. mule deer migration — the longest in the world — is anchored here. Wyoming residents have worked If you hunt those herds, together for decades to find ways to protect these special places while enjoying if you hike out in those a landscape that, at 3.6 million acres, is badlands, if you fish those big enough to also support motorized use, grazing, and energy development. streams, it’s going to affect But now the U.S. Interior’s Bureau of you personally.”“ Land Management is poised to strip the hard-fought protections that allow for multiple use in favor just one: oil and gas — JOHN RADER, WYOMING OUTDOOR COUNCIL development. Unfortunately, amid continuous delays “This is a landscape that can and changing administrations, the voices and accommodate many uses,” Wyoming Outdoor values of Wyoming residents have been lost Council Conservation Advocate John Rader in the revision effort. Now, under a directive said. “We have vast open spaces where families can recreate, where we can celebrate straight from Washington, D.C., the BLM has our outdoor heritage. There are also places indicated it will throw out most of the existing where development is permitted right now. So multiple-use protections — which were we’re striking a balance. We have a working developed in cooperation with Wyomingites landscape that really applies the multiple use over decades — to prioritize energy approach. We don’t want to sell that out for a development alone. That means hunting, single use.” recreation, conserving vital wildlife habitats, and preserving cultural and historic sites will 8 | wyomingoutdoorcouncil.org Image: Ken Driese all take a back seat to energy development. table. “If you hunt those herds, if you hike out And they need to hear from you. in those badlands, if you fish those streams, If you live in southwest Wyoming, please it’s going to affect you personally,” Rader said. contact your city officials, your county “Here we are almost a decade later, and we’ve commissioners, and your conservation districts. got an administration that wants to strip all Tell them that Wyomingites care deeply about the protections for the whole area. The people the special places in this corner of the state, of Wyoming have agreed that there are some and that our livelihoods and our way of life places, some values, that are more important. here will be undermined by a major overhaul in We recognize the importance of energy favor of a single use. Ask them to let southwest development here, absolutely. But there are Wyoming continue to be a working landscape other values at stake. There’s our way of life.” that balances a full spectrum of uses. And if you live anywhere in Wyoming, consider sending Tell local officials: top-down doesn’t Gov. Mark Gordon the same message. work for Wyoming “We like it the way it is,” Rader said. “We like being able to go out into the Red Desert Despite the slow, muddled revision process, and explore and hunt, we like being able to hike the Outdoor Council continues to work with in the Big Sandy Foothills. And we don’t want conservation partners, counties, and others to a top-down approach from D.C. to come in and urge the BLM to honor our shared values in take those things away from us.” Wyoming. Your voice is crucial, too.

Right now, as the BLM prepares a final draft of the far-reaching plan that will guide To find out how to contact your local officials who can urge the BLM to maintain how 3.6 million acres of Wyoming’s most your outdoor heritage in southwest special places are managed for the next 20 Wyoming, visit the “Public Lands” page on years, local governments and elected officials our website, wyomingoutdoorcouncil.org. in southwest Wyoming have a seat at the

9 | wyomingoutdoorcouncil.org MEMBER PROFILE KATHY JENKINS “The energy at WOC these days is palpable.”

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 ne of the first things passion for conservation stems from a OKathy Jenkins did after lifelong connection to Wyoming first forged retiring from her position by her parents, who moved here in 1948 so as a staff attorney for a her father could pursue a master’s degree in Wyoming Supreme Court geology. Despite their different backgrounds justice was reach out to a — Kathy’s mother grew up in a comfortable STEFANI FARRIS Wyoming Outdoor Council home in Oakland, Calif., and her father on a Associate Director board member to ask about small farm in the Appalachian Mountains with volunteer opportunities. no indoor plumbing or electricity — they both After a career in which she’d felt limited in embraced Wyoming’s wild places. her ability to get involved in advocacy and It was a shared love they passed down to nonprofit work, Kathy was ready to roll up her their daughter. “Thanks to my father, I grew sleeves to protect a place she loved. up learning about the unrivaled geology in That was back in 2016. Now Kathy Wyoming. And thanks to both my parents, I serves on the executive committee of the grew up camping, hiking, and fishing all over Outdoor Council’s board of directors and the state.” has hosted two successful outreach events in Those firsthand experiences with her Cheyenne home with her husband, Mike Wyoming’s rugged backyard nurtured Shonsey.

10 | wyomingoutdoorcouncil.org Kathy as a child, and they continue For Kathy, doing all she to nurture her today. An avid hiker, can to protect Wyoming means backpacker, and cross-country skier, donating not only her time, Kathy understands the importance energy, and experience to the of preserving Wyoming’s special Outdoor Council, but giving her public lands, wildlife, and clean air financial support as well. and water — not only for her own Every She understands the enjoyment, but for the benefit of dollar you importance of ensuring that generations to come. Wyoming’s homegrown She also understands just how give will be statewide conservation group much is at stake right now. thoughtfully, has the necessary resources — New policies out of Washington, year after year — to advocate D.C., that prioritize fossil fuel strategically,“ effectively for the issues she extraction over other uses of public and carefully cares so deeply about. And she lands have put millions of acres urges others who share her of wild lands and sensitive habitat spent to concern for Wyoming’s wild — the heart of our state’s outdoor protect the places to join her in making a heritage — in the crosshairs. meaningful gift to the Council. The same policies also threaten things you “Do it,” she said. “Give as Wyoming’s clean air and water, and love most much as you can. Every dollar exacerbate conditions that cause you give will be thoughtfully, climate change. about strategically, and carefully spent “These are perilous times for to protect the things you love our environment,” Kathy said. Wyoming.” most about Wyoming. WOC “It’s urgent that we do all we can — KATHY JENKINS, is doing incredible work right to protect what makes Wyoming BOARD MEMBER now,” she added. “It’s great to be unique.” a part of that.”

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11 | wyomingoutdoorcouncil.org Image: Josh Milek Clean water or prosperity? Wyoming deserves both.

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