Wild Wyoming: A New Guide to the State's Threatened Landscapes

by Mac Blewer

Biodiversity Associates staffer and conservation advocate Erik Molvar has given citizens another tool in the never-ending battle to protect Wyoming's most threatened landscapes. In August, Falcon Publishing released Wild Wyoming, a guidebook written by Erik that focuses on wildlands currently in jeopardy throughout the state.

Covering roadless areas in Wyoming's national forests threatened by the administration's waffling on the Roadless Initiative to desert wildlands in the cross-hairs of the Bush-Cheney drill-all energy plan, Wild Wyoming is a must buy for anyone who wants to visit and protect these areas. Its photos, easy-to-read maps and useful information about terrain invite you to throw it in your backpack and get out there.

From Yellowstone to Vedauwoo, Erik spent several years traveling through Wyoming researching his book. He sees it as both an educational guidebook and an advocacy tool.

"The environment has been a large part of my life," he says, "and I've been blessed to be able to explore these wild lands. This book gave me an opportunity to give something back."

The author of 14 backpacking guides and manuals focusing on wild places from Arizona to Alaska, Erik is no stranger to rugged territory. While researching Wild Wyoming, Erik was bitten by a testy rattler in the Bighorns and had to hike out five miles to get medical treatment. In the Red Desert, Erik rolled his car on a back road, but emerged in one piece. But none of these tribulations has dampened his love for Wyoming's wild landscapes or his passionate desire to protect them.

"Camping out one night near the Red Lake Dunes," he recalls, "I watched a summer thunderstorm roll across the Red Desert. With sheets of rain and lightning bolts thundering down, it was tremendously spiritual and humbling."

Erik believes that once the word gets out and people see Wyoming's threatened wildlands for themselves, "they'll feel a sense of ownership of these lands and fight a lot harder to protect them."

The word is out.