In a small community like Saratoga where I was born and raised, there was far more to do out of town than in it, and my brothers and I took full advantage. We spent our youth exploring the wild places around our home in every season and in all kinds of weather. I have always been grateful to my parents for making that possible. They actually decided against higher income and other amenities so their three boys would have a chance to grow up in Wyoming’s wonderful environment.

When it came time to decide on my career, I wanted to give something back. Earning my way as a fire guard for the Medicine Bow National Forest, I obtained a bachelor’s degree in education biology and a master’s degree in plant ecology from the University of Wyoming, followed by a Ph. D. in animal ecology and behavior at Oregon State. For over 30 years since, I have been serving as an environmental scientist, advising industry, land managers, regulators, and conservationists on possible environmental consequences associated with a wide range of energy developments across the western United States.

Now, in addition to continuing my work on the environmental implications of energy development, I have the opportunity to work even more directly with one of the most highly respected conservation organizations in the country, the Wyoming Outdoor Council, as President of the Board of Directors. Combining my work for industry and my work with the Outdoor Council is a little like traveling with a foot in two boats, both wanting to move in opposite directions!

Most important, I think, is having access to the best information on all sides of environmental issues. This gives me a unique opportunity to help find and work the common ground, those areas where it may be possible to move forward toward resolution rather than remain in gridlock. Quality of life requires meeting our energy needs and connecting with a healthy web of physical features and other living creatures. These needs compete with one another and, therefore, must be met in ways that are balanced. To exploit the one at the expense of the other is to the detriment of both.

Profit is a primary motivator in our economy. There is a tendency by investor-owned energy companies to be so driven by the short-term value of quarterly profits that long-term values—like the values of pristine landscapes and undisturbed ecosystems for our children and for future generations—are forgotten.

One-half of Wyoming is public land, belonging to all of us. It cannot be right that the energy value of these lands should always and everywhere trump the other natural resource values of these lands especially when they benefit just a few in industry or even this whole generation of energy users.

The Wyoming Outdoor Council exists to see that these other values get factored in to natural resource decision-making on Wyoming public lands. I look forward to helping make sure that happens.

Above photo back row: L-R Scott Kane, Mark Preiss, Bruce Pendery (kneeling in front of Mark), Jim States, Laurie Milford, Christine Lichtenfels, Tom Bell, DJ Strickland (hidden), Marisa Martin, Susan Lasher, Steve Jones. Front row: Nancy Debevoise, Barbara Parsons, Joyce Evans, Barbara Oakleaf, Tova Woyciechowicz