It’s been difficult to decide the right thing to say here. It would be easy to be expansive, overly positive or cynical, to build words into a structure that could weigh in against the collective angst many in the conservation community have felt in the days that have followed the election. But, growing up in a farming culture in Minnesota, from a heritage of German Lutherans, it’s nearly against the law to get too excited about anything, except perhaps when the wrong Jell-O is served in the church basement after service.

In our community, weather was paid attention to. The spectacle of all-the-time news, instant polls, the odd tangibility and importance of distant matters, was grounded by daily chores, feeding, milking, fixing fence, getting the kids to school.

As we turn toward winter, I recognize that, like my grandfather and uncles, I simply cannot but get up, and get to my own chores, the work ahead. Here at the Wyoming Outdoor Council, we’ve been doing just that for 37 years. Regardless of political climate and which way the wind was blowing.

It’s our job to find innovative conservation solutions that balance economic development with sound stewardship. And it’s time to collect our thoughts, roll up our sleeves, learn from our experience, and as a result, be more effective, more thoughtful, more strategic.

The Wyoming Outdoor Council is Wyoming’s oldest statewide conservation organization. Together, we’ve been through thick and thin. We have an awesomely talented and dedicated staff, and we promise to be here, working with and for the hard-working people of Wyoming, using the specialized tools we’ve forged over these years. We’ll continue to build homegrown solutions with Wyoming communities and with you, to ensure that Big Wonderful always means Wyoming.

In this issue of Frontline, we have talked to people from across Wyoming, people who come from many different perspectives – tourism, recreation, hunting, literature, and local business. All of them, clearly, are dedicated to protecting Wyoming’s unique natural heritage. All have a very personal interest in protecting what we value. Wyoming’s environment and way of life is our livelihood. Its natural bounty gives local business owners and the state a healthy bottom line, it gives Wyoming people and her visitors a place to camp, fish and hunt, to contemplate, create art, to raise a family.

In the months ahead, the Wyoming Outdoor Council will continue to cultivate these often ignored natural alliances and find the common ground as expressed in these stories that follow. By working together, will we be able to protect what’s good about Wyoming. Our way of life, our quality of life.

Happy Trails,

Mark