More than 30 years ago, an article on the Sierra Club in the Casper-Star Tribune sent Lorna Wilkes-Ruebelmann rushing to the Natrona County Library in search of some kindred souls. Lorna had just moved to Casper, and was feeling isolated and in need of a cause. That was the beginning of her work with the Wyoming Outdoor Council.

“It was an exciting time to be involved,” Lorna recalls. “We were a bunch of idealists who got organized and were very effective… Politically things have changed. Now people are more interested in their pocket book than in the common welfare. Environmental battles are often fought in the courts these days.”

Lorna remembers those early years with pride and some nostalgia. She says they were successful in getting a number of important environmental bills through the Wyoming legislature, including laws that created a land-use planning commission and an industrial-siting commission. She felt citizen involvement was critical to the environmentalist’s success. Their movement was driven by a kind of energy and enthusiasm that seemed to die out in the 80s according to Lorna. Now she believes, it is time to get reenergized.

“I’m really worried about the state of our democracy,” she says. “I believe everyone of us has to take an interest. People have to get involved. I’m very proud of the Outdoor Council’s work and believe we’ve been highly effective, but we can’t let up.”

Lorna served on the board from the late 70s into the early 80s, and then came back on in 1998. She served as treasurer and was actively involved in the executive director search this past spring. Now she and her husband George have moved from Sheridan to Cortez, Colorado for their retirement, but it doesn’t sound as if Lorna has slowed down. She’s taken a position as program director for the local Hospice organization and is in charge of Hospice volunteers around the Four-Corners region.

The Wyoming Outdoor Council thanks Lorna for her years of service and wishes her the best in Colorado.