Traveling late at night with me on the highway between Muddy Gap and Lander, Marisa Martin got her first Wyoming-style welcome when we hit a bobcat. It wasn’t just the fact that only one car passed us following the accident or the sadly unique experience of seeing the grandeur of the dead animal that gave her a sense that she’d hit the real frontier. Rather it was the fact that our seasoned wildlife coordinator, Meredith Taylor, picked up the bobcat to skin it for a museum. (She secured the necessary permits, of course). Marisa bravely continued to work in Wyoming in spite of this introduction.

Marisa was the Wyoming Outdoor Council’s lead attorney on many energy development issues in the Upper Green River Valley until her departure this past winter. In this role, she was passionate, intelligent and tireless, and we’ve missed her contributions since she left to pursue other endeavors. Marisa is currently working for a California attorney on Superfund issues before heading off to Switzerland this summer. Her intelligence and ingenuity recently earned her a highly competitive Fulbright Fellowship at the University of Geneva Institute for International Studies. There she will be focusing on climate change.

Marisa eventually will bring her knowledge back to the United States and undoubtedly will find a way to make our planet more livable when she does. We are happy to know that she will be working on climate change because finding sustainable solutions to our environmental problems helps all of our efforts, even those back here on the range. — Tova Woyciechowicz