On April 29th, 35 people showed up for a Wyoming Outdoor Council tour of the AES SeaWest wind farm near Arlington. There was a light breeze blowing and all but one of the turbines was turning when we toured the field. Wind speeds at Arlington average between 15 and 35 mph, which is ideal for generating electricity. Wind speeds greater than 60 mph cause the turbines to shut down automatically after 10 minutes, which happens less than 5 percent of the time at this site. The field generates enough power for 48,000 homes. Most of this energy is consumed in California and Oregon. Thanks to Gary McCarty, an engineer at the facility, who led the tour.

The Wyoming Outdoor Council also hosted a workday on the Christina Lake Trail in the Shoshone National Forest in early June and led a group out into the Jack Morrow Hills for a geology field trip with Central Wyoming College professor Suki Smaglik. We sponsored a number of activities to promote biking as a way to conserve energy this past June including a bike ride in the Jonah Field with EnCana, a large oil and gas company.