Green River Star

12/09/2024

NEWS BRIEFS for Monday, December 9, 2024
From Wyoming News Exchange newspapers

Wyoming soldiers to receive a ‘little touch of home’ at Christmas

CASPER (WNE) — Some Wyoming soldiers deployed in the Middle East will soon receive a Christmas care package. HERO Outdoors, a nonprofit that supports veterans, is sending packages filled with items donated from the community to 50 deployed service members.
Josey Kienzle, who helped package the boxes on Thursday, described them as “just a little touch of home.”
The community came together to provide Wyoming-made items in just a few days, according to Frank Grillo, founder of HERO Outdoors.
Students from Natrona County elementary schools wrote cards. Donells Candies donated bags of caramel popcorn. Two local authors, Ed Kienzle and Johanna Wickman, donated copies of their books. Liz Batton crocheted soap holders and pocket hugs — little figures that remind the soldiers that they are cared for.
The boxes included hand-painted cards from Sara Garland. Sharon Hinkle, an Army mom, provided leather ornaments for each box. The soldiers are also receiving wood ornaments from Daima Quick. Grillo turned donated elk meat into jerky. The elk came from various Casper community members.
This holiday deed hits close to home for Grillo, who is a veteran. Deployed overseas three times, he never received a Christmas package.
The cost of shipping the packages has been almost completely covered from monetary donations from Walmart and other community members.
The soldiers receiving the packages are part of the Wyoming National Guard. The soldiers come from various parts of the state, but many are Casper natives.

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Mills woman accused of selling m**h; bail set at $30K

CASPER (WNE) — A Mills woman accused of obtaining narcotics to sell has been apprehended, and her bail has been set at $30,000.
Suzanna Enriquez, born in 1998, faces four charges in the case: possession of a controlled substance with intent to deliver; conspiracy to deliver a controlled substance; felony possession of m**hamphetamine and misdemeanor possession of fentanyl.
Those offenses carry a maximum combined penalty of 48 years in prison and $66,000 in fines.
Court documents claim that a confidential source told them Enriquez and a man identified as Steven Gettings traveled to Cheyenne to buy m**h.
One of the sources told officers that Enriquez was staying with Gettings at a Mills address.
Following the tip, agents say they surveilled Enriquez’s home and saw a car they say was registered to Enriquez arrive at the apartment complex. After agents claimed to have seen Gettings exit Enriquez’s vehicle to conduct what they suspected to be a “hand to hand” drug deal, they called Mills police to apprehend Gettings for violation of probation.
Gettings gave a false last name to Mills police “although Gettings has ‘GETTINGS’ tattooed above his right eye,” according to the affidavit.
Once officers apprehended Gettings, they saw Enriquez leave her apartment. She was arrested by Mills police. In a search of Enriquez’s apartment, police claim to have found more than 46 grams of m**hamphetamine and 3.5 grams of fentanyl.
A Division of Criminal Investigation special agent on the case “believes that the discovery of pre-packaged fentanyl pills, scales and additional packaging material is evidence that the fentanyl was possessed with the intent to distribute it,” the affidavit says.
As of Thursday afternoon, no charges had been filed against Gettings in circuit or district court.

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12/09/2024

Firefighters prep to advocate in 2025 session

By Ivy Secrest
Wyoming Tribune Eagle
Via Wyoming News Exchange

CHEYENNE — As the 2025 legislative session approaches, wildland firefighters are considering how they will advocate for their interests as bills concerning fire safety come before state lawmakers.
“We just need to educate our legislators,” Wyoming Fire Advisory Board President Shad Cooper said Thursday.
During the Wyoming Rural Fire Association and Wyoming Fire Chiefs Association joint meeting, Cooper took the groups’ input on the bills set to face the Legislature.
Following one of the most active fire seasons Wyoming has seen in decades, Gov. Mark Gordon included wildfire concerns in his supplemental budget requests. In line with that priority, Cooper and the Wyoming Fire Advisory Board decided to make recuperating funds lost to this year’s fire season a priority.
“There’s going to be some opposition in this upcoming legislative session,” Cooper said Thursday. “What I want to do is make (refilling funds) our priority as a body. We need to go down (to Cheyenne) and actively lobby … for making the accounts whole again to prepare for the next fire season.”
While the Wyoming State Forestry can’t lobby for a bill, State Forester Kelly Norris did address needing the counties’ input before talking to legislators and answering questions like “What does State Forestry need?” and “How can we help?”
“We’re realizing our legislators don’t know about fire,” Norris said. “They don’t know about timber. They’ve never been on a timber sale before. These are all things we have to do now to help them understand what we need in the future.”
While there is still time for bills to be proposed before the legislative session begins, the association already had several issues to consider, including building codes, protecting utility companies from wildfire liability, forest health and school security.

Utilities protection

The association voted to seek an amendment on a draft bill, “Public utilities- wildfire protection plans and liability measure.”
The bill, as it is currently written, is intended to address the rising cost of electricity as utility-sparked wildfires become more common. The bill would ideally incentivize power companies to mitigate the risks of wildfires in exchange for damage claim limits.
“Utility companies are running the bill to reduce their liability; that seems to be the primary concern,” Cooper said. “But then in that bill are some minor mitigation requirements for having fuel reduction.”
If it’s introduced for consideration, the association would seek an amendment requiring strong mitigation actions, as opposed to minor ones, from power companies prior to allowing them to receive the benefits of limitations on damage claims.
The draft bill had previously come before the Joint Minerals, Business and Economic Development Committee, but the committee tabled the bill, meaning it will not go to the session with a committee sponsorship.
The bill could still appear in the session if it receives individual sponsors, however.

Wildfire property tax exemptions

The association voted to seek an amendment on another draft bill that would provide property tax exemptions for landowners who were affected by wildfires in the past year.
“Not only are we losing money to provide suppression responsibility and all the costs associated with that. Now we’re also going to lose tax revenue as a result of that,” Cooper said Thursday. “... The concern is the impact to our ability to provide fire protection services by reducing taxation.”
The firefighting community would be lobbying for an amendment to backfill local taxes for fire response capability, ensuring that the tax exemptions don’t limit its ability to provide services.

Single stair exits

The association voted to strongly oppose a draft bill that would force counties, cities and towns to allow single exits in specified multi-family dwellings, particularly multi-family units under six stories.
“There’s a push, a nationwide push, to basically take away the code enforcement authority of the State Fire Marshal or local jurisdiction,” Cooper said.
One community member explained to the association that there are already processes in place to get a building like this approved, but this bill takes away a major safety precaution that would be essential in the event of an evacuation.
Proponents of these types of bills say it will allow developers to fit more units into smaller lots. However, there are safety concerns, as witnessed in this week’s discussion.

Forest health

The association voted to support a draft bill titled “Forest health grant program-3,” which would create a grant program through the Wyoming State Forestry Division. Grants from this program could be used to fund 75% of a forest health project, which would reduce hazardous fuels, limit the risk of wildfires or benefit the forest’s health in a number of other ways.
“This is going to be to help us reduce hazard fuels in our counties and at a local level,” Cooper said. “I think it’s important to give additional funding, additional authority to the State Forestry Division, to help us to take steps and actively manage the risk of wildland fire.”
Norris did briefly introduce the bill to the association during her update speech.
“This is a cost-share opportunity to deal with fuels. It’s using state funds to do that,” Norris told the group.
If passed, the bill would give the State Forestry $3 million from the general fund to support forest health projects.

12/09/2024

Good job, Starbucks!

Thank you so much, Starbucks. The folks at our local Starbucks accepted coffee donations from customers to, in turn, donate that coffee to first responders around Sweetwater County, including Sweetwater Memorial. We can't thank you enough for your thoughtful gesture.

12/09/2024

The Air Race Classic will be stopping at the Southwest Wyoming Regional Airport in 2025!

🛩️ The 2025 Air Race Classic route kicks off in Fairhope, AL, and finishes in Spokane, WA! Registration opens January 2, 2025 📅
Get a head-start by learning how to register and reviewing the rules on our website. Let’s make history! ✈️
https://www.airraceclassic.org/how-to-register.htm

12/09/2024

Wyoming lawmaker proposes statewide cellphone ban in classrooms

By Hannah Shields
Wyoming Tribune Eagle
Via Wyoming News Exchange

CHEYENNE — A ban on cellphone use in the classroom is quickly becoming a popular policy adopted by state legislators across the country — and Wyoming could soon be one of them.
At least 18 states have passed laws or adopted policies banning or restricting the use of cellphones in the classroom, according to an Education Week analysis published in June.
A bill headed for the 2025 general session, sponsored by Sen. Wendy Schuler, R-Evanston, would implement a statewide ban on cellphone use and smartwatches in the classroom during instructional time. The bill provides an exception for students who rely on their phone or smartwatch for medical purposes or as part of their Individualized Education Program.
Schuler told the Wyoming Tribune Eagle she usually avoids proposing any legislation that interferes with local control.
However, several teachers and school district administrators told her they’ve faced backlash from parents when implementing any policy restricting phone use in the classroom, Schuler said.
“If it was just one district, that would be one thing, but it was a number of them,” Schuler said. “And they said, ‘We need some help.’”
One teacher told Schuler that a couple of parents pulled their child out of school because of the district’s cellphone policy.
“They said, ‘If my son or daughter can’t use their phone all day long, every minute they want it, then I don’t want them in public school,’” Schuler said. “That seems crazy to me.”
Rep. Landon Brown, R-Cheyenne, who is one of the bill’s three cosponsors, said he tended to disagree with heavy-handed policies, such as this one, that take away control from local school districts.
But this is a critical issue growing across the state that has to be addressed, he said.
As a member of the Wyoming Legislature’s Joint Education Committee, Brown said he’s seen cellphone use affect all grade levels, including elementary school, and it’s “taking away from the learning environment.”
“Making it a state law sends this message that Wyoming wants to protect our children,” Brown said. “We’re not going to give the local school districts the opportunity to not put this into place, because we feel that strongly about it. … It’s not just a local school district issue anymore.”
As the Wyoming Legislature gets ready to welcome a new, incoming governing body, Schuler and Brown said they’re unsure of whether the bill will make it all the way through. Brown said he could say that about any bill, though. It’s simply a matter of whether lawmakers see it as a good idea.
“The states that have done this seem to have seen lots of really positive things come out of it,” Schuler said. “If we can get (this bill) through, I’m tickled pink.”

Cellphone ban in Laramie County School District #1

Laramie County School District 1 has an existing board policy that bans cellphone use during instructional time, according to LCSD1 Superintendent Stephen Newton. The policy contains exceptions for special circumstances, such as emergencies or specific exemptions for qualified individuals.
“Laramie County School District #1 recognizes the vital importance of protecting instructional time. Certainly, cellphones can distract and impede students from their learning,” Newton said in an emailed statement. “Maintaining focus and concentration without distraction during instruction is a fundamental requirement in preserving high quality classrooms.”
Despite having this policy, concerned parents have brought up the issue of cellphone use in the classrooms during LCSD1 board meetings.
During one board meeting in August, Mason Magagna asked trustees to remove cellphones and devices from the classroom, saying students were showing each other “inappropriate materials.”
Trustee Christy Klaassen said during the meeting that Magagna was the third or fourth person to bring up the issue of cellphone use to the board this year.
“We have a ‘no cellphone’ policy in this district,” Klaassen said. “And if it’s not being enforced, I don’t know why … but talk to your principals.”
During another board meeting in September, Newton said his No. 1 focus for the school district is to maximize instructional time in the classroom. A particular area of distraction that’s recently gained traction in public discussion, he said, is cellphone use.
“I know that it’s a distraction for all of us. I have to resist the urge to check my phone at all times, day or night, and our kids are no exception to that,” Newton said. “It does distract us, and it does take away our concentration.”
A Pew Research article published in June reported that 72% of U.S. high school teachers said cellphone use is a “major problem in the classroom.” A majority of K-12 teachers in the U.S. said their school or district adopted some type of cellphone policy, but 30% of teachers said it’s “very or somewhat difficult to enforce.” This was found to be especially true for high school educators, according to the article.

Is it necessary?

Some studies show there’s a negative impact from smartphones on student learning, although data is limited as researchers continue to explore this realm of technology and its impact on student academics.
A 2021 article published in ScienceDirect, an international source of medical and scientific research, found that smartphone use negatively impacted a student’s ability to learn efficiently. The article contained the results of 44 studies performed on a total of 147,000 students across 16 countries, including the United States.
Researchers concluded that smartphone addiction negatively impacted students’ learning and overall academic performance, as well as their skills and cognitive abilities.
However, many parents against cellphone bans argue they need to be in contact with their child during school, especially in the case of an emergency.
In early November, several Wyoming high schools, including Cheyenne’s South and East high schools, went into lockdown after receiving bomb threats.
For Cheyenne East, that was its third lockdown of the semester.
“There’s a very valid reason to have these cellphones in the school, especially with what you’ve seen with the swatting calls lately,” Brown said, referring to false 911 calls that send a school into lockdown. “Those are areas where parents are going to look at this and say, ‘I want my kid to have their cellphone at the school.’”

12/09/2024

Tribal protesters rally against ‘downright theft’ posed by power plant transfer

Crowd gathered with megaphones and signs in front of Sen. John Barrasso’s Riverton office demanding tribal consultation on the measure.

By Katie Klingsporn, WyoFile.com

RIVERTON—About 50 people gathered in front of U.S. Sen. John Barrasso’s office Thursday to protest what one tribal representative called “downright theft from the federal government.” The bill they oppose — the Pilot Butte Power Plant Conveyance Act — would result in a defunct power plant on the Wind River Indian Reservation being conveyed to a nearby irrigation district.
Nicole Wagon, a Northern Arapaho woman who helped organize the protest, told the protesters the act is the latest “in a long line of violations” against the tribes.
“The Wyoming congressional delegation never had the common decency to consult with Eastern Shoshone or Northern Arapaho of their intent to continue the theft of Indian land through the Pilot Butte Conveyance Act,” she said.
Barrasso and Wyoming’s lone U.S. Rep. Harriet Hageman pushed companion bills that would require the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation to transfer control of the plant to the Midvale Irrigation District, which manages irrigation water across central Fremont County. The legislation would also shift ownership of the land beneath the mothballed infrastructure. Hageman’s version has passed the U.S. House; Barrasso’s has been introduced into the Senate.
“Senator Barrasso appreciates members of the community sharing their thoughts and keeping Thursday’s demonstration respectful and peaceful,” Barrasso’s Communications Director Laura M. Mengelkamp told WyoFile. “He’s been in contact with members of both the Eastern Shoshone and Northern Arapaho tribes as the Pilot Butte Power Plant Conveyance Act has advanced in the Senate.”
The defunct federal facility on a small piece of land was slated to be demolished, Mengelkamp noted, and the Midvale irrigators are willing to put the money in to get the plant back up and running to use the power locally.
When asked about the act during an October candidate debate, Barrasso cited those reasons when he called it “a win-win for the people,” but said the Bureau of Reclamation should have consulted the tribes.
“I think that was a mistake,” he said. “They should have been informed early on.”
The Wind River Inter-Tribal Council on Wednesday approved a resolution denouncing the act.
Wagon said Thursday’s peaceful protest “is just the beginning for us to come together and take a stand … We’re not going to stay quiet.”

Treaties and water canals

The 1863 Fort Bridger Treaty between the U.S. government and Eastern Shoshone tribe outlined a vast area of more than 43 million acres for Shoshone territory. Five years later, the government reduced the land to less than 3 million acres when it established the Wind River Indian Reservation. The government later placed the Northern Arapaho Tribe on the reservation as well.
A 1905 agreement that opened further reservation lands up to white settlement still does not sit well with many tribal members. The power plant proposal, opponents say, has echoes of what they see as land grabs under the guise of legislation.
The property in question is owned by the federal government and managed by the Bureau of Reclamation. It consists of a tin-sided building housing a hydroelectric facility unused for more than 15 years as well as a penstock filled with water diverted from the Wyoming Canal. The water, which used to spin a turbine to generate electricity, now bypasses the building, directly feeding Pilot Butte Reservoir.
The Midvale Irrigation District approached Wyoming’s congressional delegation about transferring the title of the old Pilot Butte Power Plant so it could be rehabilitated. Producing power for customers would minimize costs, Midvale Irrigation District Manager Steve Lynn told the House Water, Wildlife and Fisheries Subcommittee in September 2023.
Still, the principle of the conveyance and their exclusion from the process rankles the tribes. Protesters on Thursday held signs demanding treaty rights be honored, filled out template letters to send to congressional representatives, burned sweetgrass and listened to speakers.
Reading the newly approved inter-tribal resolution, Wayland Large, chairman of the Eastern Shoshone Business Council, said the inter-tribal council has informed the bureau, Hageman and Barrasso of their consultation requirements.
“The Wind River Inter-Tribal Council is staunchly opposed to the legislation,” he said.
Northern Arapaho Business Council member Keenan Groesbeck didn’t plan to talk, but shared a few words when Wagon handed him the megaphone.
“What’s been going on here is just downright theft from the federal government,” he said. “It’s been going on for far too long. It’s time for the tribes to stand up and assert our sovereignty against the federal government.”

WyoFile is an independent nonprofit news organization focused on Wyoming people, places and policy.

PHOTO CUTLINE: Nicole Wagon explains why Wind River Indian Reservation communities oppose the Pilot Butte Power Plant Conveyance Act during a Dec. 5, 2024 protest outside of U.S. Sen. John Barrasso’s Riverton office. Barrasso and Wyoming’s U.S. Rep. Harriet Hageman have pushed companion bills that would require the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation to convey a derelict hydroelectric power plant located within the borders of the reservation to the Midvale Irrigation District. (Katie Klingsporn/WyoFile)

12/09/2024

Little library lives again in Hudson, Wyoming

Following a period of inactivity, volunteers revive the town’s tiny Yablonski Memorial Library.

By Katie Klingsporn, WyoFile.com

HUDSON—The diminutive white building in this diminutive central Wyoming town might be mistaken for a home if not for the faded book drop outside and the large blue words adorning its front exterior wall: Yablonski Memorial Library.
Those letters, which are new, signify fresh life in a facility revived after a period of dormancy.
A group of volunteers called Hudson Community Heroes reopened the community library in late November after months of work. It will be open on Mondays from 2-6 p.m. for residents of this 435-person town near the Little Popo Agie River — and anyone else who wants to pop in.
In reviving the library, volunteers have also uncovered more about the former company town’s history of mining and labor.
Maralyne Middour and Susan Bronson launched the effort after realizing the library, which could be used as a community space for programs like the Girl Scouts, hadn’t been open for some time, Middour said. After asking around, they discovered the elderly woman who formerly managed it had been moved to a senior facility in Lander, leaving nobody at the helm.
“We were like, ‘this should be an asset for the community,’” Middour said. “‘This shouldn’t be som**hing that’s shuttered.’”
Community libraries like Hudson’s aren’t typically government-funded and maintained, unlike their public counterparts. Instead, nonprofits or groups manage them.
The Hudson Community Heroes obtained permission from the town to run the library, but the task wasn’t as simple as opening the doors. The building had been neglected, Middour said, and a significant amount of decluttering, organizing and cleaning was in order.
“When we walked in here for the very first time, you couldn’t really tell what it was,” she said. “I mean, it looked so cluttered. It was so full of stuff. And there was definitely a spider and centipede infestation.”
Now, books, DVDs and puzzles line the shelves in orderly rows. The collection includes authors from CJ Box to Charles Dickens and the prolific Clive Cussler — whose books fill an entire shelf. Many items can be borrowed on the honor system.

Middour, who is a keen history buff, was also able to reconstruct some of the history of the town and its library. When the project started, she heard a couple different accounts of why it was called the Yablonski Library, she said. After some digging, she discovered the building was formerly the United Mine Workers of America Union Hall. “So that was the original intended purpose of this building.”
In 1974, a group of women called the Hudson Hudsonettes negotiated the union hall property’s transfer to the town of Hudson to be maintained in perpetuity as a library in memory of the Yablonski family, Middour said, “and that’s how it became the Yablonski Memorial Library.”
Joseph “Jock” Yablonski was a labor leader in the United Mine Workers in the 1950s and ‘60s known for demanding better working conditions. Along with his wife and adult daughter, Yablonski was brutally murdered on New Year’s Eve in 1969 in his Pennsylvania home by men hired by a union president he had challenged in an election. After his death, Jablonski became known as a hero for workers in union circles. Cillian Murphy is reportedly playing Yablonski in an upcoming film about the labor leader’s life.
When they began going through the library’s materials, Middour found a framed piece of children’s art. It was labeled on the back as “Portrait of Joseph Yablonski.” She opened the frame and found a photograph of the man behind the art.
The whole experience, Middour said, is a good example of how history can slip away.
“If a couple of generations go by and certain stories aren’t passed along, it’s like history’s just lost,” she said.
Middour and her husband moved to Fremont County from Natrona County in the ‘90s. As she’s driven through Hudson over the decades, she’s watched as businesses have closed and the town has grown quieter. She hopes the library helps in a way to keep the town — which at its peak was home to 1,500 people, including immigrants from many European countries — vibrant.

WyoFile is an independent nonprofit news organization focused on Wyoming people, places and policy.

PHOTO CUTLINES:
Maralyne Middour smiles in front of shelves stocked with children’s books in the newly reopened Yablonski Free Library in Hudson in November 2024. Middour is one of the volunteers who worked to reopen the facility, which had fallen into inactivity. (Katie Klingsporn/WyoFile)

The Yablonski Memorial Library in Hudson. (Katie Klingsporn/WyoFile)

12/09/2024

Today in Wyoming history:

In 1976, a 5.1 earthquake occurred in Yellowstone National Park.

Tomorrow in Wyoming history:

In 1869, Territorial Gov. John Campbell signed a bill giving full suffrage and public rights to women in Wyoming. This was the first law passed in the US explicitly granting the right to vote to women.

The bill provided that: ""Every woman of the age of eighteen years residing in this territory, may, at every election cast her vote; and her right to the elective franchise and to hold office under the election laws of the territory shall be the same of electors."

(Thanks to the Wyoming State Historical Society.)

12/09/2024

For the first time, biologists know where Wyoming’s pikas dwell — at least for now

Surveys will be repeated in mountain ranges around the state to inform how climate change is affecting the alpine talus-bound mammals, but existing research hints that adversity lies ahead for pikas.

By Mike Koshmrl, WyoFile.com

The whereabouts of the pint-sized pika, a mammalian indicator species that is losing its alpine habitat to climate change, have been mapped for the first time in Wyoming’s reaches of the Rocky Mountains.
Biologists who keep watch over non-game species for the Wyoming Game and Fish Department surveyed the distribution of the talus-dwelling lagomorphs, finding pikas in nine mountainous areas: the Salt River, Snake River, Wyoming, Wind River, Gros Ventre, Teton, Absaroka, Bighorn and Snowy ranges. The effort was motivated by a desire to better understand how climate change stands to influence the animal’s unique alpine habitat niche in the Equality State.
“They are a habitat specialist that is sensitive to temperature,” Game and Fish Nongame Mammal Biologist Dana Nelson told WyoFile. “Knowing that, and knowing that climate change is a leading threat that we really want to have figured out, that motivated the implementation of those statewide occupancy surveys a few years ago.”
Although the surveys date to 2020 and 2021, the results were more recently published in the state agency’s annual nongame “job completion report.”
The results of 167 surveys completed at 100 unique sites show that the tiny, short-eared cousin of the rabbit occupied 57% of the suitable habitat in the state. As time goes on, and Wyoming’s mountains continue to warm, biologists will then have baseline data to examine, and lots of it. Fortunately, the technicians who shouldered the intensive fieldwork also amassed data on slope angle and direction where pikas dwelled, in addition to inventorying vegetative cover — and logging temperatures above and below ground.
Armed with that data, Nelson, colleagues and generations of Wyoming biologists to come will be able to detect not only if pikas have abandoned certain areas, but also if they are shifting their range uphill or selecting habitat based on another parameter.
Wyoming’s pika research is funding-dependent, and the schedule isn’t cemented, but Nelson’s hoping to pull off a repeat of the 2021 and 2022 surveys every five to six years. The initial effort was funded through a state wildlife grant, she said.
Based on a mountain of existing research, it’s likely that the changes Game and Fish biologists detect won’t be favorable for the American pika, a twice Endangered Species Act-petitioned — but not listed — species.
“Pikas have been lost from 32% to 36% of the [habitat] patches in four different mountain ranges in Idaho and Montana,” said Erik Beever, a research ecologist for the U.S. Geological Survey’s Northern Rocky Mountain Science Center.
Beever, who’s studied pikas for three decades, cited that grim finding from a 2021 study led by his then-graduate student that looked at evidence of where pikas live now — and where they used to — based on their s**t and food caches. Vacant habitat suggested that climate change is already making incursions into pika range: The places they used to be are consistently warmer, consistently drier, and consistently hold a lower snowpack, he said.
The environmental changes affecting pikas vary from place to place.
“The nice thing about this species is it really spans about a third of North America,” Beever said. “Magnitudes of change across studies have varied pretty markedly based on where you are in the range.”
With a range extending south to New Mexico and north into Canada, Wyoming’s pikas are located approximately in the middle. Being central bodes well, Beever said, because it lessens the likelihood they’ll experience the starker habitat changes felt on the far reaches of the range.
“At first blush, one might expect the magnitude of influence of contemporary climate variability and change to be less in Wyoming than other places,” Beever said.
A National Park Service-led study also suggests that Wyoming pikas’ alpine abodes might hold up more favorably than other areas of the range. The collaborative research, forebodingly titled Pikas in Peril, examined pika habitat in eight different national parks and monuments.
“They predicted pika occupancy in Grand Teton National Park to remain at 100% throughout the 21st century, whereas it was predicted to decline in every other park — in some of them dramatically,” Beever said. “Working there [in the Tetons], we’re trying to figure out what that ‘secret sauce’ is so that we can help export that for climate adaptation efforts across the rest of the country.”

WyoFile is an independent nonprofit news organization focused on Wyoming people, places and policy.

PHOTO CUTLINE: An American pika calls into the alpine air in a Wyoming mountain range. (Mark Gocke/Wyoming Game and Fish Department)