Say it ain't so Wyoming

I was born in the state of Wyoming (I lived there for 2 months oh the memories) and both my parents went to the University of Wyoming so I will read a story about the state when I happen across it. Lately the stories that I have been seeing haven't been so pleasant. I know a lot of people still remember what happened right around a year ago now with the University of Wyoming Geological Museum, this was bad enough to get my dad to pull some of the money he give to the University and instead gave it to the group that kept the museum open, if you don't remember Chinleana has the reasoning, the University posted an article about the people who donated to help keep the museum open, (also if you are on facebook become a fan of, or like or whatever the heck it is, the Save the University of Wyoming Geological Museum). Over the past week a few other stories have grabbed my attention and these ones are not good either.

The first one I found here (the Guardian article and NPR article that inspired it). I don't know why I didn't say something when I first read it but now the author has another article in which he mentions sending a letter to the Governor of Wyoming and he asked for help. I figured I would say something even if it is just my little blog with very few followers. The story comes down to the state owns some land within Grand Teton National Park, to see all the federal land within Wyoming go here (for your own state go here), that is to be used for educational purposes but the Governor is planning on selling the land off to private citizens. While this would be allowed if the Governor used the money for schools, which he said he would, it would be a severe disappointment and would drastically reduce the beauty of the area if a private developer put houses or what have you within the park. Now states all over the country are looking for money right now so I guess I understand why the Governor would want money. Oh wait maybe not:

We're not short of revenue. We're in pretty good shape. Our revenues are ahead of projections. We’re sitting on about $800 million in cash reserves and we expect the next projections to show revenue probably $200 million to $300 million over projections. So this thing about the Grand Teton is not driven by that.

I remember going through the Tetons when I was like 5 years old between that the Geologic Museum and Yellowstone that is all the I remember from Wyoming. The problem is that the Governor of Wyoming doesn't really seem to care what people outside of the state think (see next story) so it is going to come down to people within Wyoming sending angry mail to the Governor before he is going to stop.

So this next story just makes me shake my head. Years ago, 1995, wolves were first reintroduced to Yellowstone National Park in Idaho and Wyoming. This was an attempt to get back these animals to number before humans had hunted them to extinction in the Western United States (the Wikipedia article is a good read). Last week a federal judge angered people in Idaho and Montana when he ruled that since Wyoming isn't being very protective of the wolves the EPA cannot allow hunting to go on in those two states. Since Wyoming allows the killing of wolves within 80% of the state by whatever means this will prevent wolves from getting back to sustainable numbers within the state. I ran across another story today in which the Governor says that if the Federal government want to save the wolves than they can pay for them. No seriously he did:

“I don’t want to spend any state money on it,” he [Governor Dave Freudenthal of Wyoming] said of wolf management. “Let the feds do it. Why should I pay state money to be a toady to the federal government?”

Why should you pay state money, oh I don't know, maybe because people in your state killed them all off, yes I know the people who did it aren't alive anymore point still stands. Later the article says this:

The most recent court decision stripping Montana’s and Idaho’s authority over wolves said the Endangered Species Act couldn’t be bifurcated across state lines. In other words, wolves in Wyoming, Idaho and Montana either all had to be under federal protection or all under acceptable state plans that ensure their persistence.

That could make Montana and Idaho put pressure on Wyoming to reject the predator zone in favor of trophy game status statewide. Under such a scheme, wolf shooters in Wyoming would need a license, although seasons and limits could be liberal.

But Freudenthal said he didn’t care about pressure from other states.

“Neither has 100 percent of the state in the recovery area,” he said. “We do.”

This is why I don't think he will care if people from outside of the state of Wyoming care about the selling of land within the National Parks. He doesn't care what people think of his state, that he could lose tourist dollars apparently doesn't scare him much either.

Govenor please stop playing politics with the environment!