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Friday, May 29, 2009
WBR10 - What do you think are Wyoming`s 7 best natural wonders?
One of the things that Wyoming tourism attempts to sell to it customers is how “natural” our state is.
It was with that goal in mind that I decided to try to determine what were the most impressive seven natural wonders of our state.
When the idea came to me to promote what seemed the most likely seven wonders, well, it was not as easy as originally thought.
With lots of friends around the state, I made the mistake of asking them what areas they thought would qualify?
They came up with at least 50 wonders and you can bet when this column gets published from one end of the state to the other, well, my readers will let me know what an incomplete list that is compiled here. Doggone it, why isn’t my favorite place listed?
Two wonders were on everybody’s list. My #1 was Yellowstone National Park, the world’s first national park. And what a wonder it is! And #2 was its next-door neighbor The Grand Tetons/Jackson Hole area. Most also agreed the world’s first national monument, Devils Tower, should be #3, along with the Wyoming Black Hills, which it dominates.
But coming up with the four other wonders proved to be somewhat more controversial.
Former Rawlins Daily Times Publisher Shelley Ridenour talked about Aspen Alley on the Battle Mountain Highway and Silver Lake in the Snowy Range. Pat Schmidt of Thermop lobbied for the Beartooth Mountains.
Worland State Rep. Debbie Hammons said that surely my list would include The Medicine Wheel and Chief Joseph Highway?
Bed and Breakfast owner Marv Brown lobbied hard for Devil’s Gate and Red Canyon.
Kari Cooper of Jackson says the most beautiful place in Wyoming is the headwaters of the Green River near Pinedale. Carole Perkins of Sheridan touted Shell Falls outside of Greybull.
Former Cheyenne resident Mike Lindsey could not imagine how the Oregon Trail could not make the list. State Rep. Pete Illoway of Cheyenne pushed hard for Hell’s Half Acre and Wind River Canyon, with the latter also being Tucker Fagan’s favorite.
Former Gov. Mike Sullivan, Casper, pitched the Chugwater formation with its red rock formations ranging from Flaming Gorge to Red Canyon to Thermopolis.
Rodger McDaniel of Cheyenne said he thought Elk Mountain, Gannett Peak and any one of several rivers should be on my list. Secretary of State Max Maxfield likes the Big Horn Mountains and also boosted Sinks Canyon. Tom Lacock, formerly of Cheyenne, wanted Wind River Canyon and the Saratoga Hot Springs included.
Pennie Hunt of Laramie thought our wide-open spaces should be listed. The Great Divide Basin in the Red Desert was pushed by Charlie Smith.
Dave Langerman wanted more waterfalls. Vince Tomassi of Diamondville railed at me for not touting Fossil Butte. My daughter Shelli thought Bighorn Canyon deserved consideration. Jeff Rose of Lingle likes Guernsey State Park. Also Veduwoo outside of Laramie.
Jim Hicks of Buffalo said the Seven Brothers Lakes and Lake Solitude are four-mile hikes into the Cloud Peak Wilderness and deserve consideration. Ernie Over pushed for Togwotee Pass and the red walls around Butch Cassidy country.
Former Travel Commission Director Gene Bryan offered up a host of sites including the usual suspects but also added the gangplank west of Cheyenne, Wapiti Valley, McCullough Peaks, Greybull’s Sheep Mountain and a special plug for South Pass for what it meant to the country.
Many agreed the vast Red Desert should count as #4 with all its various sites including the many buttes, Boar’s Tusk, Killpecker Sand Dunes and all the other unique places tucked away in this gigantic area.
The fact that the Thermopolis Hot Springs are the largest in the world makes it easy to include as #5.
Whew. Just two left to go.
Rodger is right. I need to include at least one river on my list. My choice is the North Platte River System. This huge river makes up five reservoirs and carries more water than any other river in our state. But we sure have wonderful rivers like the Snake, Green, Laramie, Sweetwater, Popo Agie, Wind/Bighorn, Greybull, Tongue and even the Powder. But the North Platte is #6 on my list with all its wondrous sites from Saratoga to Casper to Torrington.
My #7 is South Pass, with all its meaning to the country. Without this natural gap in the mountain ranges, the USA of today would probably only reach to the mountains. Some 350,000 emigrants traveled the Oregon, California and Mormon Trails in the 19th century over South Pass to extend our country to the Pacific. The history around that area is superb for any tourist to enjoy.
So there you have it.
No doubt you will not agree on all of them. You should agree with me that there are hundreds of places that are wonderful natural wonders to see in our great state.
What are your 7 favorite natural wonders of Wyoming?
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922 - A futurist says Wyoming better than most but watch out!
The only person I know whose job description is “futurist” spent some time scaring the devil out of me with his forecast of the five great economic disasters of the 21st Century.
Jeff Wacker resides in a suburb of Dallas near where my youngest daughter lives. He is the futurist for the computer consulting giant EDS, the behemoth founded by Ross Perot that has 140,000 employees. EDS was recently acquired by Hewlett-Packard, which gives Mr. Wacker’s observations all the more stature in my opinion.
Over a Tex-Mex lunch, he shared what he thinks will be coming next and pretty much did not offer any ideas of how to shield yourself from it. That is, unless his idea of investing in gold-backed currency from the country of Jersey Islands qualified as top-notch advice?
Still, not great advice. But be warned, he said.
Mr. Wacker’s observations were featured prominently in the recent best seller Hot, Flat and Crowded by Thomas Friedman, the Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist for the New York Times.
Of the five economic crises he predicted to me, two have already occurred. They are the banking crisis and the housing crisis.
The next three, in order, will be banking crisis II (credit card and non-mortgage defaults) brought about by massive national unemployment, a commercial lending banking crisis and the biggest of all, the pension crisis ($55 trillion).
He offered me up some detail.
And although he did not offer me great solutions of how to protect myself, he said just being located in Wyoming was a huge advantage over living just about anywhere else in the country.
He and I have shared insights on energy development in recent years and he feels Wyoming’s economy will be pretty solid for the next decade because of the nation’s energy reliance on coal and natural gas, our state’s two biggest exports.
The province of Alberta in Canada has also impressed him with its development and he sees a Rocky Mountain energy corridor from Alberta south to Colorado that will probably do okay in the next decade, despite the national problems. He is bullish on Wyoming with its small population, strong fiscal practices and the amounts of money that has been socked away in funds.
Energy will continue to be a desperately needed national commodity. The brownouts that were predicted this August for Texas will be delayed a year by the economic slowdown.
He says Americans will soon discover that wind is not dependable and that increased reliance on that energy source will contribute to the brownouts in Texas in 2010 and on the East coast in 2011 and the entire country in 2012. He says 2012 will be watershed year for the country in a bad way.
His prediction for the country is dour. He says our country`s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is based on consumerism, rather than producing things.
“Once the world figures out that American people have quit spending, the dollar could lose 25 percent of value,” he says. This would create high inflation, meaning it would take the more dollars to buy tomorrow what it takes today.
He also takes issue with how this country figures inflation. “Energy and food costs are not factored in. The high cost of gasoline at the pump made no difference to our inflation rate last year. Crazy,” he says.
The term “Global Wierding” is his preferred words to describe the climate change occurring in the world today, rather than just Global Warming.
He says this term “Wierding” explains the great disruptions and climatic abnormalities brought about by increased energy absorption thanks to increased greenhouse gases.
He avoids the emotional argument of “man -made” or “nature -made, “ but when pressed, says: “my opinion is that we humans are indeed a cause even if we are maybe not the only cause. Given our lack of understanding of cause and effect, tipping points, etc., I think it’s foolish to dismiss the possibility that we’re causing it. We ought to lessen our impact and err on the side of the angels (and environmentalists).
“And when we can do it and save money at the same time (that system versus symptom thing) then it is both economically as well as ecologically in our favor to do so.
“The problem is the total economic and technological unreality of turning off a hydrocarbon-based economy that has been several hundred years in the making. We’re going to have to live with an energy compromise for quite some time, so we’d better do it as intelligently as possible.”
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Sunday, May 17, 2009
921 - A scary message to grads . . . you will need to hustle!
I am not afraid of tomorrow for I have seen yesterday and I love today. – William Allen White
Anyone attempting to present a positive message to graduating high school or college seniors this month has a much tougher job than they had just a year ago or any time this century.
In just nine short months, the world economy has lost over three trillion dollars in assets and the entire future economic landscape facing today’s grads has changed.
A favorite quote: “The problem with our times is that the future is not what it used to be.” How true.
So, to you new grads, what can you do about it? How can you make a good future for yourself in the face of such uncertainty?
As an old guy, I can stress your number-one advantage in coping with all this is your youth. How ever this all turns out, if you work hard and pay attention, you will be a better person because of all these uncertain times you will live through.
A sense of responsibility and good character often do not come from an easy life. They come from overcoming adversity and surviving tests that are often unpleasant. The real definition of maturity is where a person ends up after dealing with a series of problems and solving them. You do not mature by running away from or hiding from your problems. Or having someone else solve your problems.
Whether you are a Republican or Democrat, any citizen of this country has to worry about our nation becoming too much like Europe. In Europe, the government provides just about everything.
It was free enterprise, capitalism and rugged individualism that made this country great. I hope you grads can grasp these concepts and realize how they can make a big impact on how you will be able to survive these difficult times.
My parents and grandparents used words like “gumption” to describe someone who worked extra hard to try to get ahead. What your generation of graduating seniors needs, to cope with what’s ahead, is gumption.
I hear it all the time that, among you, is “a generation of louts.” That among you, are a group of immature adolescents who sleep too much in the morning, know nothing about history and spend most workdays texting, emailing and playing video games?
No doubt there are a number who fit this description. Hopefully the majority will want to create a better world through your hard work and the good works that you intend to do.
If that happens, perhaps you can drag along those others who want just a handout.
Now here are five secrets about what you should do to get ahead:
• Although working hard is a virtue, working “smart” is genius.
• Education is the key but I am not talking about advanced degrees here. I am talking about identifying a field you would like to work in and then learning everything you can about it. Best way to do this is talking with people in the field. Or volunteering to work in the fringe parts of that industry. Scanning the Internet for everything you can find out about trends in that field helps, too. You, honestly, can never learn enough.
• It is not who you know or what you know that counts in getting a good career going. It is who you know AND what you know that will make all the difference. Locate and cultivate mentors.
• Responsibility, honesty and ethics are critical. Many in your generation are assumed to be lazy and not loyal. If you are loyal to those who you work with and for, you will be stunned by how far that will get you in your career.
• Timing is the single most important thing in getting ahead. You must stay on top of trends and always, always check which way the economic winds are blowing. You must be a man or woman of action. Jump when you need to, but look before you leap.
Earlier I said that your youth is your greatest asset. You sit there at your graduation as an “unformed human being.” Your whole world is out there ahead of you.
I recall my high school graduation. Overriding thought that ran through my head was “what is going to happen to me?”
Although scary, this is the most exciting time to be alive. Approach these times with optimism and love for your fellow human being (plus gumption) and you should turn out just fine.
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Tuesday, May 12, 2009
920 - Three words describe water project - THIS THING SUCKS
When you live in an area as dry as Wyoming, it’s easy to be upset about a plan where water will be piped from Sweetwater County to the Front Range of Colorado.
Recent public meetings concerning this project held in three states have revealed predictable reactions and fascinating observations.
Most appropriate response was a shout at the Green River meeting where Mayor Hank Castillion concluded: “This thing sucks!”
Yes, it certainly does.
Genesis of this project was an ambitious effort in 2003 by the Colorado legislature to identify water sources west of the Continental Divide and somehow move water through the Rocky Mountains to feed the thirsty, fast-growing cities on the east side of the divide.
Dubbed “The Big Straw,” it envisioned spending $15 billion on projects. Some were quickly disappeared while some are still being worked on.
But this most recent water project, called a trans-basin diversion plan, came out of the fertile mind of a Fort Collins farmer named Aaron Million, when he was working on his thesis at Colorado State U. His “aha” moment came when he realized that Colorado allegedly owned water that was streaming down the Green River in Wyoming.
He and his dad, Isadore Million, a retired geologist who ran one of the more liberal coffee shops called Penny Lane on the CU campus in Boulder, sketched and doodled until they came up with a plan that seemed to make sense.
He has some well-heeled backers who realize just how rich they could all become if they could pull off this amazing scheme.
It involves spending $3 billion for a 560-mile pipeline from the river north of the town of Green River and from a second withdrawal site at Flaming Gorge.
Mr. Million has applied for a federal 404 water permit. Thus the Army Corps of Engineers has been conducting scoping meetings from Green River to Pueblo.
The Colorado entrepreneur and his well-financed partners plan to annually suck 250,000 acre feet of water that will be used to sprinkle thirsty lawns in cities on the Front Range as far south as Pueblo.
In the interest of full disclosure, although my work in researching this project has been at my own expense up to now, there is a possibility that my firm, Wyoming Inc., may be hired in the future to do some public relations efforts involving dealing with impacts of this project.
This project has raised much ire in Wyoming, but there are a few supporters, including one irrigation district near Laramie. Basically this is a border war – a fight between Wyoming and Colorado for that most precious of substances, our water.
The scoping meetings brought some interesting responses:
• It was pointed out at the Denver meeting that Colorado has laws on the books against private business people speculating in water.
• A former UW professor announced the Wyoming constitution considers all water within its boundaries to be owned by the state and water cannot be moved out without approval of the legislature.
• In Laramie, a speaker with knowledge of the Weather Service said we are in a drought and the driest place in the country is SW Wyoming.
• Also in Laramie, Nanette Nelson felt that the Corps needed to go back many more years on weather records when figuring out drought potential and the actual capacity of the Green River.
• At the Denver meeting, I pointed out that the glaciers are disappearing in the Wind River Mountains, the headwaters of the Green. What effects will that have on future water flows?
• A man named Frank Jaeger of Parker, CO, spoke against the Million project in Denver, saying that governments should do this, not a private businessman. Mr. Jaeger has subsequently already paid visits to Wyoming talking up his irrigation district-sponsored plan, which is no better for Wyoming.
• In Vernal, Utah, the crowd of 60 people was opposed to it. A local County Commissioner Ed Peterson said: “If a 500-mile pipeline can be built to deliver water to the Front Range, then why not take from the Missouri or the Mississippi?”
• In Mr. Million’s hometown of Fort Collins, there was surprising opposition to the plan. Gary Wockner of the Save the Poudre Coalition hinted his folks might stand with their compatriots in Wyoming.
The Corps has announced two more scoping meetings, in Craig and Grand Junction June 10 and 11 and also extended the comment period to July 27. Wyoming’s Congressional delegation has requested additional scoping meetings to be held in Lincoln and Sweetwater Counties.
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Thursday, May 7, 2009
919 - Texas flu, wyoming coal and natural gas
A hidden danger lurking deep in the heart of Texas might describe this past week’s experience. Besides heavy rains, 90-degree temps and more humidity that we had experienced for awhile – well, it was a fun time, all around. But there was a scourge on the horizon.
We were visiting relatives and hoping our grandson Braley’s First Communion would actually be held, since schools were being closed and events were being cancelled because of the Swine Flu scare.
After a two-year old died in Houston, schools and events started closing all around us.
Fort Worth Independent School District (FWISD) shuttered its schools stranding almost 80,000 students (about the same as the entire state of Wyoming) as staff spent time scrubbing down the school. They had four cases reported.
Over-reaction? To be sure. When they announced the kids would not have to make up the work, though, that sounded like a mistake to me.
Now here we are a week later and most people are thinking that the Texas action was an over-reaction and the whole country is heaving a sigh of relief that we really are not on the verge of pandemic.
While in Texas, I usually check on what their huge utility TXU is up to.
Two years ago that entity cancelled nine new coal fired power plants that would have used 7 percent of Wyoming’s total annual coal production. Now that company has changed its name to Luminant and its leaders are thinking nuclear power.
Texas is also one of the country’s largest producers of natural gas. And lots of people in that state want them to use that to generate power.
This reminds me of a letter from State Rep. Kermit C. Brown of Laramie lambasting me for my predictions of Wyoming’s future wealth.
He sent me a clipping from the Wall Street Journal about a huge natural gas find in Louisiana and how natural gas prices will continue to fall. This will negatively affect the Wyoming economy, which relies of taxes on natural gas for much of the revenue to run state government.
He writes: “Perhaps this will persuade you to stop writing those ridiculous articles claiming the Wyoming is rich and will be rolling in dough beyond our wildest dreams for at least the next 25 years. These developments raise grave doubts about the viability of our gas industry and our coal industry.
“The reductions Governor Freudenthal is making right now might be the tip of the ice berg. And extra saving by statute over and above the amount constitutionally mandated to go into the Permanent Mineral Trust Fund looks like it might have been a brilliant idea.”
To defend myself, I always qualified my predictions on the assumption that our national economy will continue to grow, thus demanding more energy, which is our main export product. No one predicted the national meltdown that is impacting the current demand for energy.
But I must admit you’ve got a point, Kermit. Thanks for writing and keep up the vigilance in reining in Wyoming state government.
When on the subject of natural gas, ABC-TV did a big feature on Pinedale for having the lowest unemployment rate in the country. That is because of the huge natural gas fields located near that town in Sublette County.
The TV feature included some great footage of the Wind River Mountains and the Green River.
And while we are talking about natural gas, I must mention a conversation with the son-in-law of my late long-time coffee mate Hank Bartell, who died last week.
Joe Crook makes a long commute in the Salt Lake Valley and recently switched to a CNG (compressed natural gas)–powered car.
Hank had been filling me in on how that was working, but I got to visit with Joe about it at Hank’s funeral. Joe says it costs him just $5 to fill up the tank on his Honda and he goes 300 miles to the fill.
Utah has totally embraced CNG for vehicles and this is something that Wyoming should consider. We have so much cheap and readily available natural gas it just makes sense. Talking with Joe sure got me excited about it all over again.
One of the disadvantages I had had about the CNG was that I thought you could only go 100 miles on a fill, but at 300 miles, suddenly even using it with Wyoming’s long distances could make sense.
Maybe we should power the whole state fleet with it, anyway.
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Sunday, May 3, 2009
918 - Against the wind (projects in Wyoming)
When I walked into the office of my first job in Harlan, Iowa, 45 years ago, the comment that came out of my mouth was: “What is that awful smell around town?”
My boss, who was a local economic development promoter, smiled and said, “Son, that is the smell of money.” The underlying message was that a person should not be complaining about such an odor from the new pork processing plant because it was creating 300 local jobs.
And although I didn’t like it, I learned to not complain about the occasionally overpowering smell of this great economic engine that was bringing progress to our little town.
There are many other kinds of booms besides meat processing.
Since moving to Wyoming almost four decades ago, we have seen oil booms, uranium mining booms, coal booms, Coalbed methane booms, natural gas exploration booms and now the boom in wind energy turbines.
With Wyoming being the home of the most consistent winds in the country, it is about time this resource was developed here. And should we not all embrace this wonderful development?
After all, isn’t this clean energy with most of those turbines located on bleak ridges rising out of various no-man’s lands around our state?
My most recent column about wind energy was in January, which included:
“I have become a persistent windbag myself when it comes to wind power. We are the country’s most windy place and our product is more reliable than the inconsistent breezes you find in Texas or California.
“Does anyone who lives here doubt the reliability and persistence of our wind? It is easy to foresee a time when many of our breezy ridgelines will have wind farms on them. Such wind farms are a blessing.”
Folks from Southwest Wyoming gathered recently in Rock Springs for a Sweetwater County-sponsored meeting where a surprising number of people were concerned about wind projects.
According to National Public Radio, new word in the 2010 Webster’s Dictionary is “viewshed” which stands for that area that offers you your view of the mountains or trees or whatever. Used for many years by government officials, it has now become a real word.
And that word was big at the Sweetwater meeting.
A surprising number of people just wished they did not have to look out at windmills on every ridge around their town.
A promoter from Tasco, Utah, wants to place 237 turbines on White Mountain northwest of Rock Springs. White Mountain is a popular recreation area between Rock Springs and Green River, just off I-80. The site is near the scenic landmark Pilot Butte and the recently completed Wild Horse Loop Tour, which runs along its slope.
"We need to walk a fine line between the economic benefits afforded us by this resource and the erosion of our way of life," reporter Jeff Gearino quoted County Treasurer Robb Slaughter. "Now is the time for citizens to get more informed and involved. We need to make ourselves aware of the potential pitfalls that come with this industry, and if we ignore them, we have the potential to be the victims of whatever happens in the future."
Not exactly an overwhelming endorsement of the project.
Taking a much more positive approach was local civic leader John Hay, who also represented the Rock Springs Grazing Association. He was quoted as saying his organization has been actively involved in wind development in the county and sees the industry as a good way to help ranchers during tough economic times. "We`ll survive only if we take advantage of all our resources here. We think wind is going to be terribly important as we move forward, not to take the place of, but in addition to, our oil and gas resources."
Hay was quoted: "Wind farms provide a nice tax base, jobs and opportunities at a time when the rest of the economy is lowering dramatically. Wind energy could be a huge benefit to our area. The grazing association sees this as nothing but positive for this area."
Most folks against wind turbines worry about how they will destroy the view of the area. Others worry about the noise. And still others worry about the affect on the environment, such as birds running into the blades, etc.
Now I still love wind farms. But then again, perhaps proponents would try to hush up opponents by saying, don’t worry, it’s just the “look of money,” or the “sound of money” or . . . well, you know what I mean.
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