You Still Here

[{"type":"text","text":"Who knew that fire extinguishers could fly??"}]

You still here 5 17 24

Cowboy State Daily is Wyoming’s largest newspaper with Wyoming’s most experienced journalists. 

<title>You Still Here? Friday, May 17, 2024 | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Who knew that fire extinguishers could fly??

You Still Here? Friday, May 17, 2024

 Who knew that fire extinguishers could fly??

Headshot of Cowboy State Daily's general assignment reporter, Clair McFarland.

Clair McFarland

Crime & Courts

Courts

The DUI case of state Rep. Bill Allemand has shifted into a spat between lawyers about how they’re handling it, and a possible criminal action against Allemand’s defense attorney.

Allemand, a Republican of Midwest, Wyoming, was 

 with DUI, which is a misdemeanor punishable by up to six months in jail and $750 in fines. He’s set for trial Sept. 16.

Meanwhile, Buffalo Circuit Court Magistrate Jeremy Kisling has ordered Allemand’s attorney Mike Vang to appear in court Wednesday to “show cause” for why he did not attend a hearing last week.

Kisling had issued a June 26 order setting the July 8 hearing so that Vang could argue support for his allegations that the case prosecutor, Johnson County Deputy Attorney Joshua Stensaas, hasn’t given enough evidence from Allemand’s chemical blood test.

Stensaas in his own filings has called that assertion false — or at least refuted by his email records with Vang’s office.

Vang did not show for the July 8 hearing where Kisling had planned to weigh these 

Cowboy State Daily had contacted Vang by phone the night prior, July 7, to ask whether the hearing was still set. 

Vang said he was unaware of the hearing, could not attend, and would file a “motion for continuance,” which is a rescheduling request. 

He confirmed he was on the record during that phone call by adding, “and that’s my comment.”

No motion for continuance of that hearing appears in the public court file.

Kisling issued an order July 8 saying Vang’s “failure to appear may constitute a failure to comply with a lawful order of the court and may warrant the imposition of sanctions and indirect contempt of court.”

[{"type":"text","text":"Kisling ordered Vang to appear for a hearing at 4 p.m. Wednesday."}]

Vang wrote back in a motion, saying he and Allemand “did not intentionally fail to appear” for the July 8 hearing and that Vang “inadvertently failed to notice” the July 8 hearing setting at the bottom of the judge’s earlier order, so he failed to put it in his calendar.

Vang asked the court to reschedule his contempt hearing from July 15 to some other date.

He said he can’t attend Wednesday because he has a 3 p.m. hearing in Albany County’s Laramie Circuit Court. 

Kisling checked that assertion and, according to a July 10 order by the magistrate, found it incorrect.

“Court staff in Johnson County contacted Albany County Circuit Court to confirm a setting for Mr. Vang on that date,” wrote Kisling. “The court docket in Albany County does not have a scheduled hearing for Mr. Vang at the time asserted in Mr. Vang’s motion.”

[{"type":"text","text":"So Kisling denied Vang’s request to reschedule."}]

Later that day, Vang submitted a filing saying he’d had another issue with his calendar.

He attached a scheduling order from June 9 that showed he had been set to appear in Laramie Circuit Court on Wednesday at 2:30 p.m

 Vang acknowledged that the 2:30 hearing has since been rescheduled. 

But, he said, he hadn’t taken the original setting off his calendar when he’d originally protested the schedule conflict to Kisling.  

“Again, Mr. Vang did not intentionally file information to mislead the court, and simply still had a hearing date on his calendar that had been reset for a later date,” says Vang’s motion. 

Criminal contempt charges against attorneys are uncommon but 

[{"type":"text","text":"They’re different from civil contempt charges. "}]

In a civil contempt case, a judge penalizes someone to make him honor an order. In criminal contempt charges, the judge is punishing someone for having already disrespected the court.

[{"type":"text","text":"Vang declined Tuesday to comment."}]

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"The Body Camera Is Out"}]

In the same motion in which Vang had urged Kisling to reschedule the contempt hearing, Vang also asked Kisling to address two actions by “the state” that Vang calls problematic.

Firstly, Vang took issue with Stensaas “(accusing) Mr. Vang of making false representations to the court as it relates to … the litigation support package.”

Vang continues to assert that Stensaas is depriving the defense of important evidence about Allemand’s chemical blood test, which 

Stensaas has maintained that Vang has received 72 pages of chemical test evidence and questioned why Vang says he only received 24 pages.

 to demand answers from the Johnson County Sheriff’s Office on why it released the 

The sheriff’s office released that video to Cowboy State Daily pursuant to the outlet’s public records request days after Kisling barred 12 minutes of that recording from entering the trial.

Kisling found that for about 12 minutes of Allemand’s traffic stop and arrest, Johnson County Deputy Caleb

confined Allemand without mirandizing him, and had asked potentially incriminating questions.

Campbell was justified in confining Allemand in handcuffs during the traffic stop: he found a gun near Allemand and had officer safety concerns, wrote Kisling in his suppression order. 

But the potentially incriminating questions Campbell asked Allemand while he was confined — and not 

irandized — can’t be part of the state’s main evidence pool at trial, Kisling ruled.

Officers must give a person his Miranda rights before asking him incriminating questions, if the person is confined.

Kisling did not put a wholesale gag order on the prosecutor’s office or sheriff’s office, though he did bar those 12 minutes of video from the trial.

[{"type":"text","text":"Vang says the sheriff’s office’s release was improper."}]

“Unfortunately, potential jurors have now been exposed to evidence that this court suppressed, which has tainted the potential jury panel,” wrote Vang in his motion.

about a potentially compromised jury became part of

 another recent high-profile criminal case of Sublette County wolf abuser Cody Roberts. 

In that case, then-District Court Judge Richard Lavery addressed those worries by planning a lengthy, voluminous jury selection in a larger-sized library building. But Lavery didn’t have to do that in the end 

Johnson County Attorney Tucker Ruby did not respond by publication to a voicemail request for comment on Vang’s 

Body camera video is public record, but with caveats. State law says keepers of body camera video generally should not release it, but they can release it either:

[{"type":"text","text":"• to the person in the video,"}]

[{"type":"text","text":"• in the case of deadly force or serious bodily injury,"}]

[{"type":"text","text":"• in response to a complaint against law enforcement, or"}]

[{"type":"text","text":"• in the interest of public safety."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"Allemand’s DUI case is ongoing."}]

Allemand 7 14 26

<title>Judge May Hit Allemand’s Defense Lawyer With Contempt Charge For Missing Hearing | Cowboy State Daily</title>

The judge in state Rep. Bill Allemand's ongoing DUI case may hit his defense attorney with a contempt charge for missing a hearing. The attorney says he “did not intentionally fail to appear” and calls the no-show a scheduling mishap.

Judge May Hit Allemand’s Defense Lawyer With Contempt Charge For Missing Hearing

Coy Knobel

Don Day Weather

Sunny in Wyoming on Tuesday, with a chance of rain in the west. Extreme heat warning or heat advisory for much of the state. Fire danger, breezy in some areas. Highs mainly in the 90s and low 100s. Lows in the 50s and 60s.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":" "}]

Extreme heat warning until 9 p.m. tonight. Sunny, breezy and hot today with a high near 99 and wind gusts as high as 23 mph. Mostly clear and breezy overnight with a low near 63 and wind gusts as high as 28 mph.

Extreme heat warning until 9 p.m. tonight. Sunny and hot today with a high near 102 and mostly clear overnight with a low near 64 and wind gusts as high as 21 mph.

 Heat advisory through tomorrow night. Red flag fire warning until tomorrow night. Sunny, breezy and hot today with a high near 99 and wind gusts as high as 30 mph. Mostly clear and breezy overnight with a low near 61 and wind gusts as high as 30 mph.

 Slight chance of rain after noon, otherwise sunny today with a high near 91 and partly cloudy overnight with a low near 54.

  Extreme heat warning until 9 p.m. tonight. Sunny and hot today with a high near 99 and partly cloudy overnight with a low near 62.

Extreme heat warning until 9 p.m. tonight. Slight chance of rain after 4 p.m. Sunny today with a high near 93 and becoming mostly clear overnight with a low near 56 and wind gusts as high as 22 mph.

Extreme heat warning until 9 p.m. tonight. Slight chance of rain after 4 p.m. Sunny and breezy today with a high near 93 and wind gusts as high as 25 mph. Partly cloudy overnight with a low near 55 and wind gusts as high as 21 mph.

 Extreme heat warning until 9 p.m. tonight. Slight chance of rain after 2 p.m. Increasing clouds, breezy and hot today with a high near 100 and wind gusts as high as 24 mph. Gradually becoming mostly clear overnight with a slight chance of rain before 11 p.m. and a low near 56.

  Extreme heat warning until 9 p.m. tonight. Slight chance of rain after 5 p.m. Sunny and breezy today with a high near 93 and wind gusts as high as 21 mph. Breezy, gradually clearing overnight with a slight chance of rain before 7 p.m., a low near 53 and wind gusts as high as 21 mph.

 Extreme heat warning until 9 p.m. tonight. Slight chance of rain after noon. Sunny and breezy today with a high near 89 and wind gusts as high as 25 mph. Partly cloudy overnight with a slight chance of rain before 9 p.m. and a low near 55.

  Extreme heat warning until 9 p.m. tonight. Slight chance of rain after 2 p.m. Increasing clouds and hot today with a high near 98 and gradually becoming mostly clear overnight with a slight chance of rain before 8 p.m. and a low near 56.

Old Faithful in Yellowstone National Park

:  Sunny today with a high near 90 and mostly cloudy overnight with a slight chance of rain before 7 p.m. and a low near 50.

Extreme heat warning until 9 p.m. tonight. Slight chance of rain after 5 p.m., otherwise sunny and hot today with a high near 104 and mostly clear overnight with a low near 67.

:  Extreme heat warning until 9 p.m. tonight. Slight chance of rain after 5 p.m., otherwise sunny and hot today with a high near 98 and partly cloudy overnight with a chance of rain before 7 p.m., a low near 66 and wind gusts as high as 21 mph.

  Extreme heat warning until 9 p.m. tonight. Sunny and hot today with a high near 106 and mostly clear overnight with a low near 66.

  Extreme heat warning until 9 p.m. tonight. Sunny and hot today with a high near 100 and mostly clear overnight with a low near 67.

  Extreme heat warning through tomorrow night. Sunny and hot today with a high near 104 and mostly clear overnight with a low near 64.

:  Sunny and hot today with a high near 98 and mostly clear overnight with a low near 64.

Heat advisory until Thursday night. Sunny and hot today with a high near 103 and wind gusts as high as 22 mph. Mostly clear and breezy overnight with a low near 69 and wind gusts as high as 30 mph.

  Heat advisory until Thursday night. Sunny today with a high near 99 and wind gusts as high as 21 mph. Mostly clear overnight with a low near 69 and wind gusts as high as 22 mph.

:   Heat advisory until Thursday night. Sunny and hot today with a high near 104 and wind gusts as high as 18 mph. Mostly clear overnight with a low near 69 and wind gusts as high as 23 mph.

  Heat advisory through tomorrow night. Red flag fire warning until tomorrow night. Sunny and hot today with a high near 98 and wind from 10-20 mph. Mostly clear and breezy overnight with a low near 65 and wind gusts as high as 30 mph.

  Heat advisory through tomorrow night. Red flag fire warning until tomorrow night. Sunny, breezy and hot today with a high near 99 and wind gusts as high as 30 mph. Mostly clear and breezy overnight with a low near 63 and wind gusts as high as 30 mph.

  Extreme heat warning until 9 p.m. tonight. Sunny, breezy and hot today with a high near 100 and wind gusts as high as 21 mph. Mostly clear and breezy overnight with a low near 63 and wind gusts as high as 28 mph.

  Heat advisory through tomorrow night. Red flag fire warning until tomorrow night. Sunny, breezy and hot today with a high near 90 and wind gusts as high as 30 mph. Mostly clear and breezy overnight with a low near 59 and wind gusts as high as 30 mph.

  Sunny and breezy today with a high near 87 and wind gusts as high as 30 mph. Mostly clear and breezy overnight with a low near 54 and wind gusts as high as 30 mph.

  Heat advisory through tomorrow night. Red flag fire warning until tomorrow night. Sunny, breezy and hot today with a high near 92 and wind gusts as high as 30 mph. Mostly clear and breezy overnight with a low near 61 and wind gusts as high as 30 mph.

  Sunny and hot today with a high near 93 and mostly clear overnight with a low near 58.

  Sunny and hot today with a high near 95 and mostly clear overnight with a low near 55 and wind gusts as high as 25 mph.

  Extreme heat warning until 9 p.m. tonight. Sunny, breezy and hot today with a high near 93 and wind gusts as high as 23 mph. Mostly clear overnight with a low near 55.

Daycap small 7 14 26

<title>Don Day's Wyoming Weather Forecast: Tuesday, July 14, 2026 | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Don Day's Wyoming Weather Forecast: Tuesday, July 14, 2026

Government & Politics

Native American Tribes

[{"type":"text","text":"Tribe Tells Christian Church To Leave Reservation; Church Says No "}]

Northern Arapaho Tribal leaders told a Christian pastor who said "a pipe cannot hear your prayers" to leave their reservation. The pastor said she's staying, and won't apologize for preaching from the Bible. 

The Northern Arapaho Tribe’s executive branch has asked a Christian church to leave the reservation, the tribe’s chair said Friday.

In response, Foundations for Nations pastor Sarah Lucas told Cowboy State Daily she and her family aren’t planning to leave yet. They’re looking to legal solutions to stay – and hoping for a “revival” in the meantime, Lucas said.

The church, which has operated in Fremont County for nine years, sits within the borders of the Wind River Indian Reservation, but it’s on a parcel of private, not tribal, land.

The controversy erupted eight days ago when Lucas discouraged some tribal faith practices during a church service, just as the tribe finished its Sundance ceremonies. She had said, “a pipe cannot hear your prayers,” and “we know that Jesus is enough.”

. Northern Arapaho Tribal members were furious at what they cast as an insult to their “grandfather pipe” – a revered relic associated with the Arapaho creation story.

Protests unfolded at the Riverton City Hall and at the Foundations for Nations church site in the town of Arapahoe.

“I want a public apology from them,” said Northern Arapaho Business Council Chair Keenan Groesbeck during a 

 last Tuesday. He stood in front of a yellow tape line that stretched across the church’s driveway. 

[{"type":"text","text":"He said Lucas’ message was disrespectful."}]

“If they don’t want to apologize to us, they can leave,” said Groesbeck. 

Protestors joined in a traditional chant as honks and whoops sounded from passing vehicles.

Lucas went to a meeting with tribal leaders Friday. She said the council allowed its “Four Old Men” elder group to join the meeting, and leaders discussed the importance of the pipe relic and told her to leave.

[{"type":"text","text":"Lucas described the meeting as unprofessional."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"Groesbeck took to Facebook about two hours later."}]

“Just so everyone knows. We told Foundations For Nations and Sarah Lucas they got to go. We ain’t putting up with their bullshit,” says Groesbeck’s Friday post. “

Groesbeck could not be reached for comment by publication. Nor could the other council members except for Sami Dresser, who declined to comment.

The tribe’s spokesman did not respond to a request for comment by publication.

Lucas told Cowboy State Daily she won’t apologize for preaching from the Bible, though she wishes to apologize “that it came off as an attack.”

“But I am a Christian preacher. I am a pastor and I preach the full counsel of God’s word,” she said. 

Lucas said she’s not against the sun dance altogether: she supports fasting and praying as a whole concept. But she understands the ceremony also involves “the worship of the pipe,” she said, adding that’s idolatry, and irreconcilable with the teaching that “Jesus is the only way.”

She pointed to the divisive messages the Bible attributes to Jesus, and the persecution and martyrdom his followers suffered.

“You could take everything from me but you can’t take my God,” said Lucas. “I’m willing to be martyred for the faith. I’ve counted the cost.”

She voiced mild surprise at the current outrage, saying community members have maligned Jesus and biblical teaching to her for years and she hasn’t retaliated. 

Regarding the tribal community, Lucas said she loves them and wants to maintain a forgiving posture. She referenced the high suicide, poverty, and addiction rates of the reservation. And she reiterated part of the same message that sparked this clash.

“Only Jesus can turn a life around, can deliver somebody, can set somebody free,” she said, adding that she’s called to preach that and is “more concerned with eternity, than I am about earthly hate.”

Lucas said people have been “twisting” her family’s message, casting their work as a grift and slandering them. She countered, noting that she did not take a salary for the church’s first several years, and that she’s now at about $25,000 annually. Her husband has worked two jobs in the past to pay their bills, she said.

She rebutted other rumors about harms to kids in the church’s sizable kids’ program, saying “All these lies are making the kids in our program feel unsafe. And that just hurts.”

Lucas indicated her family isn’t ready to leave the reservation. She said she wants to see people’s hearts changed.

“They might be mad for now, but I believe the supernatural power of God is going to turn this around,” said Lucas. “We don’t obey man. We obey God.”

She said she and her family are working with an attorney to remain on their parcel. They’re also weathering death threats, according to multiple screenshots Lucas sent Cowboy State Daily.

The outlet reached out to the FBI late Monday and will update this story when the agency comments.

Special church events are suspended for now, but church is scheduled for each Sunday as usual, Lucas said, adding that some kids still want to come to youth group, and some parents have been asking when the church will start youth group again.

The church runs a philanthropic food pantry, which closed early last week.  

[{"type":"text","text":"‘Why Are They Trying To Save Us?’"}]

Chris Friday, a tribal member who has helped to coordinate multiple protests, told Cowboy State Daily on Monday that the question of whether the Lucases and church must leave the reservation “Now (is) probably going to involve the courts.”

Friday helped organize another protest outside the church during its Sunday service, which occurred on schedule. He said church attendees were seen “carrying around guns.”

Lucas confirmed this in her own interview, as she referenced the death threats.

“There’s people protesting there all the time,” said Friday, regarding the church. “Just, what they said, man. It hurts us as Arapaho people. Makes us seem like we’re lower than them, that their way is better than ours.”

Friday defended the Arapaho prayer traditions, saying they go back generations, and non-tribal members have often tried to observe them without permission.

“Why are they interested in us so much? Why are they trying to save us? I don’t know. We don’t need any saving or anything; we didn’t ask for them,” said Friday. “They should just take the hint and leave – respectfully of course. Go back to where you were.”

The Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868, which Arapaho and other tribal leaders signed along with the U.S. government, says any “bad men among the whites” or other people who “commit any wrong upon the person or property of the Indians” shall be, “upon proof” handed to the federal government for arrest and punishment according to the nation’s laws. The offender shall “also reimburse the injured persons for the loss sustained,” the treaty says.

Friday referenced the clause as a potential avenue for barring the Lucases from the reservation.

[{"type":"text","text":"It’s uncertain whether the tribe would win such a case."}]

Some tribes invoked it against the federal government in litigation regarding pharmaceutical companies’ marketing and sale of opioid drugs to tribal members. That claim failed because the tribes “(failed) to allege a ‘wrong’ cognizable under the treaty,” says a Dec. 9, 2020, 

 of Federal Claims, and the opioid company hadn’t come onto the reservation to commit some wrong.

Friday noted in his interview that tribal land surrounds the Foundations for Nations private land parcel. He wondered aloud if the tribe could block the Lucases’ access, but said “I don’t know how that would really work. It would probably have to go through the court.”

[{"type":"text","text":"More From That Church Service"}]

Lucas’ full sermon was unavailable at least as of Monday. The one-minute, 38-second clip that went viral last week depicts Lucas paraphrasing from the Bible: “tear down the altars, tear down the idols.”

She spoke of “this nation” gathering in recent days, praying. The tribal members had just conducted their sun dance ceremony.

“They prayed to pipes and they prayed to the ancestors, believing this is the way for their freedom. To get free from addiction, for people to be healed … this is what this culture did this week,” said Lucas.

[{"type":"text","text":"She urged the congregation to pray."}]

“Because we know that Jesus is enough. He’s enough. It’s not Jesus-plus. It’s Jesus everything. He’s everything,” said Lucas.

She referenced people she described as tribal members who have become Christians.

“And they understand the price … when they say that publicly. The persecution that can come with them publicly,” Lucas said. “But they know that this is it. Jesus is the chain breaker. He’s the only one that we should be praying to. A pipe cannot hear your prayers.”

[{"type":"text","text":"Because Of This Dark History"}]

Christian Wassana, an enrolled Cheyenne Arapaho of Oklahoma who played Martin Kills Many on “Yellowstone," told Cowboy State Daily in a Wednesday interview that tribal members are still wrestling with troubling treatments by past, Christian-affiliated missions, such as the boarding schools that forbade the children from speaking their native languages.

[{"type":"text","text":"He had posted one of the original links to the video of Lucas preaching."}]

Indian boarding schools proliferated in the nation a century ago, many run by religious groups and funded with federal money.

Historical accounts tell of tribal leaders who wanted their kids to gain an education, a federal government that wanted to assimilate the kids and religious leaders who wanted to convert them.

Northern Arapaho sub-chief Sharp Nose sent his son, Little Chief, to the Carlisle boarding school in Pennsylvania in the late 1800s, hoping the boy could learn skills from the white man for surviving in the new culture.

Little Chief died in the school’s infirmary in 1883 and was buried on school grounds – a common occurrence for tribal children.

Jesuits came to the Wind River Indian Reservation and built St. Stephen’s Indian School in 1884.

Arapaho 7 13 26

<title>Arapaho Tribe Tells Christian Church To Leave Reservation; Church Says No | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Northern Arapaho Tribal leaders have told a Christian church to leave the reservation after the pastor preached "a pipe cannot hear your prayers.'  The pastor said she's staying, and won't apologize for preaching that "Jesus is the only way."

Arapaho Tribe Tells Christian Church To Leave Reservation; Church Says No

Headshot of Cowboy State Daily's business and tourism reporter, Renée Jean

Renée Jean

Energy

Agriculture

A massive data center and power generation complex is being proposed for 5,344 acres of ranchland northeast of Wheatland in Platte County near the Goshen County line, on property owned by the Lazy V Six Ranch.

The developer, a company called Site Layer 4, has filed an application to rezone the land from agricultural to industrial for what it describes as a $26 billion data center campus with co-located, utility-scale energy generation. The property is roughly 13 miles east of Interstate 25, in an area now used for grazing and agriculture.

Public hearings for the rezoning have been set for 7 p.m. Aug. 11 before the Platte County Planning and Zoning Commission and 10 a.m. Aug. 20 before the Platte County Commission. 

Site Layer 4 says in its application that the project would be built over multiple years and is designed to concentrate infrastructure in one unified location. 

Residents who live around the Goshen Hole Rim say that location also happens to include springs, mule deer habitat and big-sky views their families have cherished for generations. 

In its application, Site Layer 4 describes the Wheatland project as a long-term phased industrial campus that could scale with market demand. 

“Rezoning the proposed project area would allow well-planned large-scale industrial development in an appropriate location, and protect private landowner rights to use property for business and economic purposes in a manner reasonably balanced with regulatory oversight,” Site Layer 4 wrote in its application. 

Site Layer 4 also emphasizes that the project area represents less than half of 1% of the acres devoted to ranching and agriculture in Platte County.

“The project area has been selected specifically because it enables development of a unified, co-located facility, limiting potential sprawl of infrastructure and associated regional impacts,” the company added. “The project area has access to critical grid interconnection and other necessary existing infrastructure, is separated from residential uses and public spaces, and is visually buffered via topography from the community of Wheatland.”

Site Layer 4 further promises that the campus would include stormwater drainage and other environmental controls consistent with local, state and federal requirements, and would “prioritize environmental protection and effective mitigation of potential environmental impacts.”

That might sound good on paper, one of the project’s neighbors, George Gamblin conceded. But, he said, the project’s footprint falls within a dramatic and scenic portion of Goshen Hole where Platte County’s plateau drops hundreds of feet into canyons and draws before flattening out again across Goshen County.

“You can see clear into Nebraska from here,” Gamblin said. “You can look all the way across Goshen County.”

The area is a unique land feature for the area, a place where there are plants and animals that probably should not be there, and would not be there, but for a micro-climate that’s supporting what would typically need more water.

“I probably have a couple hundred acres of pine trees on my little property that are not even really supposed to be there,” He said. “I think it’s about a 12-plus precip zone, and they’re not even really supposed to be growing there. But some of these trees are probably 100-plus years old. And they contain a lot of birds and things like that, which typically don’t exist in this area out here in the plains.”

Gamblin’s family has been in the location for close to 90 years.

“I live on Goshen Hole Rim, which dissects Platte and Goshen counties,” he said. “And in places, from the rim to the bottom is anywhere from I don’t know, 400 to 600 feet that drop and what you have in those canyons, there’s a lot of varied habitat.”

Ponderosa pine, mountain mahogany and little riparian areas near the natural springs that come up in the bottom of the canyons lie within a half to three-quarters of a mile from the proposed rezoning.

“Some of the wildlife we have out there — it’s pretty amazing,” Gamblin said. “I had some professional birders come out and they got I believe over 40 species of birds in like seven or eight hours walking along the rim.”

A company called Site Layer 4 wants to rezone 5,344 acres of ranchland near Wheatland for a data center and power plant. The project, they say, adds 300 jobs and substantial tax revenue, but neighbors worry about water, wildlife and the viewshed.

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