Cat Urbigkit
Latest from Cat Urbigkit
Cat Urbigkit: Colorado Preps for Wolf Reintroduction
Columnist Cat Urbigkit writes, "Although it appears there is no stopping Colorado’s voter-mandated gray wolf reintroduction program, a draft federal record of decision issued last Friday by the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service will make dealing with problem wolves a lot easier.
Cat UrbigkitSeptember 19, 2023
Cat Urbigkit: Legislators to BLM -- Rock Springs Plan is a Community Killer
Columnist Cat Urbigkit writes, "Republican legislators attending Tuesday’s committee meeting in Pinedale thanked the Bureau of Land Management for attending the session and then let them know that the’s BLM’s preferred alternative in the draft plan for the Rock Springs district isn’t highly regarded."
Cat UrbigkitSeptember 12, 2023
Game & Fish Reports Compensation for Wildlife Damage to Crops Nearly Equal to Compensation for Damages to Livestock
Columnist Cat Urbigkit writes, "Although much attention is paid to livestock losses from large carnivore attacks in Wyoming, information prepared by state wildlife officials indicates that the state is paying out nearly an equal amount for wildlife damage to cultivated crops."
Cat UrbigkitSeptember 06, 2023
BLM Proposal Prefers People Not Be Able To Use Public Lands
Columnist Cat Urbigkit writes, “While most headlines about the Rock Springs Resource Management Plan note the agency’s preference to set aside 1.3 million acres … the BLM preference is ‘conservation of resource values with constraints on resource uses.’”
Cat UrbigkitAugust 29, 2023
Wolf Advocates Succeed in Getting FWS To Waste More Time On Gray Wolves
Columnist Cat Urbigkit writes, "While the Center for Biological Diversity is expected to seek to expand wolf recovery efforts to other states, the court ruling doesn’t settle the matter, as the case is set to continue in the D.C. federal court. One thing is certain: we can expect more years of litigation."
Cat UrbigkitAugust 15, 2023
Cat Urbigkit: Power Line Bird Deaths From Shooting: What Was Reported, What’s the Truth, What Was Omitted
Columnist Cat Urbigkit writes, 'The New York Times reported, “A survey of power lines in four Western states found bullet fragments and shotgun pellets in most of the dead birds that were collected” (not true) and 'Two-thirds of birds found dead beneath power lines had been shot' (also not true).
Cat UrbigkitAugust 08, 2023
Environmental Groups Lose Appeal Of Wyoming 3,500 Gas Well Project at Jonah Field
After five years of litigation, the federal 10th Circuit Court of Appeals has rejected claims by environmental groups against a Wyoming 3,500-well natural gas project at Jonah Field.
Cat UrbigkitAugust 07, 2023
Cat Urbigkit: Let Freedom Read
Columnist Cat Urbigkit writes, "The Wyoming Freedom Caucus proposes to continue the push to criminalize librarians for what it views as obscene materials in public libraries, in essence using the coercive power of government to impose its set of values on all the state’s citizens."
Cat UrbigkitAugust 01, 2023
Cat Urbigkit: This is Bear Country
Columnist Cat Urbigkit writes, "Too many people still believe that bear country is the backcountry or wilderness. That needs to be called out and corrected because Wyoming is bear country."
Cat UrbigkitJuly 26, 2023
Cat Urbigkit: Make No Mistake -- Elk Feedground Plan is WG&F’s Vision
Columnist Cat Urbigkit writes, "This plan wasn’t ready for prime time. It’s sloppy, unorganized, inconsistent, and includes statements in contradiction with other statements, while neglecting other legitimate concerns."
Cat UrbigkitJuly 18, 2023
Huge Swath Of Wyoming ‘Checkerboard’ Land May Be Up For Sale Again
Gov. Mark Gordon says he’s “interested in learning more” about huge chunks of land across southern Wyoming the state tried — and failed — to buy in 2020 that are for sale again.
Cat UrbigkitJuly 11, 2023
Cat Urbigkit: Wyo Game & Fish's Elk Feedground Plan Puts The Squeeze To Agriculture
Columnist Cat Urbigkit writes, "Wyoming Game and Fish isn’t known for its expertise in livestock management, and it’s way out of its realm on this one, alienating livestock producers in the process."
Cat UrbigkitJuly 11, 2023
Cat Urbigkit: The Needless Same-Sex Wedding Website Ruling And Wyoming’s Connection to the Case
Columnist Cat Urbigkit writes, "Last week, the U.S. Supreme Court granted permission for Lorie Smith, a Colorado website designer, to refuse to create wedding websites for gay couples in a case that never should have been heard by the nation’s highest court."
Cat UrbigkitJuly 04, 2023
Cat Urbigkit: ‘Going Old School,’ With The Addition Of Man’s Best Friend To Uphold The Farce
Columnist Cat Urbigkit writes, "We’d simply ran out of options. Golden eagles and bald eagles were preying on newborn lambs in our lambing flock, and for the past few weeks we were finding at least one new eagle-killed lamb every day."
Cat UrbigkitJune 27, 2023
Cat Urbigkit: Hey, Keyboard Coward, Here’s Your Invitation To Enter The Arena
Columnist Cat Urbigkit writes: “With few exceptions, I’m too thick-skinned to be bruised by words, but when vulgar emails are combined with an illegal impersonator on a news site last month … my hackles are raised.”
Cat UrbigkitJune 20, 2023
Cat Urbigkit: Firefighters Wanted In Wyoming
Columnist Cat Urbigkit writes, "Of 55 Wyoming fire departments responding to the recent survey, most reported experiencing challenges with recruiting new firefighters. All told, the responding fire departments reported the need for nearly 500 additional firefighters statewide to fill their rosters."
Cat UrbigkitJune 13, 2023
Cat Urbigkit: Animal Damage Control Isn't A “War On Wildlife”
Columnist Cat Urbigkit writes, "When Erik Molvar of the Western Watersheds Project tells the public that the livestock industry “still dreams of driving large carnivores extinct once and for all” and is working to “further their goals of accelerating predator extinctions,” how is anyone to know that he is telling a lie?"
Cat UrbigkitJune 06, 2023
Cat Urbigkit: The Adventures Of Harriet The Horrible
Harriet was raised with orphan lambs, and even at just a few months old, she was exceptionally grumpy about anyone messing with her lambs – even though it was our job to feed the lambs milk replacer numerous times a day.
Cat UrbigkitMay 31, 2023
Cat Urbigkit: Oddities from the News -- Lions ‘Garden to Hunt’ & Bundy’s BBQ Standoff
Columnist Cat Urbigkit writes, "Ammon Bundy is having another standoff, dubbed the #BBQStandoff by one of his detractors, Devin Burghart of the Institute for Research and Education on Human Rights."
Cat UrbigkitMay 23, 2023
Cat Urbigkit: BLM’s 'Conservation' Proposal Generates Form Letters in Support, While Opposition Calls For Withdrawal, & Threat of Congressional Action
Columnist Cat Urbigkit writes, "The Bureau of Land Management’s proposed rules that would prioritize “conservation” and authorize conservation leasing on equal footing with other permitted uses such as mineral development and livestock grazing has generated enough controversy that western Republican Senators are asking the agency to withdraw the proposal."
Cat UrbigkitMay 17, 2023
Cat Urbigkit: Wyoming Wolf Population Remains Stable, But Costs $1.28 Million to Manage
Columnist Cat Urbigkit writes, "Although wolf advocates have petitioned the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service for a relisting of gray wolves in Wyoming and other states in the Northern Rockies, Wyoming’s wolf population exceeded federal recovery criteria for the species for the 21st consecutive year in 2022."
Cat UrbigkitMay 09, 2023
Cat Urbigkit: WyoFile Allows Impersonator To Inflame Rhetoric About Public Lands
Columnist Cat Urbigkit writes, "Hell no, I didn’t write the comment. But WyoFile allowed someone to impersonate me to inflame the public about ranching and public lands."
Cat UrbigkitMay 07, 2023
Cat Urbigkit: In Push For Conservation, Bureau Of Land Management Usurps Congress
Cat Urbigkit writes: “Though perhaps well-intended, the proposed rules are staggeringly riddled with problematic language that will guarantee that federal courts will be overburdened with legal challenges. … What a terrible way to manage public resources.”
Cat UrbigkitMay 02, 2023
Cat Urbigkit: Who Has Traditional Ecological Knowledge?
Cat Urbigkit writes: “The Biden administration has adopted the concept of traditional ecological knowledge, but narrowed it to exclude all but ‘indigenous knowledge.’ While attempting to eliminate racial disparities, the administration has a tendency to marginalize or exclude others in the process, furthering inequity rather than resolving it.”
Cat UrbigkitApril 25, 2023
Cat Urbigkit: Winter Isn’t Loosening Its Grip On Wyoming Big Game Herds
Cat Urbigkit writes: “Winterkill may provide an immediate surplus of carcasses for wild predators but with doubtful benefits since there probably isn’t much nutrition in a prey animal that has starved to death.”
Cat UrbigkitApril 18, 2023
Cat Urbigkit: Awbi The Guardian Dog vs The Red Foxes
Columnist Cat Urbigkit writes, "The snow crust in this deep snow winter hasn’t been strong enough to hold the weight of a large dog, so the foxes have been able to go about their business untroubled by the dogs. But that changed a few weeks ago..."
Cat UrbigkitApril 11, 2023
Cat Urbigkit: Interior Department Proposes Major Makeover in Public Lands Management
The Biden Administration has proposed significant changes to how federal lands are managed by the U.S. Interior Department, shifting the Bureau of Land Management away from its principles..
Cat UrbigkitApril 04, 2023
Cat Urbigkit: Life In Wyoming — Can’t Get The Feed To The Sheep, So Trailing The Sheep To The Feed
Columnist Cat Urbigkit writes: "Just when we thought spring might be coming soon, we got hit by another winter storm. We knew there wasn’t any way we could move hay to get it to the sheep. We would need to move the sheep to the feed."
Cat UrbigkitMarch 28, 2023
Cat Urbigkit: Winter Trails
Columnist Cat Urbigkit writes, "It was -35° one early February morning when I sat down at my computer to check on the happenings of the Wyoming Legislature. As I looked out the window, I spotted the red foxes, my daily entertainment those last few weeks."
Cat UrbigkitMarch 22, 2023
Cat Urbigkit: Play The Wildlife Services Coverage Drinking Game!
Columnist Cat Urbigkit writes: "Those who believe that if we leave coyotes alone they will not bother your livestock, your pets, or your children, believe in a fantasy."
Cat UrbigkitMarch 15, 2023