Alert: Proposed Regulation Changes
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Be Aware, A detailed action alert is coming soon.
Please be aware that the Wyoming Game and Fish Department has recently released proposed regulation changes to Chapter 28: Regulation Governing Big or Trophy Game Animal or Game Bird or Gray Wolf Damage Claims, and Chapter 34: Depredation Prevention Hunting Seasons.
The Wyoming Untrapped team is working to carefully and thoroughly review these proposed changes and provide you with important details and information on how these changes might impact our Wyoming wildlife. Please stay tuned for a follow-up action alert newsletter email and take action website update that will break down these regulatory changes and provide suggested talking points for submitting public.
The full version of these proposed changes can be found here:
Chapter 28: Regulation Governing Big or Trophy Game Animal or Game Bird or Gray Wolf Damage Claims
Chapter 34: Depredation Prevention Hunting Seasons
The public comment period for Chapters 28 and 34 closes at 5 PM, July 31, 2022.
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Welcoming Our New AmeriCorps Member
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Having the opportunity to facilitate and support Teton Science Schools AmeriCorps Service in the Jackson Hole area continues to be a privilege for us. We take joy in hosting and working with new AmeriCorps service members each service term, and this one is no different! This summer we welcome Laurel Ainsworth to our team. Growing up in Colorado, Laurel loved exploring the outdoors and learning about her nearby environment. She credits her strong desire to protect the environment to her early immersion in and education about nature. Laurel recently completed her undergraduate degree at Hawaii Pacific University with a B.S. in Environmental Science and a Minor in Sustainability. While at HPU, Laurel immersed herself in Hawaii’s unique environment and culture by volunteering with numerous conservation and cultural organizations.
As a TSS AmeriCorps member working part-time with Wyoming Untrapped, Laurel is eager to learn more about the important role that beavers play throughout the ecosystem. She is also excited to have the opportunity to work in the field, create videos that showcase the role of the habitat created by beavers and develop skills in the realm of science communication. We know that Laurel is an incredible addition to our team, and will make great contributions to the important work we do.
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Upcoming Opportunities to Support
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WyoGives - an initiative of the Wyoming Nonprofit Network – is a powerful, statewide 24-hour online fundraising event that is designed to bring the state together as one community to raise money and awareness for Wyoming’s nonprofits.
The 3rd annual WyoGives will take place Wednesday, July 13, 2022.
Your donation may be matched by a recruited WU challenging partner. Be sure to mark your calendars, and support our work on July 13th (anytime in that 24-hour period). As a non-profit, our work and staff depend largely on donated dollars and time. Help us continue our great work by contributing to our organization this summer giving day.
If you would like to participate by being one of our match WU challenging partners, please contact us today by email at info@wyominguntrapped or by calling 307-201-2422!
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Trapping Incident Updates
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BE AWARE THAT TRAPS ARE OUT THERE ON OUR PUBLIC AND PRIVATE LANDS.
Wherever you see wildlife, there could be traps and snares, and those can be lethal.
“Coco”, an 8-year-old German Shepard, was caught in a leghold trap on May 27, 2022. Coco suffered a broken paw bone and is thankfully recovering at home. Julie, the pup owner, was able to pry open the trap with her hands. It was about 20 to 30 feet off the Swinging Bridge Trail, 43.37159,-110.73358, just south of Jackson, WY on the Bridger Teton National Forest. A friend walked by the incident location later that day and didn’t see the trap. Julie walks by there “multiple times a week and had never seen or heard of any such things.”
Please help us keep track of nontarget trapping by reporting incidents on our website, and stay safe while recreating on public lands by knowing how to safely release a pet from a trap or snare. Always carry a snare cutter tool!
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Billboard Campaign Updates
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Wyoming Untrapped
Contact: Sarah Pruden
Phone: 307-201-2422
Email: sarah@wyominguntrapped.org
For Immediate Release
Relist Wolves Billboard in Cody, WY Removed Ahead of Schedule
Jackson, WY, June 28 – Wyoming Untrapped was asked to remove the “relist wolves” billboard in Cody, WY, last week, four months before the original contract ended. This billboard location was contracted by Wyoming Untrapped for the summer season, to educate and captivate visitors of Yellowstone National Park with a simple message in support of protecting gray wolves. Unfortunately, wolf conservation in the Northern Rockies is a polarizing topic. A topic so divisive that speaking up in support of relisting wolves under the Endangered Species Act in a respectful public way is now intolerable.
While the Wyoming Untrapped team is disappointed with the loss of this billboard and outreach opportunity, we feel it is critical to share this story and highlight just how tumultuous the topic of gray wolf conservation truly is. Gray wolves in the Northern Rockies are still villainized, and public support for wolves is suppressed. Until this narrative has changed, and wolves are tolerated and valued throughout the region, their persecution will continue.
As an organization, Wyoming Untrapped will continue to work to educate communities on the importance and value of our wildlife, build bridges for coexistence, and advocate for progressive science-based conservation. The removal of this billboard and disdain for gray wolf advocacy sets the stage for the magnitude of work ahead, and we cannot shoulder it alone. We need community support and voices that amplify the much-needed change we all wish to see. We encourage all of our community members and supporters to join us in this effort.
Wolves in Wyoming and the Northern Rockies need protection and support more than ever as they continue to be trapped, snared, and hunted to minimum numbers. You can help by submitting a public comment supporting relisting wolves under the Endangered Species Act. Learn more about this opportunity by visiting wyominguntrapped.org.
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We are excited to announce that you can now see our newest billboards in Rock Springs, WY, and Cheyenne, WY. Thanks so much to our private donors who made this billboard campaign possible.
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Youth Writing Campaign for Wolves
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Our friends and partner, #RelistWolves/Wolves of the Rockies, are organizing a summer letter-writing campaign to mobilize young voices on behalf of wolves. The goal is to educate young people about the relisting issue while also getting as many letters sent to the White House as possible.
Their goal is to make this as easy as possible for our partners who participate, so they have prepared age-specific materials for you all ahead of time. These materials (attached, also available on our website) include:
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Two versions of a pre-addressed postcard with #RelistWolves rewriting extinction comic strip to color in (Grades K-5). In addition to a pre-written message, there’s a short section for kids to write their own short message. Postcard 1 | Postcard 2
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An advocacy guide for young adults to write their own letter to the White House (Grades 6-12)
WU has ordered these postcards and will have them available. Please share photos of finished letters or drawings with the #RelistWolves hashtag on social media, and they will be sharing them across their social accounts. WU would love a copy to share as well! So proud of our young advocates for making their voices heard!
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Be sure to check out the Wyoming Untrapped sponsored mural, highlighting the importance of beavers in our special landscape. You can find this mural, The Little Architect's Landing, by artist Julia Brady located at Gather, a restaurant in downtown Jackson. Explore this and other murals by using the map below to see these works of art all summer long. |
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Jackson’s downtown streets welcome two new permanent murals and twelve temporary murals during JH Public Art’s annual WildWalls event. Beginning June 24, blank alley walls were transformed into an open-air gallery that runs through September. Local artists collaborated with science communities to create art that tells visual ecological stories that become interactive using mobile devices. This art gallery is outside a traditional venue, making WildWalls accessible to thousands of people daily. To experience the animations, follow these instructions.
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As we continue to monitor activity at our beaver dam cam sites, join us in checking out some updates. With high water levels in our area and dam complexes being pushed to their limit. Beavers work hard 365 days a year, 24 hours a day, in order to maintain their dams and dam complexes as the elements shift with the seasons. Check out who has been using the dam sites during this high flow season.
During this time of climate change awareness and mitigation, it is critical that we look for support from our natural world and shine a light on species that can help us combat the effects we are already experiencing today. Unfortunately, science alone is no longer effective at directing the measurable changes necessary. Science now needs the support and voices of the public. Beavers and the wetlands they create can help us and many other species withstand the climate change effects we are already seeing, such as increased wildfires and reductions in late-season water resources and streamflow. We simply need to keep beavers on the landscape and allow them to do what they do naturally.
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