Dear Friends,
Ten years ago, on October 1, 2012, the value of our big and little wildlife began to shift. Wyoming Untrapped (WU) team members had discovered the truth of trapping in Wyoming, a reality that needed solutions to preserve and protect wild and domestic animals on our public landscapes. WU took on the challenges, and we’ve been moving forward for trapping reform since that day.
WU has participated in the Old Bill’s Fun Run for eight years. This event was an essential component in the first year of our journey and remains a key fundraiser for us today.
Thanks to the kindness of generous supporters, WU has grown. Loren Taylor, our Executive Director, and recently, Sarah Pruden, our Outreach and Operation Manager, have joined our team. With new talented and skilled staff, we are able to tackle arduous challenges, increase our humane wildlife coexistence programs and build lasting collaborative partnerships. Wildlife wins, and so do we!
We need you, your support, and your voice more than ever in the months ahead. WU is here for as long as it takes to create safe public lands for people, pets, and wildlife. Please embrace, spread and live coexistence. Get involved by learning the issues and speaking out through our take-action alerts as we move forward. Increase your impact by donating during Old Bill's and help us spread value, respect, and compassion for all of Wyoming's domestic and wild animals of every size.
As always, we are grateful for your support: past, present, and future.
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WU Beaver Coexistence Program
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The WU team has been busy implementing humane coexistence techniques for Wyoming wildlife. We recently hosted a beaver dam flow device workshop for agency professionals and community partners. This workshop was an educational experience in collaboration with Aaron Hall and Defenders of Wildlife, with the goal of creating a space for participants to glean new skillsets that perpetuate the idea of humane coexistence with wildlife in our state. Specifically, the flow device workshop focused on ways agencies, partners, and private land owners can employ nonlethal deterrents to encourage healthy beaver activity in their area while decreasing unwanted damage to infrastructure and property. This event highlights that learning the biology and behavior of beavers translates into learning the best ways to coexist with them on our landscape.
There are many ways for beaver advocates to get involved. Aaron Hall's team has created iBeaver, a data collection tool that can record the location of a user’s beaver-related observations. Citizen science and crowd-sourcing data play an important and powerful role in our ability to gather information. The goal with iBeaver is to gather information to create a baseline of knowledge about beavers on our landscapes where there was not one before. Explore iBeaver and download the app at iBeaver: Crowd-sourcing data on North America's busy beaver.
Unfortunately, it is still legal for beavers to be trapped and killed without limit in most of Wyoming. We are seeking change in the lack of tolerance for beavers on private and public lands and a deficiency in awareness of effective coexistence methodologies for beavers. Our goal is to educate the public on the importance of beavers, encourage the public to spread this information to others and advocate for their protection. In the wake of climate change, we need beavers on the landscape now, more than ever before.
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Celebrate our Summer AmeriCorps
As the summer season comes to an end, the WU team celebrates the service of our summer AmeriCorps member, Laurel Ainsworth. Laurel played an integral part during one of our busiest seasons and did so with a smile and a contagiously good attitude the entire time. We were delighted to have Laurel serve with us, and are looking forward to hosting future AmeriCorps members as we continue to partner with the Teton Science Schools AmeriCorps program.
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"During my service with Wyoming Untrapped this summer, I had the privilege to work on the beaver dam cam project in a variety of ways. I was able to go out in the field to check trail cameras and collect footage, work on data analysis, and edit videos using footage from dam cameras. Not everyone can say that they’d be excited to work on a giant spreadsheet recording data, but I truly enjoyed every aspect of my service with WU. It was very rewarding to be part of a team, even for a short time, with such passion for protecting wildlife in Wyoming.
It was also fun to be able to take the knowledge I gained working with WU and use it in other areas of my service. I was able to take what I learned about beavers and their importance on the landscape, and transform it into mini lessons for the summer camps I was working on with Teton Science School. Because of my service with WU, there was more passion behind the lessons I delivered in other settings. In addition to a wealth of knowledge about beavers and the habitat they create, I also gained valuable experience working on ongoing research projects with a dedicated team. Serving with WU was an amazing experience and I know I will use the skills and experiences I gained here in whatever is next for me."
Laurel Ainsworth, AmeriCorps Alumni
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AmeriCorps service is a great way to gain experience and create connections that will last a lifetime. Serving in Wyoming, and in Jackson Hole, allows you to do just that, all while in an incredibly unique and beautiful environment.
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This summer has been a busy season for our Beaver Dam Cams. We visited our two dam cam sites last week to monitor camera operations, observe activity on the dams, and collect video footage. As a mix of high temperatures and heavy rains have affected our region off and on throughout this late summer season, we have seen the effects of high waters, as well as a rise in wildlife activity at our dam sites. Our dam cam footage reveals how the habitat created by beaver dams facilitates interspecies interactions. This week's dam cam highlight is of a mother black bear and her two cinnamon cubs. Beavers create habitat that not only supports a wide array of species but also acts as a space for wildlife to cool off during hot weather events. Beavers, Canada geese, moose, elk, black bears, red foxes, gray wolves, and great blue heron have been recently recorded utilizing beaver complexes for travel, cooling, foraging and even nesting.
As we touched on in our last newsletter, a pair of geese nested at one of our dam sites. As we have seen in our dam cam recordings, dams can be high-traffic areas for all kinds of species. Check out our Dam Cam videos to watch the goose nest saga. As the success rate of a laying pair of geese truly depends on their chosen nesting site and predators in the area, be sure to check out the video to find out the fate of the goose eggs.
Note: Click on 1080p for the finest quality video. |
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As the summer season shifts to fall, we want to celebrate once more the WildWalls mural art walk and our temporary mural. Working with Julia Brady and Kika McFarlane the WU team sponsored a beautiful temporary mural that focuses on the importance of beavers on the landscape. We had a blast celebrating this amazing community art at the community art walk in July, and now have beautiful images captured by Sam Pope to share with our supporters. |
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If you haven't taken the time to explore downtown Jackson and see our mural in person for yourself, there's no better time than the present. Visit our mural on the corner of Glenwood and Pearl St. at the Gather restaurant.
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Upcoming Ways to Get Involved
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With the Old Bill's giving season underway, the WU team is excited to get out into the community and continue to educate on wildlife conservation and trapping reform. We are looking forward to hosting a booth at the Old Bill's run day event. Our mission and our organization wouldn't be what it is today without the support of wildlife advocates like you, so we would like to invite you to join us on this special day.
If you are a WU advocate and would like to volunteer to support our staff at our Old Bill's booth, please contact our Outreach and Operations Manager, Sarah Pruden.
Sarah@wyominguntrapped.org
Visit our booth at the Old Bill's Fun Run:
10 a.m. Jackson Elementary Field, September 10th, 2022. |
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Save the Dates -
Trap Release Workshops
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Wyoming Untrapped hosted our first trap release workshop in Wilson, WY on September 4, 2014. Dave Pauli, Program Manager of Wildlife Conflict and Wildlife Protection for the Humane Society of the US, showed participants how to protect/remove pets from traps/snares. We are blessed that Dave is still with us as a member of our Advisory Council, always available for wildlife conflict resolution recommendations in the backyard or out in the field. His skills are invaluable as we focus each day on saving lives and preventing injuries to our pets and wildlife. Laramie:
6:30 p.m. - 8:30 p.m. 9/29/2022,
Holiday Inn 204 South 30th Street,
Brown Meeting Room
Laramie, WY, 82070, US
Pinedale:
6:30 p.m. - 8:30 p.m. 9/30/2022,
Lovatt Community Room, Pinedale Library,
155 S Tyler Ave, Pinedale WY. 82941
Jackson:
1:30 p.m. - 3:30 p.m. 10/01/2022 (the first day of the furbearer trapping season),
SpringHill Suites Event Space by Marriott Jackson Hole,
150 W Simpson Ave, Jackson, WY 83001
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