Special Edition - April 1, 2006

Classes start in 2008

Construction begins on the new Rocky Mountain Field School university in western Wyoming in 2007. Classes will begin in 2008.

Dorm Buildings

Future dorm buildings will start out with modular "pods" which will be brought in to initially house oil and gas field workers in Wyoming.

NEWS HEADLINES:

Solution found for "untrapping" antelope stuck at Trapper's Point bottleneck near Pinedale
How to get the antelope past the Cora Y?
Wildlife biologists and environmental groups have teamed up to think tank a creative solution to the Trapper's Point bottleneck problem and help Sublette County antelope. Due to housing development construction at the town of Cora Y, 9 miles west of Pinedale on Highway 191, 400 antelope have great difficulty getting from the southern end of the Green River Valley to the northern end to make their annual trek in Jackson Hole. After conducting an economic analysis of highway bridge overpasses, halting development on private land and elaborate highway wildlife warning light devices, the state of Wyoming has decided to implement a program to assist the twice annual migration of these animals. Each year, in the spring and the fall, wildlife biologists and environmental groups will selectively tranquilize 400 antelope, place them in special climate-controlled wildlife transport trucks, and drive them up to the Wildlife Refuge in Jackson. The animals will reawaken in their new home with no ill effects or memory of the shuttling. Cost analyses indicate the new migration enhancement program will save the state millions of dollars a year in highway modifications and animal carcas cleanup costs.

Wind River Mountains Bridger Wilderness Wildlife Sanctuary
Bridger Wilderness receives new designation
The Bush Administration and State of Wyoming recently announced the creation and designation of a pilot program for a new land use designation unit specifically designed to protect wildlife and wildlife habitat. The first to be designated is the Wind River Mountains-Bridger Wilderness Wildlife Sanctuary (WRMBWWS). Under the new designation, the Bridger Wilderness area will be entirely surrounded with 12-foot tall wildlife fences. These are designed to create a pristine habitat zone for grizzly bear, wolves, elk, moose, black bear and many other species. For the pilot test program, the area will be treated as a "no human presence" zone. Wildlife managers will monitor wildlife populations and movements via satellite surveillance. Researchers will reenter the area at the end of the 3, 5, 8 and 10-year interval in the 10-year study period to do on-the-ground population counts and determine the effectiveness of the non-human interference wildlife ecosystem program. The new plan is being heralded by wildlife groups and environmental organizations as President Bush's finest program yet for the protection of wildlife. "The President finally gets it!" said Maxine O'Hara, Director of the "Give Wildlife Room To Roam" political activist organization.

Fremont Lake Mining Project
Diamonds found on top of natural gas layers under Wyoming's 2nd largest lake
Last year, while drilling for natural gas with a state-of-the-art off-shore drill rig on Fremont Lake, drilling crews discovered an extremely rich find of diamonds under the lake bed. The Fremont Natural Gas Company has teamed up with Tiffanie & Co, a New-York based jewelry giant, to drain the water from Fremont Lake and displace it into Green River, New Fork, Meadow and Boulder Lakes in order to begin mining of the diamonds. "Tiffanie's expertise with mining in these kinds of situations has been invaluable," said company spokesman Larry Larouche. "We're able to extract natural gas and mine the diamonds simultaneously," he said.

Wolf Feedgrounds
A new way of thinking
Wyoming wildlife managers recently restructured and renamed the state-run elk feedground program into a new Wolf Feedground program. By giving the Greater Yellowstone wolf packs access to a guaranteed food supply in the winter, statistics have shown a significant decrease in livestock depredations at nearby ranches while reinforcing the natural balance predation plays in maintaining elk populations, wildlife managers said.

FEATURE STORY:
Rocky Mountain Field School gets funding nod
New University will be built in town of Sand Draw, south of Pinedale

In a cooperative effort between the State of Wyoming, Sublette County, oil & gas industry heavy weights, and private businesses and supporters, funding has been 100% assured for the establishment of a new university in Sublette County called the Rocky Mountain Field School.

The new institute for higher education will be located halfway between Pinedale and Farson off US Highway 191 in the scenic town of Sand Draw, nestled on the foothills of the western flank of the Wind River Mountain Range.

“Just as Pinedale was a ‘planned town’ back in 1904, the new community of Sand Draw will be designed in advance as Wyoming’s newest planned community for the 21st century,” explained spokesperson Harrison LeGrande.

“We have obtained just over 2,000 acres of land on both sides of Highway 191 for the overall project. We already have architectural plans for what our university town will ultimately look like.”

The concept is to start by building the housing portion first, which will serve the immediate need of providing living quarters for workers for the nearby Jonah Field and Pinedale Anticline gas fields. Housing “pods” will be brought in and situated in community housing locations. Later, these housing pods will serve as the basis for dorms for university students.

Other buildings will be built on a steady time-table which will create the classrooms, food-service facilities, an extensive library, laboratories and skills training rooms. "The pods can be brought in one by one on each of the big trucks that haul in equipment for the oilfield, growing the town like ants bringing crumbs from a picnic to the anthill," said LeGrande.

Large landscaped common areas will be interspersed along gently flowing Sand Creek, connected by tree-lined walking/running paths. Everything will be designed to be people and wildlife friendly. The community will have bike path access to the Continental Divide Mountain Biking Trail for bikers to reach shopping and dining in the nearby towns of New Fork and Farson.

“The new university will be roughly halfway in distance from Pinedale, Big Piney/Marbleton and Rock Springs, making it centrally located for the western Wyoming bike commuting population,” said LeGrande.

The planned community will also have a recreation complex which will include a bowling alley, movie theaters, racquet ball and basketball courts, weight & exercise rooms and inside running track.

Franchises for Starbocks and Kripsy Cremed Donuts have already committed to opening nearby stores. A small airfield is planned on the outskirts of the town with helicopter and jet access.

The new Rocky Mountain Field School will have a dual focus: Petroleum Engineering/Energy Resource Management and Natural Resource Management/Environmental Politics. There will be in-depth, practical on-the-ground courses to train workers for the oil and gas industry to help fill the workforce needs of the western Wyoming energy extraction industry, as well as the government agencies that oversee the development, and environmental activist groups to oppose the activity.

People will be able to come into the program with no experience, complete an 8-week technical trainng and work experience course, then qualify for entry-level roughneck, field technician, or environmentalist positions.

Students interested in wildlife and fisheries will be able to take courses related to big game resource management and environmental science. Special courses will be given on sage grouse lek management and songbird population revitalization. In addition, special funding has been provided for the study of the Three Horned Mesa Toad and the Jumping Jonah Jackalope, which were both recently placed on the Endangered Species List.

“The campus will be near the heart of three important big game wildlife migration routes. We've carefully designed our open spaces to keep the mule deer, desert elk and pronghorn antelope migration corridors intact so the herds can still pass through the center of the town along their ancient paths twice a year. Wildlife students will be able to watch and document the migrations of thousands of animals right from their dorm room windows.”

A portion of the profits being made from each gas well drilled in Sublette County is already being deposited by industry, the state and the county into special accounts to create a perpetual endowment fund for the new university.

"We're even picked out our school colors, white and sagebrush green," said LeGrande. "Between the BLM, Forest Service and Oil and Gas companies, half of the truck fleet in the county will already match our school colors!"