Western Watersheds Project (WWP), an ardant anti-public lands grazing environmental group, opened an office in Pinedale on Monday.

Jonathan Ratner, of Boulder, will serve as paid director for the group which he will operate out of his home office. In an interview yesterday, Mr. Ratner expressed his environmental concerns and spoke adamantly about his thoughts on grazing.

"When an oil rig goes up, everybody says whoa! what's going on," he said. "But with grazing, the damage to the environment is more subtle and usually missed by the general public."

According to a WWP news release, the group's chief target is public-lands grazing practices that "destroy" western watersheds and threaten or endanger species such as steelhead, bull trout, cutthroat trout, wolves and big horn sheep.

"Western Watersheds Project will work assertively to bring the U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management in Wyoming into compliance with the law," Mr. Ratner said. "Our mission is to protect public lands from illegal and abusive activities."

Though Mr. Ratner said that there had been few such abusive activities in the Sublette County area, he did cite instances in Cody and parts of Idaho where grazing problems have begun to overwhelm conservation agencies.

"We've been bombarded with pleas from agencies in Idaho especially," Mr. Ratner said. "They've been forced by their superiors to do illegal things under political pressure."

In terms of a local problem, Mr. Ratner said that the proposed Wyoming Range Allotment Complex Project is one his main concerns.

"The Forest Service wants to put 5,000 head of sheep in the Wyoming Range," he said. "This will be a serious problem with the domestic sheep grazing and overlapping with wild sheep."

When asked about his thoughts on the recent sway in environmental theory, with many conservative groups supporting grazing in hopes of cutting down on the subdividing and selling of ranch land, Mr. Ratner said the following.

"There are a lot of cows versus condos sentiments," he agreed. "and there is some validity in that. But key is land value. Regardless of if a ranch is grazing or economically viable, if it's worth a lot, it's going to go."

In offering a solution to this, Mr. Ratner points to the National Public Lands Grazing Campaign, an initiative to end livestock grazing on public lands by buying out federal grazing permits. This he said would greatly benefit the area and the environment.

Though he said a similar initiative was recently enacted in Arizona, there has been no such act passed in Wyoming.

"Ranching in Wyoming is like growing oranges in Alaska. It can be done, but economically and environmentally, it's just not sustainable."