Since this is the first report from the new Wyoming office of Western Watersheds Project, I think it would be good to tell the story of how it all started.

Some years ago, I, like most folks, was concerned with the highly visible environmental issues - clear-cuts, drilling rigs, sprawl - but considered the impacts of livestock grazing as just part of the scenery Then I got involved in some nasty grazing abuses in the Wind River Range and started educating myself on grazing impacts.

What I found was a real eye-opener. I discovered that most threatened and endangered species are listed because of the impacts of livestock grazing: soil compaction, erosion and siltation, lowering of the water table, species community changes, desertification. I also found out that American taxpayers are footing the bill for public lands ranching to the tune of at least $500 million a year in direct and indirect subsidies.

So I started connecting with various conservation groups working in Wyoming. I was shocked to find that the public lands grazing issue wasn't even figured into the conservation strategy for the state. No organization could or would touch it.

After trying to inspire various groups to action, and having no success at it, I started to look west-wide for organizations who were successfully addressing the livestock grazing issue. I found only a handful. Of the three groups working regionally, only WWP wanted to expand into Wyoming.

As I checked into WWP more thoroughly, I discovered an incredibly powerful and successful organization - a group that, despite a small staff and limited resources, had made a major impact in Idaho, Utah and other states in the interior West.

WWP supporters may not fully realize just how remarkable the group's nearly 100 percent litigation success rate is. Few organizations come close to this kind of accomplishment. Jon Marvel's dynamic drive, combined with the expertise of a legal team headed by Laird Lucas, has created a powerful force of change. WWP's profile is truly national. Land managers everywhere know of WWP's success and understand that the organization means action.

WWP is at the forefront of a major paradigm shift in how our public lands are managed.

Now on to news. In truth, a major part of the impetus to open an office in Wyoming is the result of desperate pleas from federal agency personnel with professional integrity They are getting ground up between the proverbial rock and hard place by pressure from Washington, D.C. to do all manner of illegal activities on our public lands. The saga of rancher Frank Robbins and the Worland office of the Bureau of Land Management is a particularly egregious case, but not an isolated one.

Through the NEPA process, we are also working on the Wyoming Range Allotment Complex, a group of allotments covering much of the northern half of the Wyoming Range. The complex is stocked with 5,000 sheep. The U.S. Forest Service wants to continue to expand grazing in this area even though it contains one of the last few pockets of Colorado River cutthroat trout; has grizzlies moving back into the area; is suffering from massive erosion; and overlaps with the Jackson bighorn sheep herd. The district ranger pushing this project has a history of bold defiance of federal statutes and agency regulations, in part because no one has overseen his activities. With a presence in Wyoming, WWP can now monitor his actions and prevent him from operating outside the law with impunity

On the other side of the state, WWP is diving into issues of rogue ranchers who are abusing the Big Horn National Forest. In the fall, WWP will begin a major public education campaign to encourage whistle-blowers within the public lands agencies who want to do the right thing. Most of the illegal activities that occur on public lands are known only to those within the agencies.

In early August, an 87,500-acre section of the northern end of the Bridger-Teton National Forest was permanently closed to grazing through a privately funded grazing permit buyout. As we move forward, we will be working on similar permit buyouts for other major conflict allotments to provide protection to endangered species in crucial areas.

To do all this, we will need your assistance to build WWP membership in Wyoming that can provide financial resources, lend expertise in various ecological sciences, volunteer to monitor public lands and provide useful contacts. We encourage you to go to your address book or e-mail program and contact all of your friends in and around Wyoming who are concerned about environmental issues in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem and the rest of the state. Invite them to become WWP members and have them contact me directly to let me know their area of expertise and what they want to see WWP accomplish in Wyoming.

I look forward to hearing from them and seeing you at the Greenfire Revival Sept. 12-13 at Greenfire Preserve.

Jonathan Ratner is Wyoming Director of WWP. He lives in Pinedale.