Last fall we introduced you to renegade Wyoming public lands rancher Frank Robbins. We recounted the sweet deal he cut with Department of Interior officials. The deal: nine years of alleged grazing violations effectively waived.

We also told you about Western Watersheds Project's lawsuit against the DOI after the settlement with Robbins. And, well, we let the Casper Star-Tribune in on the story too. Wyoming's largest daily newspaper put it on the front page.

Legal pressure and media exposure: an effective management tool when agency management tools are conveniently misplaced. In February the Bureau of Land Management voided its settlement with Robbins. That item made front-page news too.

Last spring, when a group of us were in Washington, D.C., to forward the voluntary federal grazing permit buyout initiative, several congressional staffs told us to come back when we had a bill.

In October 2003 the Voluntary Grazing Permit Buyout Act and the Arizona Voluntary Grazing Buyout Act were introduced in the House of Representatives, and we've been back to Washington since then. Not coincidentally, the list of co-signers on the bill keeps growing.

2003 was an appalling year for the environment under the Bush Administration but a very good year for WWP's public voice of opposition to the Bush-whacking.

The Arizona Republic, the country's l3th largest newspaper, endorsed the federal grazing buyout plan. The Sierra Club's endorsement of the buyout was carried by several outlets. We wrote the news; the Sierra Club in D.C. helped circulate it nationally.

Several newspapers in Idaho published a flawed but effective, two-part, Page One profile of WWP executive director Jon Marvel that traveled over the wire. Our efforts to protect wolves in the Sawtooth National Recreation Area continued to generate consistent news coverage, and bighorn sheep in Montana may be the next chapter in charismatic species protection and public information in 2004.

Last year our news was reported by National Public Radio, the Christian Science Monitor, Los Angeles Times, Salt Lake Tribune, San Jose Mercury News, Albuquerque Journal, Arizona Republic, Arizona Daily Star, Las Vegas Review Journal, Las Vegas Sun, Idaho Statesman, San Diego Union Tribune, Associated Press, High Country News, Environmental News Service and other sources.

Opinion pieces appeared in the Los Angeles Times, Denver Post, Casper Star-Tribune and Headwaters News, a website given to daily environmental news stories throughout the West. Even agriculture industry publications such as Capital Press, Ag Journal and Western Stockman magazine continued to pay attention to our efforts.