Return of the Jackson Hole Art Blog, and other arts news

I was excited to see that Tammy Christel restarted her Jackson Hole Art Blog. Back when I was the communications guy at the Wyoming Arts Council, I borrowed liberally from Tammy's blog. It was chock-full of news about Teton County arts and artists. She teased upcoming events and critiqued exhibits and happenings. She took off a couple years to take care of some family issues. Just yesterday she posted her first JHAB blog. Take time to read it.

Jackson has long been recognized as an arts hotbed in Wyoming and the region. It is the epicenter of Teton County, possibly one of the most picturesque in the country. Home of Grand Teton and Yellowstone national parks, you can't open your eyes without ogling a magnificent view. Naturally, it draws landscape artists  which has enriched the community. It's been a draw for writers, too, and is home to the Jackson Hole Writers Conference every June. Residents include starving artists and conservative gazillionaires. Millions of tourists flock to Teton County for the scenery and hiking and skiing and rock climbing. There are a fair number of liberals in the mix but also conservative cranks such as Dick Cheney and Foster Friess.

This heady mix causes many Wyoming residents to insist that Jackson is not a part of Wyoming, as if it existed in its own universe which, sometimes, it does. Those same critics spend an inordinate amount of time enjoying Jackson and Wilson and Teton Village and the slopes of Jackson Hole Ski Resort. But Jackson can't be denied. It's as much a part of Wyoming as Yellowstone and coal mines and rodeo and wind. And its clout as an aesthetic destination can't be ignored.

Jackson isn't the state's only arts town. You can find out more by regularly perusing the Wyoming Arts Council web site. Many Wyoming communities have their own arts councils. Look up Pinedale Fine Arts Council, Casper's Artcore, Arts Cheyenne, and many others. Look them up on social media. Get involved locally.  Often you find that the arts in smaller communities is spearheaded by one or two residents. That can get mighty lonesome. Volunteer!

And finally, badger your legislators when they are close to home. Remind them that you are a voter who cares deeply about the arts and he/she should too. Be cordial but insistent. However, should that legislator disappoint you with crackpot bills and anti-arts behavior, you might vote for someone else or even run for office. That may sound extreme, but I have worked for more than one candidate who won or lost by fewer than 20 votes. If just 11 of those people had changed their votes, the make-up of our legislature would be different.

Now get out there and appreciate the arts. I am a front desk volunteer at the Cheyenne Botanic Gardens this afternoon. Come see me and I will point out the wonderful animal sculptures by Don Ostermiller that are scattered about the grounds. I will also direct you to the art show on the conservatory's second floor. I also may remind you that all of the blooming flowers are nature's works of art. You might even see a plein air artist out in the plein air painting the scenery. I will remind you that tickets are still available for Thursday's Summer Concert Series performance by Jason Burge, the Dauphin of Mississippi who's from Mississippi, once worked at the Wyoming Humanities Council and now lives and works in New Zealand. A very talented singer/songwriter.

See you there.

What happens when Wyoming tourists no longer want to drive?

Gas prices are lower and expected to go even lower. We may be in for $2.50 gas prices in early 2015.

Yellowstone had a record 4 million visitors in 2014.

All good news for Wyoming.

Or is it?

America's love affair with cars may be over. Hard to believe for us Baby Boomers. I've been driving for almost 50 years. I couldn't wait to get my license and a car and tear around Volusia County, Florida -- and possibly use my new motorized self to get a date.

I did get a date or two. And I've driven in hundreds of counties all over this country and had a pretty good time doing it.

But those days may be over, at least in urban centers where most of the population lives. Kids these days -- they don't dream so much about piloting their own car as they do about saving the planet. Public transportation and car-sharing and walking and biking are hip.

Teton County, the gateway to Grand Teton and Yellowstone national parks and the cornerstone of Wyoming tourism, just opened a new terminal for its Southern Teton Area Rapid Transit (START) bus line. We have buses in Cheyenne and Casper and maybe a few other communities. But none of us has a transportation terminal that includes a "bus barn" for storing vehicles indoors away from the cruelties of Wyoming weather. The first phase of this transportation terminal was dedicated Friday. When it's completed, it will even include employee housing, a real concern for any middle class person hoping to make a living in one of the richest counties in the country.

The state has no plans to widen tourist-clogged Teton County roads. And many environmentally-conscious residents don't want those roads widened anyway. So the county plans for more rapid transit to get residents and visitors out of their cars. As it is now, visitors can fly into Jackson and spend a week without a car. In fact, they may prefer that.

The town of Jackson's web site had a link to this article written by Tim Henderson for the PEW Charitable Trusts. It talks about the drop in rates for commuting by car, not only in cities but here in the Great Wide Open:

Western areas known for wilderness and a car-loving culture are seeing big decreases. In Oregon, Washington and Colorado, the percentage of workers commuting by car dropped by either 3 or 4 percentage points. 

The car commuting rate in Teton County, Wyoming, with its breathtaking mountain views and world-renowned skiing at Jackson Hole, dropped from 79 percent to 70 percent. No other county saw a larger decline. 

“We took a number of actions between 2000 and 2010 with the intention of changing the mode of travel away from the auto, particularly for the work trip in our area,” said Michael Wackerly of Southern Teton Area Rapid Transit. Some of the steps included providing commuter buses to get workers from neighboring Idaho, bus passes for Teton Village employees and higher parking fees to encourage bus use. For Teton County, the motivation was largely environmental. 

“A transportation system oriented toward automobiles is inconsistent with our common values of ecosystem stewardship, growth management and quality of life,” said the county’s 2012 master plan.

The Western Greater Yellowstone Consortium, a four-county partnership in Wyoming and Idaho, cites the expectations of Eastern tourists, many of whom come from cities where driving is falling out of favor. “A growing percentage of those visiting our National Parks from the nation’s urban centers and other countries expect to have alternatives to driving a private vehicle,” the group said in laying out its transportation goals.

You can read the rest of the article at http://townofjackson.com/current/more-cities-and-states-car-commuting-skids/

Many tourists "expect to have alternatives for driving a vehicle." They may be prompted by an environmental ethic. They may not want to be bothered with the hassles getting around unfamiliar territory on their own. Or they may not want to endure a National Lampoon-style family summer vacation family trip from Des Moines to Yellowstone. Where's Aunt Edna?

Sure, Jackson may be filled with tree huggers (along with the occasional Dick Cheney). But what about tourists visiting other Wyoming destinations? It's hard to imagine Cheyenne Frontier Days without city streets clogged with coal rollers and RVs. But even at CFD, the city uses school buses to transport tourists from a big parking area off of I-25 to concerts and the rodeo. And the city offers a free downtown circulator bus each summer. Downtown is very walkable and there are more and more reasons to walk around in it. We have a superb bikepath system, although commuting by bike on roadways still can be a harrowing experience.

There is a huge difference between Jackson and Cheyenne, One of the first comments I heard after moving to Wyoming in 1991: "Too bad you live in the ugly part of the state." It's true -- Jackson Hole is gorgeous while you have to hunt for the beauty in the High Plains. It's there, but it's not staring you in the face as it is every day in The Hole. More and more, Teton County residents realize what a gift they have. It's reflected in transportation policies and planning and a strong "locals" movement and arts and cultural activities such as the summer's Wild Festival which has the goal of "deepening our connection to nature through the arts."

In Wyoming, tourism is as important as digging carbon out of the ground to incinerate in giant power plants that obscure our national park vistas and contribute to global warming. But changes in national attitudes and demographics may be the real key to the state's future.

Wyoming has little to fear from gigantic dog's knobby chew toy

Geologists say that the volume of molten magma underneath Yellowstone is somewhere between 50 to 145 cubic miles. But earthquakes are a bigger threat.

People in Wyoming sometimes speculate about The Big One, the day when Yellowstone's magma chamber blows its top, causing a cataclysmic eruption such as the one 640,000 years ago that wiped from the map woolly mammoths, giant ground sloths and prehistoric Democrats.

As it turns out, we have more to fear from earthquakes (and possibly Liz Cheney) than The Big One. Swarms of earthquakes regularly rattle the Yellowstone region, some big enough to topple skyscrapers for hundreds of miles around. Fortunately, there are no skyscrapers for hundreds of miles around.

Scientists discussed this topic at a geology conference in Denver in April. Here's my favorite paragraph from a Live Science article about the conference:

The [magma] reservoir is shaped like a dog's knobby chew toy, with one end about 9 miles (15 km) below the center of Yellowstone National Park, and the other rising to the northeast, about 3 miles (5 km) below the surface.

With national parks closed, Jackson Hole quiet on the eve of ski season

When I was in Jackson Hole over the weekend, people were plenty sore about the Republican-spawned national park shutdown. Hotel reservations have been cancelled and tour buses rerouted to other parks, notably those in neighboring Colorado and Utah reopened by state funds. In Wyoming, alas, the constitution forbids state funds going to federal government operations. The tourism industry made an appeal to Gov. Mead. Alas, private dollars from Cody and Jackson were enough to plow the roads that got the parks opened in the spring but money couldn't be leveraged for general operating costs. That's fine with me, as I'm content to let Republicans stew in their own juices. Unfortunately, everyone in Teton County, D & R & I alike, is in that same gravy boat.

The newly refurbished Snow King bar wasn't dead, not exactly, but it's a jumping place on sun-drenched summer evenings and frigid ski-season nights. Last Saturday night, with baseball playoffs on one TV screen and an SEC tiff on the other, only a few patrons lined the bar. Most of the rest of the 20-some people were connected with the Wyoming Arts Council's conference going on around town. We made reservations for 10 on Friday evening at the popular Rendezvous Bistro. The place was half-empty by the time we got around to dessert.

Traffic flowed freely and no tourists seemed in danger of getting flattened by an RV; close calls are an every day summer occurrence. There just weren't that many targets (or RVs). 

We heard rumors about a protest by Cody Tea Party types set for Yellowstone's east gate. I don't know if that happened. It was snowing most of the weekend, and that tends to take some steam out of Tea Party gatherings, as most attendees seem to be of advanced years. We did hear about some daredevils sneaking into the park, but they risked getting a ticket from park staff still on duty.

Probably the best quote I heard about the closed national parks came from writer and activist Terry Tempest Williams. She's a Utah native but now lives in Teton County. At an arts conference talk on Monday, Williams spoke about taking a walk "on the periphery of Grand Teton National Park. I was surprised by how quiet it was."

She wondered what the animals were doing and thinking. " 'Frolic' came to mind."

The animals may be frolicking, but the humans, perturbed by Congress's antics, are in a sour mood.

Putting the blame where it belongs for national park shutdown: Wyo's lone congressional rep

Jim Stanford on Oct. 1 at JH Underground:

Grand Teton and Yellowstone national parks are being barricaded today, and all public access closed, thanks in part to Wyoming’s lone congressional representative, Cynthia Lummis.

Lummis is part of an extreme faction of the Republican Party seeking to hold the federal government hostage over implementation of the 2009 health care law. She voted repeatedly this weekend and last night to send a budget bill to the Senate that was dead on arrival.

Without funding, all federal agencies, including the National Park Service, were forced to close.

On her website, Lummis said she did so to protect Americans from “the onslaught of Obamacare.”

Onslaught of Obamacare?

Read the entire column here. 

If anyone sees Sen. Barrasso shoveling snow off of the Yellowstone roads, I want a photo

Snow plowing at the east entrance to Yellowstone near Sylvan Pass in spring 2011. National Park Service photo.

Instead of urging its Republican Congressional delegation to remedy the federal budget sequestration, Wyoming's leaders have discovered an opportunity to brand road plowing in Yellowstone with a conservative "Code of the West" stamp.

First of all, just what is the "Code of the West?"

It's a list of 10 precepts invented by author and retired Wall Street investor James P. Owen. He now lives in Austin, Texas, and founded the Center for Cowboy Ethics and Leadership, a nonprofit 501(c)(3) foundation. His book credits include Cowboy Ethics (2004 and Cowboy Values (2008). Owen ccoined the phrase “Cowboy Ethics” and wrote his book distilling the unwritten Code of the West into “Ten Principles to Live By.” In 2010, the State of Wyoming adopted the Ten Principles of Cowboy Ethics as its official state code.

To sum up, the state code admonishes residents and lawmakers to live courageously, take pride in their work, finish what they start, do what's necessary, be tough but fair, keep promises, ride for the brand, talk less and say more, remember that some things aren't for sale, and know where to draw the line.

You got that? Somehow, this translates into using state equipment driven by my fellow state employees to plow snow-clogged roads in Yellowstone, roads that were set to open late because of $1.8 million in sequestration budget cuts. These are the same budget cuts that Wyoming's Congressional delegation has proudly trumpeted as necessary and good for the country.

Nobody has seen Sen./Dr. John Barrasso out in Yellowstone shoveling snow off the road to Old Faithful. We should put him to work during his two-week spring break.

Here's the recent press release from the Wyoming Office of Tourism:

YELLOWSTONE OR BUST!

Thanks to a collaborative effort between state, federal and private entities, Wyoming ensures America’s National Treasure will open on time

(Cheyenne, Wyoming, March 21, 2013) – Wyoming has set an example of how to deal with federal budget cuts by putting into action the “Code of the West.” Simply put, this “Code” consists of behaviors and rules that center around hospitality, fair play, loyalty, and respect for the land.

As Yellowstone National Park struggled with the nearly $1.8 million budget cut due to sequestration and ways they could alleviate the impact on visitors and gateway communities, they chose to delay plowing roads this spring; which in turn would have delayed the opening of the East Gate from Cody and the South Gate from Jackson by two weeks.

“The delays would not have been good for our local or state economy,” said Scott Balyo, executive director of the Cody Chamber of Commerce, “Almost immediately upon hearing that the East Gate would not open on time we began working with local and state partners to find a solution.”

Governor Matt Mead along with mayors and private businesses in the gateway communities of Cody and Jackson met to discuss possible solutions. Collectively they agreed that the potential revenue loss from a delay would have real financial consequences, especially on small business owners.

Governor Matt Mead led the discussion by saying, “We value our national parks as the true assets they are, not only to Wyoming’s economy, but to the nation’s economy. Yellowstone is internationally recognized and by delaying the opening we not only lose the opportunity to generate millions in revenue but we lose the opportunity to host visitors who might be experiencing this natural wonder for the first time.”

Gateway communities in particular are an integral component of the national parks system and rely heavily on the traffic generated from their national and international draw. In addition to providing a supporting role, these communities provide air service, lodging, restaurants, outfitter and guide services and other activities that enhance and enrich the national park experience.

Jeff Golightly, executive director with the Jackson Hole Chamber of Commerce reiterated, “Jackson Hole as a community takes stewardship of our national parks very seriously.  The idea that our nation’s first national park would not open on time for the world to enjoy was something we felt compelled to avoid. The Jackson Hole Travel and Tourism Board and the Jackson Hole Chamber of Commerce felt it was our responsibility to protect our local tourism economy so we backed the plan right away by committing one time funds.”

Governor Mead offered equipment and personnel to assist with plowing efforts while the gateway communities pooled their resources, began fundraising and came up with money to fund the operation.  Wyoming’s entrances to Yellowstone National Park will open as previously scheduled. The East Gate from Cody will open on May 3, 2013 and the South Gate from Jackson will open on May 10, 2013.

Superintendent Dan Wenk agreed to start plowing from inside the park while Wyoming Department of Transportation (WYDOT) crews make their way from the east and south gates to complete the snowplowing operations.  WYDOT plows will be donning a large banner that reads “Yellowstone or Bust” based around a summer road trip campaign that the Wyoming Office of Tourism is currently rolling out.

Diane Shober, Director of the Wyoming Office of Tourism attests, “Wyoming represents the iconic cowboy and not just because we’re a Western state, but because cowboys stand for something, they are entrepreneurs and they live by the simple basic values that lie at the heart of the cowboy way. This is what the “Wyoming, Forever West” brand is all about.” As the Wyoming Office of Tourism gets ready to launch their national summer campaign, the goal remains to promote Wyoming as a vacation destination to domestic and international visitors while increasing revenue for stakeholders and the state of Wyoming.

ABOUT

·         Yellowstone National Park (YNP) received 3.4 million visitors in 2012. Source: National Park Service reports
·         Traffic through the East Gate in the first two weeks of May in 2012 totaled 11,500 people in 4,200 cars. The estimated local economic impact for Cody is $2 million for that time period.
·         At the South Gate in Jackson, 17,553 visitors passed through during the entire month of May generating an estimated $2.3 million.
·         Tourism is Wyoming’s second leading industry. In 2012 travelers generated $3.1 billion in direct expenditures to the State of Wyoming.  Source: 2012 Economic Impact Report
·         Xanterra Parks & Resorts of Yellowstone will open all lodging and visitor services as scheduled
·         East Gate from Cody opens May 3, 2012
·         South Gate from Jackson opens May 10, 2012

Yellowstone is saved. Tourism is saved. Thanks, "Code of the West."

No telling yet how many park rangers will be furloughed or how many park restrooms won't be cleaned or how many other services will be curtailed due to the cuts. In Cheyenne, some 410 National Guard and 700 Warren AFB personnel have received notices about one-day-a-week furloughs. That's a 20 percent cut in their pay. That's 20 percent less dough that won't contribute to the Wyoming economy (OK -- some of it goes to Fort Collins and Denver).

BTW, my favorite month to travel Yellowstone is May. Nothing quite like navigating the East Gate road to Lake Yellowstone flanked by 10-foot walls of freshly-plowed snow. No traffic. No bear jams.

If anyone sees Sen. Barrasso, snow shovel in hand, out on the road near Fishing Bridge, take a photo. I'd love to post it.

Republican Sequester brings pain to Wyoming

Sequester causes cuts in funding for special needs students: http://www.wyomingpublicmedia.org/post/sequester-might-cut-funding-special-needs-students

Mayors from communities around Yellowstone National Park have petitioned Gov. Mead to use state funds to plow the park's roads so it will open on time for tourist season. Yellowstone's budget has been cut by more than $1.5 million due to sequestration. The Governor wonders why the state should have to spend money for federal obligations: http://www.wyomingpublicmedia.org/post/governor-ponders-sequestration-help

Cheyenne Airport may have to shutter its air traffic control tower: http://www.wyomingpublicmedia.org/post/cheyenne-regional-airport-might-lose-air-tower

Once upon a time in the West, a WY Republican senator proposed a monorail for Yellowstone NP

Sao Paolo, Brazil, monorail -- this could have served
the Jackson to Old Faithful Inn route, if Sen
Malcolm Wallop had had his way.

Last week, I posted about the traffic congestion at I-25 and College Drive in Cheyenne. I suggested that there may be a solution in sight, as U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood announced that Cheyenne will receive a $400,000 grant to “reduce crashes” at the interchange.

In that post, I kidded around about monorails. I couldn’t resist. Fans of “The Simpsons” know the monorail song from the fifth series episode in which a Harold Hill-style huckster talks the gullible citizens of Springfield into an ill-fated monorail project.

They’re a joke. Except in Mumbai and Tokyo and Las Vegas and Moscow and Dusseldorf and Singapore where monorails move hundreds of thousands of people a day – and hardly any of the passengers break out in the monorail song. I’ve ridden the tourist monorails in Orlando and Seattle, and people-mover versions at DFW Airport and downtown Detroit.

I was shocked to discover that a Republican U.S. Senator once proposed a monorail for Yellowstone National Park. It was 1991 and people were in an uproar over traffic congestion and pollution at our major parks. Sen. Malcolm Wallop of Sheridan was no environmentalist. But he did think the National Park Service should investigate a YNP Monorail.

I find lots of archival references to Wallop’s proposal. WY PBS did a Main Street Wyoming interview with Wallop on the subject. The Monorail Society’s newsletter lists and summer 1991 story about Wallop’s proposal. But I didn’t have the time or research skills to ferret out the details.

I did find a June 2, 1991, article in the Baltimore Sun by Associate Editor Ernest B. Furgurson. He announced that he was about to set out on an exploration of the West’s national parks:

During the next few weeks, I plan to set foot on some of the most valuable land in America. It is valuable because it is undeveloped, and if there is a heaven it will stay that way. 

--snip-- 

Environmentalists are not the only park lovers who see traffic as probably the most serious single problem. Sen. Malcolm Wallop of Wyoming, with whom they are often at odds, suggested this week that the National Park Service consider "futuristic" mass transport, such as monorails, to ease road crowding. 

His idea was immediately derided as a way to convert national parks into theme parks like Disneyland. But if even Mr. Wallop is willing to impose a slight inconvenience on the all-American motorist who wants to drive every foot of the way, there may be hope for change. 

Building monorail systems in Yellowstone, Yosemite and Denali (Mt. McKinley) parks seems at first glance too much of a project, sure to destroy terrain and mar views. But shuttle buses already are required at Denali, and available at other parks such as Yellowstone. At Yosemite, the park service is limiting the number of cars in the valley to 5,000 at a time.

This seems so long ago and far away. If a 2011 Republican senator proposed a monorail or light rail line to anywhere, he or she would be targeted by Luddite Tea Party conspiracy types who see all mass transportation as an international plot against suburban sprawl. These people have already made a stir in Casper where a few loud yet ill-informed citizens saw a zoning change as part of the nefarious UN Agenda 21 plot. Florida recently turned down millions for a high-speed rail line on its west coast. The Feds took the money and sent it to other rail projects in the northeast and California. In ten years, those blue state voters will be zipping along to the polls while commuters in Tampa and Orlando will spend election day in gridlocked traffic. They won’t be singing the monorail song. They will be singing the blues.

There’s no real reason for a Yellowstone monorail. It would be terribly expensive. Those big concrete tracks and stanchions would be a blight on the landscape. Yellowstone really only has horrible traffic two months of the year -- July and August. Many summer tourists are accommodated by shuttle and tour buses. Modern autos spew much less pollution. Besides, there’s just no way around the fact that we westerners love our cars. I do.

You never know, though. WY Sen. John Barrasso just might surprise everyone by suggesting national park monorails or light rail systems or even blimps. He’ll do anything to get an interview on Fox News.

Shape-shifting in the arts world and in Yellowstone

The world of arts funding is changing dramatically. The federal-state-local government infrastructure that began with the establishment in 1965 of the National Endowment for the Arts is morphing into something new and different. And this may be a good thing.

I work in that infrastructure, in both the state and federal level, for 20 years. I am 60. My brain and my aesthetics should be as calcified as my knees. But as is the case with many of my colleagues in arts administration, I am being challenged to look at the arts with new eyes.

I mentioned “colleagues.” I have fewer of those these days as state arts agencies are killed off by Tea Party-inspired governors and state legislatures. The Kansas Arts Commission got the ax this year. South Dakota almost disappeared. Nevada and Arizona were cut to the bone.

This budget cutting frenzy is inspired by deficits and political ideology. Wyoming has a budget surplus but our arts agency has been told to cut spending – or else. Wyoming is as red as red can be. We’re selling the crap out of coal and shale oil and natural gas (some of which is actually ancient crap) and trona and wind -- and the gubment is raking in the dough through excise taxes. One can only assume that politics trumps reality.

One could get all bent out of shape about this state of affairs. [Pause for blood-curdling scream]  Or, maybe, I can put my energy into alternatives. Change is good, right? Didn’t a presidential candidate say that long time ago in a galaxy far far away?

I will spend time on these pages exploring arts organizations and funders and artists and writers who are looking at this world in new ways.

I came across a great one today. United States Artists has been around for several years. The help artists, writers and performers raise project funding online.

The artists first must pass muster as a recipient of an award from one of USA’s partnering organizations, such as Wyoming Arts Council, Idaho Arts Commission, Lannan Foundation, Rockefeller Foundation, etc.

Artist Pearl C. Hsiung, L.A. needed to raise $5,200 for her multimedia project, “Yellow Stoner: Shape-shifting in Yellowstone National Park.” Under “perks,” Hsiung promised $50 donors that she would send e-mail updates of the project. For a $100 donations, you get e-mail updates and an actual postcard sent from YNP. Donors of $250 (limited to 20) receive e-mail updates, a postcard from YNP and a limited edition, signed and numbered, hand-pulled 9x12-inch “Yellow Stoner” screen print created for this fund-raiser. Those who donate $500 (limited to 10) get all of the above, thank you credits, and a signed DVD copy of the finished video piece. The high rollers -- $1,000 donors – get all of the above plus a party.

Hsiung ended up raising 107 percent of her goal. The money pays for travel costs and renting a camera. She plans to be in Yellowstone in late August. The light will be good and many of the tourists (but not all) will be gone.

I write at length about this project for several reasons: 1. It’s innovative and interesting; 2. It’s happening in Wyoming; 3. Hsiung had to earn her artist creds though a public or private arts org to qualify for USA Projects; 4. A number of micro-lending individuals thought enough of the project to fund it.

This latter point is important. True, a kitschy postcard sent from the Old Faithful Inn is a keepsake. But the philanthropists in the $250-and-up categories get something concrete for their money. Call it an investment. That poster or video may be worth something some day. Even the thank you creds on the DVD might lead to other projects and investments in the arts world. At least you get bragging rights when Pearl shows her video and you’re listed as a free-spending arts patron.

Diego: “Thanks for the commission, Mr. Rockefeller.”

Nelson: “You’re welcome. Now tear down that commie mural.”

You may be venturing into unknown country with arts patronage.

I digress. No matter what the future holds, Hsiung wins. Her project gets funding. More people know about her and her work (including this arts administrator in Cheyenne, WY). She’s learned some valuable marketing skills.

Go check out her project at http://www.unitedstatesartists.org/project/yellow_stoner_shape_shifting_in_yellowstone_national_park

And if you’re wandering around Yellowstone the next couple weeks and see a young artist and cameraperson surrounded by shape shifters, you’ll know who it is. Say hi. 

Who's the "Bull Goose Loony" among Wyoming Congressional Republicans?

Congressional Republicans ponder the "Repeal Amendment" while waiting for their meds 

O.K.. "looniness" isn't a word, at least according to Webster's. You can be loony or looney. I can be loonier that thou, or even the looniest one in the bunch. I can imagine myself as the non-politically-correct "Bull Goose Loony" in an imaginary mental ward ("One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest") or be a member of the "Looney Tunes" stable of animated characters -- Daffy Duck comes to mind.

But looniness is a good descriptor for the legislation issuing forth from Congressional Republicans these days. Wyoming's Congressional delegation was once known as a moderate bunch. Sure, they were all Republicans, but senators such as Al Simpson and Craig Thomas and Mike Enzi usually avoided siding with the Far Right on their looniest causes.

There were causes for concern. During his first term, Mike Enzi sided with Sen. Dr. Bill Frist on Terry Schiavo's right to live a long and healthy life in a vegetative state. Sen. Dr. Frist contended that he could diagnose Mrs. Frist via video and, apparently, that was good enough for Sen. Enzi. It was a tempest in a teapot, like so many of these Far Right causes. Education system not working? Blame unionized teachers and their fat paychecks. Don't like abortion? Force women to view ultrasounds of their fetus -- or charge them with murder after the fact. Budget deficits? Cut taxes for the wealthy and kill Medicare for the elderly and Medicaid for the poor.

As I said, looniness.

Now Sen. Enzi and Sen. Dr. John Barrasso (we don't need no universal health care!) and Rep. Cynthia Lummis (a.k.a. seventh-richest member of Congress) are touting the so-called "Repeal Amendment" which would allow states to get rid of federal rules and regulations they don't like. This is a favorite bugaboo of the Far Right. That damn federal gubment is out to get them with needless regulations about wolves and black-footed ferrets and guns and oil drilling and health care and Gays. Wyoming Tea Partiers, many of whom haver never seen a live wolf, call wolves terrorists and want to be able to shoot them on sight if they wander into their ranchette to munch on Fluffy. But that darn gubment keeps getting in their way.

Meanwhile, as rivers flood and tornadoes drop from the sky or rain refuses to fall, these same people holler for federal disaster relief and scream even louder if they don't get it immediately.

Wyoming is one of those states that pays in fewer taxes than it gets in federal funding. It also has a fair amount of federal land. We have two national parks, Yellowstone being the first in the U.S., and some national monuments, including the first in the U.S. in Devils Tower. We have the huge Wind River Indian Reservation and nuke central at F.E. Warren AFB -- I hear reveille sound every morning from the base's loudspeakers. We have the huge national training base at Camp Guernsey. We have national grasslands and reclamation projects and many millions of federal dollars in our interstate highway system and airports. Wyoming relies on energy and tourism, both heavily subsidized by government infrastructure.

Wyoming will wither up and blow away to Nebraska without federal funding from U.S. taxpayers.

All three members of the Wyoming Congressional delegation will be in Platte County this week. Check out the Platte County Democrats' blog to see the schedule. I am not sure if they also will be in Laramie County. Looked for Sen. Enzi's travel schedule on his web site and couldn't find anything up-to-date.

The Casper Star-Tribune had an excellent editorial today about the loony "Repeal Amendment." Here's the opening:

The last time a coalition of states decided it had the power to nullify federal laws was in 1860, when 11 Southern states objected to the ban on slavery and seceded from the union. We all know how that turned out.  Sen. Mike Enzi, R-Wyo., who has decided to ignore history and steer the current states’ rights bandwagon, is sponsoring the so-called Repeal Amendment, the ultimate anti-federal measure. It has almost no value beyond scoring some political points with the tea party crowd and the far right fringe of the Republican Party.

Read the rest here

Love them budget cuts -- except when it affects "our park"

Put this under the heading of "we don't need that darn federal gubment."

All of us in the West love the national parks and national forests. Some on the Right believe that parks such as Yellowstone -- a national treasure and international heritage site -- takes care of itself, that you just push the self-clean button when all the tourists go home in September and it takes care of itself.

Yellowstone visitation is up over the past two summers. Here are some 2010 numbers from the NPS: 

It has been a record-breaking summer for Yellowstone National Park. Visitation figures for June, July, and now August, have all shattered previous records. Yellowstone hosted 854,837 visitors in August. It is the first time August visitation has passed the 800,000 mark, and is up more than 81,000 from the previous August record of 773,307 visitors set back in 1995. Visitation for the 3 summer months topped 2.5 million. Visitation for the first 8 months of the year was almost 2.87 million.  

With gas prices climbing above $4 per gallon, this summer looks to be another blockbuster for national parks in the West, including my favorites -- Yellowstone, Grand Teton, and Rocky Mountain. Meanwhile, Republicans in the House want to cut budgets on all domestic spending. 

There's an irony here. Energy exploration is the number one industry in Wyoming followed closely by tourism with agriculture a distant third. Our U.S. Congressional delegation want to cut domestic spending but seem to be O.K. with us spending freely in Iraq and Afghanistan. And $4 billion in tax breaks for oil companies? That's fine with them too. But what about keeping the toilets clean and the roads repaired in Yellowstone? Forget it!

So the National Park Foundation is raising money to make up the shortfall:   

Dear Friend, Imagine for just one moment a world without our national parks…no Yellowstone, no Grand Canyon, no Yosemite. No opportunity to share these great treasures with your children, to build memories together that would last a lifetime. We need your help! Our parks are constantly facing the threat of budget cuts and shortfalls. This year alone our parks faced a final budget cut of more than $132 million. This has had a dramatic impact on the nearly 400 national parks spanning 84 million acres of stunning scenery and historical shrines. We can’t sit idly by while America’s national parks are being compromised. Help us to ensure that our national parks continue to receive the resources they need to protect fragile ecosystems and wildlife habitats, restore and maintain hundreds of miles of trails, fund educational programs that introduce children to our parks, and support thousands of volunteers that assist our park rangers and the millions of visitors the parks see each year. Now is the best time to show your support for our national parks. Thanks to the generosity of National Park Foundation Board member Jay Kislak, if you donate now, your gift will be matched dollar-for-dollar up to $50,000! America’s national parks belong to you. Please make a generous donation today to NPF. Only you can guarantee the future of our national parks.  

Jackson Hole National Monument

Neat Daily Kos post on the Jackson Hole National Monument

National Geo Geotourism Map worth a look

Atlantic City Mercantile, Dark Horse Books and 7D Dude Ranch all part of the National Geographic's Yellowstone Region Geotourism Map at http://www.yellowstonegeotourism.org/map.php.


The region emcompasses quite a distance, further than most of us in Wyoming consider the Yellowstone ecosystem. For instance, the Little Bighorn Battlefield on Montana's Crow Reservation is on the map. It's worthy, no doubt, but so far away from the old Yellowstone caldera at around 150 road miles.


Entirely possible that National Geo knows more than I do.

More wailing and gnashing of teeth over Wyoming's wolves

Jeremy Pelzer wrote about the ongoing wolf delisting controversy in today's Casper Star-Tribune:

Lawyers for the state told a federal judge today that Wyoming should be given control over wolves in the state, calling the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's rejection of Wyoming's wolf management plan "arbitrary and capricious."

Federal attorneys responded that Wyoming's plan would put the state's wolf population at risk because it would allow the animals to be killed anywhere in the state besides national park lands.

Attorneys for Fish and Wildlife and the U.S. Department of Justice faced off with lawyers from the state and Park County during oral arguments before U.S. District Judge Alan Johnson. Both sides now await a ruling from Johnson, which could take anywhere from a few days to several months to be released.

This is a big issue in Wyoming. It's not unusual to see bumper stickers advocating wolf hunting and even wolf elimination. Some Republican media stars have advocated hunting wolves from helicopters.

On my way to work this morning, I happened across a "Delist the wolf" rally on the State Capitol steps. About 30 people in attendance, some holding signs advocating delisting. One said "Delist the terrorists."

Wolves as terrorists? That's a new one. One speaker said that 96,000 elk could be killed by wolves in the next five years. I have no idea if this is true. But the man at the podium said so many wolf kills would take food out of the mouths of Wyomingites and cause hunters not to come to the state and spend tourist dollars.

It is a fact that a number of out-of-state hunters come to Wyoming in the fall. It's also true that there are many hunters in Wyoming who bring the meat home to their families. Some of those families depend on this as part of the yearly food budget. But not all.

Tourists come from all over the world to view Yellowstone wolves in their natural habitat. If you compared number of out-of-state hunters with number of out-of-state wolf peepers -- which would be the larger number? You'd obviously want to know how much money each type of tourist spends in the state. We already know that lodging numbers in 2009 are down quite a bit from 2008, even though visitation to national parks increased dramatically. But who spends more money -- hunters or tourists?

Something else I have to research...

Geotourism center to address "social and natural" character of Yellowstone region

This sounds like a promising trend for the region.

Ben Cannon wrote this for Planet Jackson Hole:

The Greater Yellowstone Geotourism Center in Driggs, Idaho, believed to be the first of its kind, will be one part visitor center, one part interpretive facility, said Teton Valley Chamber of Commerce president Reid Rogers, who is heading up the initiative.

So called “geotourism” differs from ecotourism, or travel to pristine natural environs, in that the former incorporates historic and cultural aspects of a destination. Ecotourism also promotes sustaining, or even enhancing, a place’s character – social and natural.

The term was coined by a National Geographic editor, and the organization will lend its insignia, and some prime display items, to the new center in Driggs.“We’re tying to build an institution that represents the entire Yellowstone area,” Rogers said.

The concept evolved about five years ago, when National Geographic identified the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem as one of the world’s important geographical areas, a place where communities grew amongst great natural character. Last March, National Geographic, working with a task force with representatives from Wyoming, Idaho and Montana, began publishing a map guide area. An online version of the map, available at http://www.yellowstonegeotourism.org/, allows for more comprehensive listings.

Rogers said the geotourism initiative happened to dovetail with plans to build a visitor’s center in Driggs. “I went to National Geographic and asked them if anyone has turned their theory of geotourism in a physical institution, a physical location to experience what it is you’re talking about,” Rogers said. “They said it was almost a perfect extension of what a community could do.”

There are probably some in the Yellowstone region cringing at this idea. National Geographic, of course, is a "Coaster" organization, with sprawling headquarters in Maryland. "Outside the Beltway," but close enough to the heart of federal gubment to be dangerous. It's also an international org, which may raise questions of outside influence by Euro-do-gooders in places like France and Luxembourg. You think the French are bad, wait until you meet up with cheese-eating enviro Luxies.

Wonder how this center will interpret to social and natural characteristics of the area. A tall order. The heart of the area's natural character is in the national park. But social? So many different kids of human habitations in the region. Jackson itself is such a study in contrasts. You got your punk snowboarders, aging Baby Boomer Liberals, Cheneyite Repubs, cyber-communing bankers, Cowboy wannabes, non-Indian Indian spiritualists, federal wildlife biologists, wolf-haters, slacker trust-fund babies, Hispanic resort workers, transient artists, not to mention the million tourists from around the world who troupe through town each year. Jackson fiction writer Tim Sandlin has spent his career writing about these conflicting social elements. But how to do them justice in an interpretive center?

And what about the other communities in the Yellowstone region: Cody, Dubois, Hoback Junction, Red Lodge, Alta, Driggs, Victor, West Yellowstone, etc.? Old-timers conflict with newcomers and -- fast as lightning -- newcomers become old-timers and grouse about the good old days.

Photos of Obama family in Wyoming

TOP PHOTO: President Barack Obama, wife Michelle Obama, and daughters Malia Obama, 11, and Sasha Obama, 8, look at the Old Faithful geyser in Yellowstone National Park, Wyo., Saturday, Aug. 15, 2009. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon). BOTTOM PHOTO: Park Ranger Katy Duffy guides Pres. Barack Obama and family around Old Faithful geyser during Saturday's visit. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon).

See more photos at http://tinyurl.com/ofkhh6

Teabaggers rehearse their lines for Obama visit

Teabaggers have time on their hands and they plan to "be out in full force to protest President Barack Obama's health care initiatives during his visit to the Bozeman area next week." according to Channel 7 in Bozeman.

Obama is planning a visit to the Bozeman area on Friday, Aug. 14. So-called highly-placed D.C. sources confirmed Wednesday that Obama will attend a fundraiser for Sen. Max Baucus at the Yellowstone Club Big Sky next weekend.

Should be a quid pro quo for that gig. Obama will attend fund-raiser if Baucus stops being an obstructionist on health care reform. No deal, no speech.

The Bozeman Tea Party group leader Bob Adney said that his members will join a town hall forum if one is held during Obama's visit.

"It's said, it's going to be a town hall, so I hope they're not going to screen participants for only people that support Obama. I really hope it is an honest and true town hall with lots of different people, and that they'll answer tough questions. But that's something we'll see. Hopefully it's not just a staged, you know, beauty pageant up there," Adney said.

Funny thing, the idea of screening attendees at public events is a Bush/Cheney trick. Not sure if Obama's people do the same thing -- it would be a shame if they did. The Secret Service and FBI have to do their jobs to keep dangerous people from the event. A few screaming wingnuts are not dangerous. Annoying as hell but not dangerous.

During his visit, Pres. Obama also will visit Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming and Grand Junction, Colo.

By the way, jhwygirl at 4&20blackbirds broke the news about the Obama visit on Tuesday. Kudos to this always-alert ex-Wyomingite.

Cheney to get another six months of gubment-funded Secret service protection

The New York Daily News Washington Bureau reports this:

Former Vice President Dick Cheney's Secret Service protection has been extended for at least another six months, beginning Tuesday.

Normally, ex-veeps only get six months of protection at taxpayer expense. But Cheney asked for an extension, and President Obama - whom Cheney has excoriated in several interviews since leaving office - recently signed off.

If the Obama administration hadn't gone along with Cheney's request, he would have been forced to hire his own security agents - or go without.

Cheney's friends have said he has become more concerned about his privacy and personal safety in recent years. Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/2009/07/21/2009-07-21_cheney_keeps_protection_thanks_to_uncle_sam_bam.html#ixzz0LuILmETA

Enjoy, for a brief moment, the irony in gubment-basher Dick Cheney requesting more gubment expenditures on his behalf, and the fact that Cheney is a gajillionaire thanks to his decades of gubment service (and taxpayer-provided health care) and his ongoing ties to the war profiteers at Halliburton.

And don't forget to reply to the poll.

Plains Indian Pow Wow in Cody

Dancers at the Plains Indian Pow Wow June 20 in Cody at the Buffalo Bill Historical Center. The afternoon rounds went off without a hitch but the evening dances were postponed due to a gully-washer of a storm.

If credit cards were outlawed, only outlaws would have guns -- or something like that

The "Room for Debate" section in today's New York Times batted around the new law allowing people to carry loaded guns in national parks and wildlife refuges. A broad array of opinions were displayed on the question "Guns in Parks -- Safe, Scary or a Sideshow?"

Personally, I think it's a scary, unsafe sideshow. But nobody asked me. The NYT did ask Wyoming writer, hunter and dog lover Ted Kerasote. He's against loaded firearms in parks -- and he's a gun guy. He wrote this in "Pack pepper spray, not a pistol:"

... Living within Grand Teton National Park, I see this all the time: a deer gunned down by the side of the road, its antlers chopped off; a moose waylaid just inside the park boundary; a coyote shot as it watches a car go by. These killings are perennial, often remove spectacular, genetically fit individuals, and create one more enforcement burden for park rangers.

Allowing visitors to carry loaded firearms in national parks and wildlife refuges, as legislation just passed by Congress does, will only make such poaching worse while making a ranger’s job more risky. And I don’t say this as some bleeding-heart liberal with an anti-gun agenda. There’s a rack of rifles and shotguns in my shed and, during Wyoming’s hunting season, I shoot an elk, an antelope and a variety of game birds — food for me and mine during the ensuing year. I’d be the last person in the world to outlaw guns.

... pepper spray is a far better deterrent than a .44 magnum, especially in the hands of the inexperienced. I’ve now used it to turn a charging moose, dissuade a cantankerous bison and send a bear scurrying. The animals had a coughing fit, and I a scare, a far better outcome than guns often produce.

That wasn't the only Wyoming reference in the article. That's appropriate, since we have tons of guns and lots of national park land. The NYT article opens with a photo of a grazing bison with a picnicking family in the background. The bison does not appear to be armed, but you never can tell. The picnickers may be packing heat, but seem most interested in gnawing sandwiches.

As a counterpoint to Ted's article, David B. Kopel, research director of the Independence Institute in Golden, Colo., begins his article this way:

“What works in Chicago may not work in Cheyenne,” the presidential candidate Barack Obama often said when discussing gun policy. President Obama has put his principle into practice, signing a bill which, besides changing the laws about credit cards, repeals an inappropriate federal regulation.

I'm not sure what gun laws are in Chicago. Much more restrictive, I expect, than they were in Dillinger's day. Cheyenne law stipulates that everyone, from a day-old infant to a 100-year-old granny, must carry a loaded firearm at all times. This was the Wild West, after all, and some of that tradition remains in our free-form gun laws and our petrified legislature. When Dick Cheney was a greenhorn state legislator, he inadvertently shot himself in the foot while proposing legislation to tar-and-feather all Wyoming Democrats -- if any could be found. On Inauguration Day 2009, did you see Cheney being carted out of D.C. in a wheelchair? Don't blame his short-circuiting electronic heart. It was his old foot wound acting up. That and his rheumatiz.

David B. Kopel also had this to say:

The old regulation had prohibited defensive gun possession or carrying in national parks. Thanks to the new law, the federal rules about guns in national parks and wildlife refuges will be the same as the laws of the host states. So in Manhattan, where handgun carry permits are reserved for diamond merchants, the political-social-celebrity elite and a few other favored groups, there will not be a mass of people carrying guns at the Theodore Roosevelt Birthplace, on 20th Street. (This result might have appalled Teddy Roosevelt, a N.R.A. member who as president carried his own revolver for protection.)

Teddy Roosevelt, of course, hunted in Wyoming after he shot all the game in the Dakotas. It's a well-known fact that he shot the last jackelope in Converse County. There's a statue to that jackelope in downtown Douglas, but not a single statue of the old Rough Rider. Teddy would be appalled.

As a counterpoint to that p.o.v., Kristen Brengel, director of legislative and government affairs at the National Parks Conservation Association, offers this:

In about nine months, guns will be allowed to be carried loaded throughout national parks if the state they are in permits guns in that state. After the amendment takes effect, visitors to national parks such as Yellowstone in Wyoming will begin to see guns visibly displayed in vehicles or being carried. Visitors to monuments and battlefields including Gettysburg National Military Park and Mount Rushmore will also now also be able to carry guns if the site is within a state that permits them.

Hikers in the back country will have a different experience. I will probably be discouraged from many hikes if other visitors are walking around openly carrying guns. Frankly, it is threatening to see a person hiking with a gun when it isn’t hunting season.

Because Wyoming already mandates gun-toting, I'm on trails all the time with a well-armed and well-regulated citizenry and I don't mind. I have a gun, my wife has a gun, my kids have guns, my dog has a gun, my tomato plants have guns -- we're all happy gun owners. Nothing untoward is going to happen to us while we enjoy nature's bounty. We will face down any threat, be it animal, mineral or human.

Meanwhile, I ask again: what does all this have to do with lowering credit card interest rates?

Read the entire NYT story at http://roomfordebate.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/05/22/guns-in-parks-safe-scary-or-a-sideshow/