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Health Care Bill (posted 11/20/09)
Click here to read the new incarnation of the government’s Health Care bill: H.R. 3590 (2.51 MB, 2,074 pages, PDF)
Olympic Aspirations Max Settlage, 17, practices for the Pacific Coast Sectionals at the Sublette County Ice Arena Wednesday. The sectionals are being hosted in Jackson, but limited space sent skaters from around the country to Pinedale to practice throughout the week. Photo by Samantha Abernathy, Pinedale Roundup.
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Pinedale Roundup stories – Nov. 20, 2009 (posted 11/20/09)
Olympic Aspirations
Drug dog drill
If you build it, they will come
Obituary - Ashton Davis Griffin
Classifieds
Letters to the Editor
EnCana Cares provides over $1.32 million for charity (posted 11/20/09)
EnCana Oil & Gas (USA) Inc. recently completed its annual employee giving campaign, EnCana Cares, raising over $1.32 million for charity; a new record for the company’s US division.
In spite of a slow economy, giving by EnCana’s employees increased 14 percent.
EnCana Cares Key Stats:
• 668 – number of US employees enrolled in EnCana Cares
• Equivalent to 41 percent of all eligible employees
• 652 – number of charities will receive funding
• $660,080 – amount donated by employees
• $1,321,626 – total raised with EnCana’s match
A sampling of organizations in Wyoming that will receive checks includes: Central Wyoming Rescue Mission, Jason’s Friends Foundation, Wyoming Special Olympics, Wyoming FFA Foundation, University of Wyoming Foundation; Sublette County 4-H, SAFV Task Force, Riverton Senior Center, and Paws for Life Animal League.
In addition to the cash campaign, ten EnCana office locations held a food drive to stock the shelves of local food banks. The Riverton office collected two 22 gallon tubs of non-perishable food and donated it to the Christian Food Warehouse. The Jonah field office collected five boxes for the Big Piney/Pinedale Food Basket. Overall, more than two tons of food, plus more than $2,400 in cash donations, were distributed in October company-wide.
EnCana, one of North America's leading independent natural gas producers with its US headquarters in Denver, is no stranger to corporate giving. Annually, EnCana contributes one percent of pre-tax profits back to the communities in which the company and its employees live and work. In 2008, EnCana contributed $7.7 million to charitable and non-profit organizations in the US, including more than $1.4 million in Wyoming.
EnCana Cares is an employee driven program where cash gifts or pledges are matched dollar for dollar, up to $25,000 per employee per year. Because EnCana covers all administration costs associated with the program, 100 percent of employee donations go directly to their charity of choice. And to make giving easy, employees are able to spread their giving over 24 pay periods. October is the program’s enrollment month.
About EnCana Oil & Gas (USA) Inc.
EnCana Corporation is one of North America’s leading independent natural gas producers. EnCana operates in the United States under its subsidiary, EnCana Oil & Gas (USA) Inc. and coordinates its operations from its US headquarters in Denver. In the US, the company operates in Colorado, Wyoming, Texas and Louisiana.
Sublette Chamber Banquet to feature Max Maxfield Nov. 20 (posted 11/19/09)
Wyoming Secretary of State to speak on ‘Partners for Progress’
The Sublette County Chamber of Commerce annual banquet will take place on Friday, November 20th. Special guest speaker is Max Maxfield, Wyoming’s Secretary of State. Maxfield is in his first term as Wyoming’s Secretary of State, following two terms as State Auditor. Secretary Maxfield will discuss "Partners for Progress." Maxfield stated that the health of communities depends on their ability to set positive goals, then have varied organizations come together to "make it happen."
The banquet will be in the Lovatt Room of the Sublette County Library in Pinedale starting at 6:00 pm.
Limited tickets will be sold. Advance tickets are $30.00 each, and are available at the Sublette County Chamber of Commerce/Visitor Center at 19 E. Pine St. in Pinedale. Left-over tickets, if available, will be sold at the door for $35.00. This event typically sells out, so the Chamber advises getting tickets as soon as possible.
The Chamber will also hold their annual elections at the banquet. Two Board of Director positions will be filled.
Along with food and libations, the Chamber will also be hosting a silent auction. All proceeds of the silent auction go to programs and events sponsored by the Chamber. Silent auction items have been generously donated by local businesses in the community to help support the Chamber’s efforts.
For more information about this event, please call the Chamber at 307-367-2242, or email Executive Director Terrie Swift at director@sublettechamber.com or Rachel Grimes at membership@sublettechamber.com
Related Links:
www.SubletteChamber.com Sublette County Chamber of Commerce
Interim Winter Use Rule for Yellowstone (posted 11/17/09)
Park set to open for winter season as scheduled on December 15
A rule implementing a new plan to provide for limited, regulated snowmobile and snowcoach access in Yellowstone National Park for the next two winters will be published in the Federal Register on Friday, November 20.
This interim rule allows up to 318 commercially guided, Best Available Technology (BAT) snowmobiles, and up to 78 commercially guided snowcoaches per day in Yellowstone for the 2009-2010 and 2010-2011 winter seasons. It also continues to provide for motorized oversnow travel over Sylvan Pass and the East Entrance road.
The park will open for guided snowmobile and snowcoach interpretive tours on December 15, 2009.
Park roads are groomed to allow oversnow travel by commercially guided snowmobile and snowcoach tours to destinations including Old Faithful and Canyon. A current list of authorized concessioners can be found online at http://www.nps.gov/yell/planyourvisit/wintbusn.htm.
The North Entrance and the road from Gardiner, Montana, through Mammoth Hot Springs on to Cooke City, outside the park’s Northeast Entrance, is open to wheeled vehicle travel all year. This provides access to a wide range of recreational opportunities including wildlife viewing and photography, cross-country skiing, and snowshoeing.
All communities near and on the way to Yellowstone are open all year, with local businesses offering a wide range of recreation opportunities. A wealth of information and assistance planning a visit to Yellowstone can be found on the park’s web site at http://www.nps.gov/yell..
The Yellowstone General Store, clinic, campground, post office, and the Albright Visitor Center at Mammoth Hot Springs are open all year. The Mammoth Hot Springs Hotel, dining room, and gift shop; and the Old Faithful Snow Lodge, dining room, fast food, and gift shop; will reopen for the winter season in December.
Reservations and information on in-park campgrounds and lodging is available by contacting Xanterra Parks & Resorts at 866-GEYSERLAND or online at http://www.yellowstonenationalparklodges.com.
Information on lodging, camping, services, and activities near the park in the Montana communities of Gardiner, West Yellowstone, and Cooke City, is available by contacting their respective Chambers of Commerce or from Travel Montana at 800-847-4868 or http://visitmt.com. Those interested in visiting the Wyoming communities of Cody and Jackson should contact the Chambers of Commerce, or Wyoming Travel and Tourism at 800-225-5996 or http://www.wyomingtourism.org.
The interim rule will be posted on Friday at http://www.gpoaccess.gov/fr/browse.html.. The rule implements a Finding of No Significant Impact (FONSI) signed last month. Both the FONSI and the Environmental Assessment are available online at http://parkplanning.nps.gov.
During the next two years, the National Park Service will prepare a new Environmental Impact Statement and a new long term plan for winter use in Yellowstone National Park.
Rockies Express Pipeline
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Governor Freudenthal congratulates Rockies Express Pipeline for full service (posted 11/17/09)
Governor Freudenthal's office
CHEYENNE – Gov. Dave Freudenthal hosted representatives from the Rockies Express (REX) Pipeline to mark full service of the 1,679 mile pipeline, which runs from northwestern Colorado to eastern Ohio.
REX President Doug Walker said the pipeline was helping to increase the price of Wyoming natural gas because there is now enough capacity to bring the gas to new markets. The pipeline is, in turn, helping those markets by reducing prices when the additional supply is introduced.
Kinder Morgan Director of Community Relations Allen Fore said the pipeline is helping to heat four million homes. REX is a joint venture of Kinder Morgan, which owns half the undertaking, and Sempra Pipelines and Conoco Philips, both of which own a quarter of the venture.
The pipeline mainly feeds into other downstream systems, which help bring Wyoming gas to homes and businesses in the Midwest, Chicago and Ohio markets, Walker said. It became fully operational, with gas delivery available to all contractual customer, Thursday, Nov. 12.
Click here for more photos: Rockies Express
Sublette Examiner – November 17, 2009 (posted 11/17/09)
We salute you!
Dust-up over gravel pit
Town records policy is balancing act
County’s unemployment insulation thins
Pinedale Roundup – November 13, 2009 (posted 11/14/09)
Point me to the food
Game and Fish program opens three HMAs in county
What the ‘frack?’
Sled dog race will not go down Pine this year
False alarm, but it worked
Obituary - Robert James Bumgardner
Obituary - Edna Earl Welch
Obituary - Peter Storer
Classifieds
EnCana reports $2.1 billion cash flow, down 26% (posted 11/13/09)
Plans to split into two independent companies
EnCana Corporation (TSX & NYSE: ECA) reported their third quarter 2009 financial results. EnCana generated third quarter cash flow of US$2.1 billion, or $2.77 per share, and operating earnings of $775 million, or $1.03 per share – down 26 and 46 percent respectively compared to the third quarter of 2008. Below are some highlights from their report:
Shut-in and curtailed gas coming back on this winter
To help preserve shareholder value on the expectation that natural gas prices would rise to more economic levels, EnCana curtailed or shut in about 500 million cubic feet per day (MMcf/d) of natural gas production in the third quarter. These shut-in and curtailed volumes are expected to be brought back on stream during the winter of 2009/10. "To help preserve the value of our resource base, we have curtailed significant natural gas production in many of our operating areas and have significant productive capacity available to bring to market as prices recover," said Randy Eresman, EnCana’s President & Chief Executive Officer.
EnCana Third Quarter 2009 Financial Highlights
(all year-over-year comparisons are to the third quarter of 2008)
• Cash flow was $2.1 billion or $2.77 per share, a decrease of 26 percent
• Operating earnings were $775 million or $1.03 per share, down 46 percent
• Net earnings were $25 million or 3 cents per share
• Capital investment, excluding acquisitions and divestitures, was $1.3 billion, down 16 percent, primarily due to lower drilling and completion expenditures as a result of fewer wells drilled and cost deflation
• Free cash flow was $741 million, down 39 percent
• Realized natural gas prices were $7.31 per thousand cubic feet (Mcf), down 8 percent, and realized liquids prices were $57.39 per barrel (bbl), down 37 percent. These prices include financial hedges. At the end of the quarter, debt to capitalization was 25 percent and debt to adjusted EBITDA was 1.1 times. These ratios do not include the $3.5 billion of debt securities intended for use by Cenovus, the proceeds of which have been placed in escrow pending the completion of the split transaction
• Paid a dividend of 40 cents per share
• EnCana’s integrated oil business venture with ConocoPhillips generated $266 million in operating cash flow, including $180 million from the Foster Creek and Christina Lake upstream projects, and $86 million from the downstream business
Corporate developments - Split transaction preparation proceeding
Planning is on track to split EnCana into two independent companies: a pure-play natural gas company, EnCana, and an integrated oil company, Cenovus Energy Inc. A shareholders’ meeting to vote on the proposed transaction is set for November 25, 2009. Subject to the required shareholder and court approvals being obtained and the satisfaction of conditions, the company expects to complete the transaction on November 30, 2009.
Click on this link for the full media release by the company: EnCana 3rd Quarter Financial Report
Court rules in favor of Exxon Mobil (posted 11/13/09)
Over point of valuation for natural gas production from LaBarge Project
The Casper Star-Tribune posted a story saying the Wyoming Supreme Court sided with Exxon Mobil Corp. in the dispute over the point of valuation for its natural gas production at its LaBarge Black Canyon facility. The decision will cost the state and Sublette County millions of dollars in tax revenue.
Click on this link for the complete story: Exxon Mobil wins tax case By Joan Barron, Casper Star-Tribune, 11/13/09
Pinedale fish crew for the Wyoming Game and Fish Department sample a stretch of the Green River using electrofishing in 2008. Photo by Mark Gocke, Wyoming Game & Fish.
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Electrofishing expanded on Green River (posted 11/13/09)
Wyoming Game and Fish Department
Fish biologists with the Wyoming Game and Fish Department in Pinedale recently completed this year’s fish sampling on the Green River, obtaining important information on fish population trends for more than 130 stream miles from Green River lakes to Fontenelle Reservoir.
Historically, fish biologists have sampled different sections of the popular fishery annually between Green River Lakes and LaBarge to get a picture of the fish population and compare it to data from previous years. This year, however, biologists were able to collect data on two new sections, adding to an extensive data set that goes back to the early 1950’s.
"Several sections of the river have been studied for years," says Darren Rhea, Pinedale Fisheries Biologist with the Wyoming Game and Fish Department. "However, other sections have received relatively little attention." Of particular interest this year were the extreme upper section below Green River Lake and the lower section just above Fontenelle Reservoir. Both reaches are annually stocked with trout and attract large numbers of anglers, but information on these fish populations has been lacking.
This year’s survey work conducted near the town of LaBarge yielded a population estimate of roughly 150 trout per mile. Of the fish captured, nearly one-third were adult cutthroat trout, likely the result of Wyoming Game and Fish Department stocking efforts in the river. "I was excited to see a relatively large number of adult cutthroat," says Rhea, "indicating that our stocking efforts are contributing to diversity and increased opportunities across several miles of the river."
The section below Green River Lake yielded slightly fewer fish, but indicated a greater contribution of wild reproduced fish than previously thought. "Our management practices for this section of the river historically relied on a large numbers of hatchery fish," says Rhea. "Thanks to our sampling efforts, we will be better able to adjust our stocking rate to conform with natural reproduction and angling pressure."
Electrofishing is a common scientific survey method used by fish biologists throughout the country for years, and requires USFWS certification to be used in Wyoming. Boats equipped with generators and electrodes that dip into the water, slowly float downstream, producing an electrical current that temporarily immobilizes the fish, causing them to float to the surface. This allows fish biologists to catch them with a dip-net and drop them into a live well on the boat. Within minutes, the fish recover and are back to normal.
"Electrofishing is generally harmless to trout, which are captured and removed from the electric field immediately" says Rhea.
"Unfortunately, some other non-target fish such as white sucker (non-native invasive fish) and occasionally mountain whitefish (native fish) do experience some mortality." Mortality of a few individuals of these species is not uncommon and anglers will occasionally report seeing dead fish along the bottom of the river immediately after electrofishing work has been completed. "Though the mortality of our native whitefish is undesirable, these population estimates are a very important management tool allowing us to monitor fish populations. Additionally, years of evaluation have shown no negative lasting impacts to those native fish populations."
Captured trout are temporarily displaced downstream within holding tanks aboard the biologist’s watercraft. Though they may not immediately return to the exact location of their capture, studies have demonstrated that most trout will return to their favorite spot within a matter of a few days, showing strong fidelity for specific locations in the river. "Anglers occasionally will report that fish were not in the same spot or disappeared from the river following the completion of electrofishing," says Rhea. "Actually, the fish are all still there and well. They may just have moved around a little bit and, given enough time, will return".
Rhea encourages interested anglers to stop by the Game and Fish Office or give him a call any time to discuss electrofishing, the information gained in the surveys and their approach to management of the Green River. He also explains that he will often try to make arrangements for people to come observe his electrofishing operation to see firsthand.
For more information on the Green River or other Pinedale area fisheries, you may contact the Pinedale Game and Fish Office at 1-800-452-9107 (in-state only) or 307-367-4353.
Click on this link for more photos: Electrofishing expanded on Green River (3 pictures)
Wyoming: FWS decision not based on biology (posted 11/13/09)
Cat Urbigkit, Pinedale Online!
State of Wyoming and Park County officials came out with their guns blazing in their joint opening brief challenging the federal decision not to delist wolves in Wyoming. The opening brief was filed in the U.S. Federal District Court in Cheyenne earlier this week.
The brief asserts that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service allowed political and public relations considerations, and speculative concerns about potential future lawsuits, to influence its decision.
The FWS decision went against the opinions of wolf biologists that Wyoming’s dual-status classification for wolves would not threaten the viability of the wolf population. Wyoming’s brief noted that in 2008, FWS approved Wyoming’s plan for dual-status wolf management (in which wolves would be classified as trophy game in northwestern Wyoming, but as predators in all other areas of the state), but a few months later, a federal judge in Montana issued a preliminary injunction that relisted wolves in the Northern Rockies. In the preliminary injunction order, the judge chastised FWS for not explaining why dual status was deemed satisfactory in 2008, when the agency had rejected it in 2004 and 2006.
"This rebuke from the court left the Service with only one option if it wanted to save the delisting rule – the Service had to admit that it was wrong to demand the statewide trophy game classification in 2004 and 2006," the joint opening brief argued. "Rather than admit this, the Service instead rescinded the delisting rule and eventually revoked its previous approval of the State’s wolf management scheme."
The State/Park County brief points out that FWS once again refuses to delist wolves in Wyoming unless the state adopts a statewide trophy game classification for wolves, instead of dual status.
"The Service does not have (and never has had) any biological reason for demanding that the State adopt a statewide trophy game classification. In making this demand, the Service has chosen pride over its legal obligation to follow the unambiguous requirements in the Endangered Species Act and, in doing so, has left the State with no choice but to seek judicial review in this Court to force the Service to comply with the ESA," the brief stated.
The brief provides a detailed overview of the numerous lawsuits and planning efforts undertaken in the last six years (when wolves exceeded biological recovery goals) with the goal being to remove the species from federal protection and management.
The joint brief argues that FWS has no legitimate biological reason for forcing the State to adopt a statewide trophy game classification for wolves.
The joint brief also argues that one should not ignore the fact that the current federal wolf management scheme and the State’s wolf management scheme have two different purposes under the ESA. The federal management program is intended to promote recovery, while the state’s program is intended to ensure that the state can maintain its share of the population after delisting.
"In managing wolves to maintain recovery levels, the State can implement more aggressive management tools (like hunting) than those allowable under the current federal wolf management scheme," the brief stated. "In enacting the ESA, Congress did not intend for a state to manage a delisted species in exactly the same manner as the Service managed the species while it was listed."
To read the entire joint opening brief, click on the link below.
Related Links:
Joint Opening Brief - (101 page PDF, 5.72MB)
Wolf Watch - By Cat Urbigkit
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