UW in the News

State, national and international media frequently feature the University of Wyoming and members of its community in stories. Here is a summary of some of the recent coverage:

Kevin Monteith, a UW professor and Wyoming Excellence Chair, was interviewed by Wyoming Public Radio for a segment discussing how thousands of Wyoming hunters are voluntarily sitting out the season to give big-game herds time to recover. Last winter’s harsh weather wiped out tens of thousands of deer and pronghorn across the Cowboy State. The segment was part of a recent episode of National Public Radio’s “All Things Considered.”

The Casper Star-Tribune (CS-T) published UW’s release announcing the release of “Animal Trails: Rediscovering Grand Teton Migrations,” a new Wyoming-made documentary that shows how migration patterns often depend on habitats up to 190 miles away from Grand Teton National Park and not just in it. The film was released by the Wyoming Migration Initiative at UW and Grand Teton National Park.

Another CS-T piece noted that UW received nearly $1 million from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to support big-game migration research and conservation work. The article noted that, after finding success in Wyoming, the USDA has expanded its big-game conservation program to Montana and Idaho.

The Sheridan Press interviewed Michelle Sullivan, a UW Board of Trustees member, about the home and property of artist Neltje in Sheridan County. Neltje, who died in 2021, bequeathed a major estate gift to UW, which includes land holdings that are used to attract artists from around the world.

Melissa Bukovsky, an associate professor in UW’s Haub School of Environment and Natural Resources, and Jing Gao, an assistant professor of geospatial data science at the University of Delaware, investigated how changes in urban land and population will affect future populations’ exposures to weather extremes under climate conditions at the end of the 21st century, according to a University of Delaware news article. Interesting Engineering published a similar article.

WyoToday Media reported that public meetings are scheduled for the Bureau of Land Management’s Rock Springs Draft Resource Management Plan. UW’s Ruckelshaus Institute, College of Agriculture, Life Sciences and Natural Resources, and School of Energy Resources, along with the Wyoming County Commissioners Association, are organizing the meetings.

Leslie Waggener, UW American Heritage Center archivist, is heading a project to collect and document stories from Union Pacific (UP) workers in Wyoming. The Wyoming Tribune Eagle noted that the project will focus on preserving the stories of those who may have faced different experiences from a majority of UP employees over time.

The Cheyenne Post published UW’s release announcing that Bledar Bisha, an associate professor and head of UW’s Department of Animal Science, was appointed to the USDA’s National Advisory Committee on Microbiological Criteria for Foods.

The Wyoming Tribune Eagle published UW’s release that featured UW student Wyatt Olivas, a freshman from Cheyenne, who received a personal class excuse request letter signed by Pope Francis. Olivas was the youngest member of the recent monthlong assembly for the 2021-24 Synod on Synodality at the Vatican in Rome that featured Catholic leaders from around the world discussing the future of the church.

The Wyoming Game and Fish Department is reminding hunters to submit harvest surveys. The Lovell Chronicle published the department’s media release that noted surveys are being conducted by the Wyoming Survey and Analysis Center at UW on behalf of Game and Fish.

UW will begin its two-phase “Restore the War” project, which will make improvements to the west side of War Memorial Stadium. The project is made possible through significant investments from the Wyoming Legislature and $20 million in private funding, according to a UW media release published by Wyo4News and Wyoming News Now.