A Very Special Place
On the surface, standing up against projects, policy changes, and other impacts on the environment, open spaces and wildlife can seem petty or whining over “what ifs”. A combination Chicken Little and “the sky is falling” and the Boy that cried wolf. Slowing the wheels of “progress” over perceived minutia on affects to fish, birds and other critters. We can see how it looks like that. Disturbing bighorns? Shoot, we see them right by the road at the Mile. Trout? We have plenty of good trout fishing in this state. Sage grouse? Those silly birds are all over the place, and even on the roads.
But that is just it with this project; it is all the little compounding factors that could, or more likely, will drastically change a very special place. This is not only special for those that recreate, but critical for the wildlife that are on the landscape and call it home.
Gauging the effects of increased traffic during construction and the roads and infrastructure being built on sage grouse, sheep, deer, elk does not easily fit on a pie chart or graph. But it does affect wildlife, but it will be apparent in hindsight when it is lost.
Death by a Thousand Tiny Cuts
The issues and problems with this project are the potential for compounding a death by a thousand tiny cuts. A couple degree increase in water temps can be easily poo-pooed. Ecosystems are webs and slight changes ripple through the system. Temps up that can continue to increase downstream. Temps change dissolved oxygen levels. Build ups in Sedimentation can affect macro invertebrates (trout food), and spawning success filling in redds just to name a few, You get the idea of domino effect. There are multiple overlapping implications from this project that can degrade the quality of the Miracle Mile and adjacent landscape.
The West as We Know It
This is a special, important slice of Wyoming to locals and visitors alike. It is worth fighting for to make sure it is not degraded, lessened or becomes a cheapened version. Rather than improve and make it better, this project jeopardizes that for the future. This is just one project, and if we look the other way on this one and cross our fingers that it won’t negatively affect our fish and wildlife, it will bite us. The ever increase in development across the west is going to kill the west as we know it – again by a tiny little cuts. Only if we don’t say something when we see it happening. Stop this one before it bleeds.
