Audubon Magazine: Running on Empty

Running on Empty

By Daniel Glick/Photography by Joel Sartore, Audubon Magazine | August 2009

“Anymore, you can’t hardly recognize this place,” says Bob Elderkin, shaking his cowboy-hatted head in disbelief. “I just think it’s wrong the way they’re doing it,” he says, referring to the heedless rush that has transformed many parts of the rural West.

There is much to repair. Migrating herds of mule deer, pronghorn, and elk as well as birds including sage-grouse have seen their habitat fragmented and overrun.

Pinedale, once a quiet ranching town at the southern edge of the Greater Yellowstone ecosystem, had five ozone alerts last winter because of the gas field activity. Linda Baker, a community organizer for the Upper Green River Valley Coalition, was joined by ranchers and old-time conservatives—Republicans and Democrats alike—in a May “sit-in” at a well pad outside Pinedale to bring attention to the community’s growing health problems, like respiratory ailments, brought on by the development.

Read the full article: http://www.audubonmagazine.org/features0809/energy.html