Cheyenne, –
Cheyenne Frontier Days is going green. The Rodeo is teaming with Laramie's Trihydro Corporation to develop a major recycling program at Frontier Park during this year's rodeo. Concessions Chairman Darin Westby says that Frontier Days has been working on recycling for a number of years .including collecting and recycling cardboard to collecting manure and placing it in a local composting facility. Westby says this year their focus is recycling plastic.

Laramie, Wy – Governor Dave Freudenthal says the investment the state has made in developing scientific data is the likely the reason the Prebles Meadow Jumping mouse is being de-listed in Wyoming. Freudenthal says he believes the research, which included D-N-A testing benefited Wyoming. He says they are using the same approach on Sage Grouse and other animals that might be listed as endangered. Freudenthal credits the legislature for their funding of the data collection program.

By Elsa Partan

Laramie, WY – Four conservation groups say they will sue to reinstate protections for the Preble's Meadow Jumping Mouse in Wyoming.

The U-S Fish and Wildlife Service decided to remove it from the threatened species list after determining that the animal is doing well in Wyoming.

Some state business leaders and politicians had been pushing for the de-listing, saying that it was holding back development.

By AP

Pinedale, WY – The Sublette County Sheriff's Department has confirmed that the body found last week near Big Sandy River was the son of Sheriff Wayne Bardin.

Investigators say 24-year-old Garrett Bardin of Pinedale apparently died of a single, self-inflicted gunshot wound.

The department and volunteer searchers had been looking for Garrett Bardin for nearly two weeks. His body was found last Thursday, a little over a half mile from the Rainbow Family camp.

By AP

Rock Springs, WY – The City of Rock Springs will begin spraying for mosquitoes at the city cemetery on Thursday. The spraying is part of the effort to prevent the spread of West Nile virus.

Wyoming saw 185 cases of West Nile virus last year and Sweetwater County had its first reported case.

Crews this week plan to spray a pesticide called "Biomist" that contains permethrin. Officials say the pesticide is based on compounds taken from plants and doesn't pose a significant risk to people or pets.

Cheyenne, Wy – The U.S. Attorney's Office in Cheyenne
says four Rainbow Family members have pleaded guilty to misdemeanor
charges stemming from a confrontation with U.S. Forest Service officers.
The Forest Service has said that Rainbow Family participants
threw rocks and sticks at officers last Thursday when the officers
were taking a man into custody for an alleged drug offense.
Defendants from Texas, New Mexico, California and North Dakota
pleaded guilty Monday to interfering with a Forest Service officer.

Denver, Co – The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is expected to announce Wednesday whether the Preble's meadow jumping mouse will
continue to be listed as an endangered species.
The announcement could affect tens of thousand acres in Colorado
and Wyoming designated as a critical habitat to allow the mouse to
recover. The mouse is named for its ability to leap twice its
length and pivot in the air.
Opponents of the endangered-species designation say the creature
is the same as more common species.

By Bob Beck

Laramie, Wy –
Bureau of Land Management officials in Wyoming are struggling with a steep decline in Wild Horse adoptions.
As the BLM considers a policy of euthanizing wild horses to deal with a nationwide overpopulation, Wyoming is facing a 70 percent decline in wild horse adoptions this year.
Alan Shepherd heads the BLM's state program for wild horses and burros. He says most people just can't afford to keep a horse right now.
Shepherd says, this fall, Wyoming will have about four hundred wild horses too many for the landscape to support.

By Bob Beck

Laramie, WY – Recently, western governors were shown how scientific data combined with mapping can be used to sort out such things as how energy development can impact wildlife corridors. It's just the latest way the Geospatial technology may be used to solve future problems. All this is exciting to the Jeff Hamerlinck who runs U-W's Geographic Information Science center. Hamerlinck says the ability to look at a problem and solve it with a global mapping system has been around for awhile. But the way people view it is different now.