Articles written by Katie Klingsporn


Sorted by date  Results 1 - 8 of 8

  • Child-care, housing and other costs rising faster than wages, leaving many Wyoming workers unable to keep up, according to report

    Katie Klingsporn, WyoFile via Wyoming News Exchange|Aug 8, 2024

    A Campbell County single parent with one preschooler and one school-age child needs to earn more than $60,000 annually to cover basic monthly costs living in Wyoming, according to a new report on affordability in the state. At the minimum wage standard of $7.25 per hour, he or she would have to work a superhuman 159 hours a week to make that happen. “But there are only 168 hours in a full week,” said Micah Richardson, associate policy director of Wyoming Women’s Foundation. The found...

  • Conservation groups file to intervene in controversial BLM Public Lands Rule case

    Katie Klingsporn, WyoFile via the Wyoming News Exchange|Aug 1, 2024

    A coalition of conservation groups filed a motion in federal court Friday to intervene in Wyoming and Utah’s lawsuit against the Bureau of Land Management’s Public Lands Rule, becoming the latest entrant to the legal melee over the controversial policy. The motion, which the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance, the Wilderness Society and the Conservation Lands Foundation filed, comes as a rejoinder to Wyoming and Utah’s June motion that seeks to prevent the agency from implementing the Biden...

  • Wyoming tourism social media goes dark amid wolf furor

    Katie Klingsporn, WyoFile via the Wyoming News Exchange|Apr 25, 2024

    Wyoming’s state tourism agency has suspended social media posts and paid ads relating to wildlife amid the worldwide furor over the wolf abuse and killing in Daniel. The Wyoming Office of Tourism, also known as Travel Wyoming, alerted unknown recipients to the social media suspension in a letter obtained by WyoFile. “I know you are all well aware of the public criticism over the wolf abuse by a resident,” read the email, which came from the office’s Senior Communication Manager Piper Singer...

  • Lander-based outdoor school NOLS sheds jobs, announces closures

    Katie Klingsporn, via WyoFile|Apr 4, 2024

    Just four years after the COVID-19 pandemic upended operations at the National Outdoor Leadership School, the nonprofit wilderness school and staple of Wyoming’s outdoor landscape has announced plans to shed jobs and close satellite facilities. NOLS, a global operation and major Fremont County employer with headquarters in Lander, will eliminate 60 jobs as well as suspend operations at three of its campuses come fall. The bulk of the layoffs, 42, will directly impact staff; the remaining 18 p...

  • Advocates hope to clear confusion around outdoor recreation funding bill

    Katie Klingsporn|Mar 7, 2024

    An outdoor recreation funding bill sailed out of a Senate committee Tuesday after lawmakers and residents heaped praise on it. High school students, however, testified that several senators appeared initially confused about the bill — and they hope those lawmakers get up to speed before the full body considers it on the Senate floor. That task of educating senators could be the biggest hurdle remaining for House Bill 67 – Outdoor Recreation and Tourism Trust Fund Administration-2. The bill wou...

  • Outdoor recreation funding bill lives on in the House

    Katie Klingsporn|Feb 22, 2024

    After failing introduction in the Senate, a mirror bill advancing in the House is keeping alive the discussion of how the newly created Wyoming outdoor recreation and tourism trust fund allocates grants to state projects. House Bill 67 – Outdoor Recreation and Tourism Trust Fund Administration-2, would establish a nine-person board as well as rules for allocating grants from the trust fund that Gov. Mark Gordon signed into law in 2023. The Senate version, SF 40, was sponsored by the Legislature...

  • Spending time outdoors could get more expensive in parts of Wyoming

    Katie Klingsporn|Aug 31, 2023

    More public land agencies are proposing fee increases in Wyoming as campers, hikers and backpackers continue to pour into the state’s mountains and backcountry areas. While Grand Teton National Park is seeking public input on a proposed rate hike for backcountry camping permits, the Shoshone National Forest is accepting comments on a range of increases — including new fees at sites that were previously free. The Medicine Bow-Routt National Forests and Thunder Basin National Grassland are also proposing rate hikes for campgrounds and day...

  • BLM releases long-awaited management plan for Red Desert region

    Katie Klingsporn|Aug 24, 2023

    The Bureau of Land Management on Thursday released a long-awaited draft plan that will steer the management of some 3.6 million acres of public lands and 3.7 million acres of federal mineral estate in southwestern Wyoming, including the vast Red Desert, the prized hunting grounds of the Greater Little Mountain Area and several ungulate migration corridors. While Gov. Mark Gordon expressed disapproval of the plan’s “preferred alternative,” conservation groups cheered the publication of a docum...