Nature Conservancy celebrates 25 years in Wyoming

In celebration of its quarter-century as a Wyoming chapter, the Nature Conservancy is hosting two activities in Saratoga next month.

At 2 p.m. June 7, there will be tree planting along the North Platte River. Participants should meet at the Saratoga hot pools, and bring work gloves and a water bottle.

Later that same day, at 6 p.m., the Nature Conservancy is hosting the Hi-Water Hoedown concert with the WYOmericana Caravan, which takes place at The Yard in Saratoga.

In Saratoga, the Nature Conservancy has helped protect more than 6,000 acres of habitat through conservation easements, including protection of important bald eagle habitat along a section of the North Platte River.

“We’re proud to partner with the Nature Conservancy,” said Joe Parsons, Supervisory Resource Specialist for the Saratoga Encampment Rawlins Conservation District. “Our collaborative efforts have had a positive impact on the Platte River, offering benefits to water users, landowners, boaters and ensuring fish passage.”

The Nature Conservancy is not only celebrating, but also working to ensure and improve, Wyoming’s working lands, clean air, scenic landscapes, wild spaces, contributions to the environment, economy and quality of life as it marks 25 years as a chapter in Wyoming.

The non-profit organization is dedicated to working collaboratively across the state to promote conservation for generations to come. For the past 25 years, a Wyoming Board of Trustees has guided the chapter’s work.

“Wyoming’s lands and waters sustain our livelihoods, our communities, our health and our sense of place,” said Andrea Erickson-Quiroz, the Conservancy in Wyoming’s state director. “What we do for nature in Wyoming is a gift to our future.”

The WYOmericana Caravan Tour consists of three Wyoming-based artists will kick off Saratoga’s summer music season at The Yard venue June 7.

The second-annual WYOmericana Caravan tour, featuring Screen Door Porch, The Patti Fiasco and J Shogren Shanghai’d, is making its way into Saratoga for another summer this year. The music festival will be sponsored by Chris Shannon and ‘Toga Productions.

Shannon, who has had live music at The Yard since 2009, said he is pleased to see the tour of statewide artists come back again for the summer.

“The Caravan kicked off in 2013, and it was the idea of Seadar Rose, the Screen Door Porch singer,” he said. “It’s all about taking Wyoming music throughout the region, and we’re really happy to bring it back through. We’ll have good food and a cash bar there too. Last year we had people from all over the country who were in town at the time come, and people are just glad it’s available here.”

The Laramie-based J Shogren Shanghai’d plays original hard acoustic music from “lives lived in loud proportions”, a press release said. His style of WYOmericana is a modern interpretation of traditional roots music, including blues, old-time music, country/western, jazz, vaudeville, rockabilly roll, ballads and polka.

Shogren, who has performed at The Yard for the past three years, represented Wyoming at the International Blues Challenge in Memphis last year.

Adding to the lineup is the Jackson-based Screen Door Porch, which is another artist that played on the tour last year. According to a release, the group delivers a Wyoming-grown fusion of soulful Americana, Roots-Rock and Country Blues, and the singer/songwriter combo of Seadar Rose and Aaron Davis thrive in a space that houses colorful harmonies and varied acoustic or electric instrumentation. The quartet has been described as “a sort of Lennon/McCartney arrangement and get it right every time” by Americana UK.

New to the tour this year is the Fort Collins, Colo.-based The Patti Fiasco, which according to a release, is known for its electric, high-energy live show with fiercely original songwriting and unique instrumentation. The five-piece group, which recently performed at the South by Southwest Festival in Austin, Texas, has Wyoming roots and shared Colorado stages in the past year with several national touring acts.

Alysia Kraft, The Patti Fiasco’s lead singer/guitarist, is an Encampment native.