Senior Editor Colin Kearns and photographer Kevin Cooley spent three days exploring what’s at stake in the battle for water in the Flaming Gorge Reservoir and the consequences of irresponsible drilling for oil and gas in Wyoming’s Little Mountain region. Here’s what they found on day two.

Dwayne Meadows, of the Wyoming Wildlife Federation, glances at a map of the region. That checkerboard pattern? All of those colored blocks indicated leases for energy development.

Today starts early. The breakfast bell rings at 5:30 a.m. By six, we’re in the in the trucks headed toward Little Mountain to view some wildlife—and we don’t have to wait long. By 6:30, we’ve already seen mule deer, pronghorns, one moose, and a pack of wild horses. The crew from Trout Unlimited wasn’t kidding when they said this area was rich with wildlife. I mean, wild horses.

We take it slow on Little Mountain’s dirt roads. We do this because the land—decorated with wild flowers, bitterbrush, sagebrush, junipers, and aspen trees—deserves to be appreciated. Even the patches of dead junipers, killed long ago by wildfire, are beautiful in their own way—twisted and bare and pale like a league of freak skeletons frozen on the land. We take it slow so as to not disturb the animals, which we can’t seem to travel a quarter-mile without spotting, be it a mule deer doe with her fawns or a pack of antelope or a nest of juvenile hawks. Life thrives here. [ Read Full Post ]

Here's one from the "Did we really need another scientist to tell us this?" department. It seems a Finnish research institute is the latest organization to discover that nature is, wait for it...good for you!

From this story on ScienceDaily.com:
"Many people," says Dr. Eeva Karjalainen, of the Finnish Forest Research Institute, Metla, "feel relaxed and good when they are out in nature. But not many of us know that there is also scientific evidence about the healing effects of nature."

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I use two flies at a time in 90 percent of trout fishing situations. On a base level, one might think "double the flies, double the odds," and to a degree, that may be so. But I've learned that with some strategic thought poured into how you mix and match your fly combinations, you can dramatically improve your results.

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Crabbing is a lazy sport. I don't mean it's easy, because gauging just how fast to pull your hand line without spooking the crab, then being swift and accurate with the scoop net takes skill. I mean that I associate crabbing with those dog days of summer when it's just too hot and you feel too lazy to do anything but anchor the boat in the back bay and mellow out. Given that blue claw crabs rank high on my delicious meter, I personally find the tug of a big pincher just as exciting as the strike of a fish.

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For most of us it's hard to imagine life without the multi-tool. These days virtually everyone offers some variation on the basic theme of Tim Leatherman's original design. The multi-tool is as common as the pocketknife, and perhaps even more so. But if you're interested in the evolution of the design that revolutionized portable readiness (and ended the primacy of the Swiss army knife as the ultimate do-all), then click here or on the photo to check out this cool slideshow at Popular Mechanics that charts how the Leatherman evolved from idea to prototype to reality.

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From this story in the Des Moines Register:
Gov. Chet Culver vowed Sunday to restore Lake Delhi, a treasured summer retreat that drained away in less than a day this weekend. The nine-mile-long lake all but disappeared after sudden floodwaters breached its 92-year-old dam Saturday morning. [ Read Full Post ]