Letter: Appreciation gained for Wyoming's wild lands

Dear Editor,

I’ve lived in Wyoming my whole life, and I find comfort in Wyoming’s wilderness areas. I grew up in Casper and now study at the University of Wyoming.

When I was younger I didn’t appreciate these open landscapes, but now that I’m about to graduate everyone is asking me where I’m going next. I’m trying to find ways to stay here in Wyoming where we have such great access to amazing places.

As a kid, some of my best memories were made on long camping trips in the Bighorns with my dad. My stepbrothers would leave me trailing behind, picking on each other, while I lagged, struggling with my asthma and allergies. It really didn’t matter because I was a happy kid.

Now, in college, my best friends and I escape the stress of school by retreating far into the backcountry in the high desert plateaus of the Red Desert.

There are not very many places with wilderness like Wyoming. Our state still contains many true wilderness areas where the presence of roads, vehicles, and other humans are absent. One can find real solitude here.

Now in Laramie, I explore some of the most breathtaking Wilderness Study Areas in the Red Desert, which is managed by the Bureau of Land Management.

These places must be protected through careful management. While balance is important, there are very few undeveloped places left that are large enough to truly embody all the rewards, ecologically and recreationally, as wilderness. They must remain intact, or we risk losing one of the most essential characteristics of our unique state. I urge all of us to fight to keep Wyoming’s Red Desert and other areas wild.

Courtney Thomson-Lichty

Laramie