Episode Details

It's time to take a look at what's happening around Wyoming for Wednesday, August 27th. I'm Wendy Corr, bringing you headlines from the Cowboy State Daily newsroom - Brought to you by the Converse County Tourism Promotion Board! Discover Douglas and Glenrock in beautiful Wyoming, where rich history, outdoor adventure, and welcoming communities await. Feel the Energy of Converse County at www.ConverseCountyTourism.com.

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An Albany County man is accused of fatally ramming a wild horse with an ATV on August 18th.

60-year-old Stuart Schmidt is facing felony animal cruelty charges over the incident - but he says the charge stems from a neighbor's vendetta over a land zoning dispute.

The neighbor, conversely, told Cowboy State Daily's Clair McFarland that she turned in Schmidt for committing a cruel act — not because of any bitterness over the land feud.

"There's multiple sides to this story. There's the neighbor's account and court documents taken from her interview that is like, yeah, he chased after this horse until it was dead. And then the defendant himself, is saying, No, I believe that my neighbor reported it that way because we had a land dispute where I didn't want her to subdivide her land so much that this stopped being a rural area… the neighbor who turned Schmidt in, uh, has surveillance footage of the incident where you can, according to court documents, you can see the chase, but you can't see the ATV hitting the animal."

Schmidt faces one count of felony cruelty to wildlife, which is punishable by up to two years in prison and $5,000 in fines. He is out of jail on an unsecured bond.

Read the full story HERE.

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Converse County rancher Mike Stephens has long worried about what massive wind turbines might do to the wildlife on state land near his family's multi-generational ranch. But it wasn't until this month that his attorneys spelled out those concerns in detail in Converse County District Court.

Cowboy State Daily's David Madison reports that Stephens isn't the only Convers County resident anxious about how the Pronghorn H2 project will impact the local landscape and wildlife.

"There's been an ongoing debate over the Pronghorn H2 project, which would create hydrogen based jet fuel a local rancher has followed through with his litigation and has laid out about six points of that he wants to raise with the district court, saying, Look, this isn't allowed under your own rules… He's saying the state land board violated its own rules that it allowed this wind project to go forward even though it's not feeding electricity directly to the grid, which he says, and his attorneys say, is a requirement."

Also, according to court documents, Game and Fish specifically identified portions of the lease area as "crucial winter range" for mule deer and antelope, recommending complete avoidance of infrastructure development or seasonal restrictions from November through April.

Read the full story

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