Beyond Yellowstone:
Connecting Divided Landscapes

Society of Environmental Journalists Post-Conference Tour

Idaho and Wyoming

April 23-26, 2023

Idaho’s High Divide is a landscape of rugged mountains, dusty, green sagebrush and creek beds lined with willow and aspen. The vast majority is relatively undisturbed tracts of public land dotted with cattle and sheep ranches and small, sleepy towns. It is also, according to scientists and conservationists, a critical connector between the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem (GYE), the Central Idaho Wilderness complex, Glacier National Park and on into Canada – providing important migration corridors for elk, mule deer and pronghorns, as well as room to roam for other charismatic megafauna such as grizzly bears, wolverines and lynx. But the High Divide has few protections as it faces an onslaught of potential problems. Climate change is upending ecosystems and sending animals in search of new habitat. People are flooding into the fastest-growing state in the nation, driving increases in wildland development and recreation. And large-scale conservation measures are met with skepticism by some locals who feel they are managing these resources just fine.

The SEJ post-conference tour, conducted by IJNR, took 15 competitively selected SEJ conference-goers to the doorstep of America’s iconic national park – Yellowstone – and worked its way across the High Divide. Along the way, journalists met with people who live on this landscape and saw first-hand how they’re addressing a number of issues across the region.

Itinerary
Participating Journalists
Post-Tour Stories

This workshop made possible by the support of the Wilburforce Foundation, the Wilderness Society, and the Society of Environmental Journalists.