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Winter Kill, Bearing Witness

I reported recently that I had counted 13 dead deer and an elk between Savery, Wyoming and Slater, Colorado. A couple of days ago I was driving down the road and came across Wyoming Highway Department employees who had the grisly task of picking up the road kill. In the first three miles (of the seven miles I had surveyed), they had already loaded 22 deer and the elk.

22%20deer%2C%201%20elk-small.jpg
The winter's toll
Wyoming Highway 70, mile marker 15
photo by Sharon O'Toole

Comments

I drove out your way over Easter, and Highway 40 between Dinosaur and Craig was just incredibly full of roadkill. Same story: in some stretches, there was a carcass every 25 or so feet. This was a hard winter out there for everyone/every thing...I did see a small healthy deer herd enjoying a section of pasture that had melted off between Craig and Baggs, though, which was a note of cheer (for me, although not for the rancher losing that early spring grass).

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About Pat & Sharon O'Toole

Sharon O'Toole
Pat and Sharon O’Toole are ranchers in the Little Snake River Valley near Savery, Wyoming, right on the Colorado-Wyoming border. They raise cattle, sheep, horses, dogs and children. Pat “immigrated” from Florida in 1970. He attended Colorado State University, where he met Sharon when both worked for the campus newspaper. Sharon grew up on their ranch, where they live and work with her father, their daughter, son and granddaughter (soon to be grandchildren!). Pat is a “water buffalo” and has served in the Wyoming House of Representatives (1986-1992), on the President’s Western Water Policy Review Advisory Commission, and is the current President of the Family Farm Alliance, which advocates for farmers, ranchers and irrigators. Sharon is an author, poet and journalist. She writes extensively on Western issues and is a columnist for “The Shepherd” magazine. Pat and Sharon are the parents of three children: Meghan, 27; Bridget, 26; and Eamon, 20.

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