My Spring Vacation

Giving credit where credit is due, my brother is probably the key to my Badlands bent. He is the one who taught his little sister the wonders of the great outdoors — from my propensity to note and investigate wee details to my exuberance for the derring-do. I was the timid one; he, the bold. He stretched me. Husband David and I took this now longtime Coloradan and BCA member to the northern Badlands over Easter weekend — with some reservation on both his part and ours. Larry hadn’t seen the Bakken Boom.

Wild BadlandsJan SwensonApril 1, 2015Personal, Newsletter, #37 Spring 2015

BCA Member Profile: Christine Hogan

Christine Hogan is the new BCA president-elect and took over the gavel at the January Board Retreat. Although a transplant from Colorado, she has always considered North Dakota her home and actually chose North Dakota! Her family moved to Minot Air Force Base to follow her father’s Air Force assignment in 1966. When her family moved again three years later, she was in college at NDSU and stayed behind to finish college eventually going on to UND where she completed a law degree.

Wild BadlandsStaffApril 1, 2015#37 Spring 2015, Member Profile

How the Legislature’s Action in 2015 Session May Impact the ND Badlands Environment

The recently-concluded legislative session represents both the optimism of legislators that oil prices will recover sooner rather than later and the traditional conservatism of the majority of legislators.

Optimism was expressed by the $1.1 billion “surge” bill passed early in the session to continue the build-out of roads in the oil patch as well as providing continued support for cities, counties, school districts, emergency responders, and others, all of whom have been playing catch-up to the oil industry as it ramped up over the past eight years.

The idea is that continued state spending during the downturn in drilling activity will allow our communities to maintain high levels of employment and will allow needed long-term investments in our communities to be constructed in a less chaotic manner than has occurred in the recent past.

Wild BadlandsConnie TriplettApril 1, 2015Legislature, #37 Spring 2015

Board of Directors Retreat

The Badlands Conservation Alliance Board of Directors held its winter retreat on January 17-18, 2015 at the Logging Camp Ranch. The Logging Camp Ranch is located 25 miles south of Medora on the Little Missouri River and has one of the few stands of Ponderosa Pine in North Dakota. The hosts were John and Jennifer Hanson who have been very welcoming of BCA in the past. The following Directors were in attendance: Rich Brauhn, Lillian Crook, Christine Hogan, Craig Kilber, David Kingman, Lynn Morgenson, Tama Smith, and Connie Triplett. Jan Swenson, BCA Executive Director and Bonnie Palecek, the BCA grant writer, were also in attendance.

Wild BadlandsStaffApril 1, 2015#37 Spring 2015

Ice Cave Exploration

In preparation for BCA’s annual Earth Day outing set for April 25th, executive director Jan Swenson, board member Tama Smith and hiking guest Colleen Riley set out a week earlier to reconnoiter the Ice Caves on the Maah Daah Hey trail. It was a gorgeous spring day for hiking. We spotted the caves amid a huge rock face wall surrounded by leafing aspens. Once inside, we saw beautiful ice crystals growing in the crevasses of the cave.

Wild BadlandsTama SmithApril 1, 2015#37 Spring 2015, Ice Caves, Maah Daah Hey