Resources

Resources. Ownership - Exploration - Administration. Aesthetic and economic resources surround Union Pass, extending far to the west, north and southwest. These include grass, browse and forest plus animals living thereby and therein. Ownership of lands and vegetation repose in the nation's people; Wyoming's citizens own the wild animals; livestock, seasonally pastured, are privately owned. , Separate laws enacted in 1869 by Wyoming's first Territorial Assembly pertained to branding livestock and protecting wildlife. An incipient but immediately popularized livestock industry received credit for the first. But sponsors of the second, even following its augmentation in 1870 by a rudimentary wildlife agency, went, in that era of of materialism, unnoticed. Few territorial field of endeavor possessed sufficient background for practitioners to appreciate benefits stemming from conservation. Only the fur trade--flourishing in 1826, impoverished by 1840 -- had produced a second generation cognizant of dangers inherent in ruthless exploitation.Throughout such environs as Union Pass its diminished member trapped and hunted, sometimes outfitting (guide service, pack trains, supplies) clients attracted to the Territory by both its mountain wilderness and its continuing bonanza in open range livestock operations From such relationships emerged types of outfitting and mountain valley ranching operations predisposed to conservation practices. , Spearheading a long overdue national conservation movement, Theodore Roosevelt found among such ranchers and outfitters men who played leading roles in organizing the first national forests out of the unwieldy Yellowstone Timberland Reserve and in developing an administrative structure adopted by the subsequent U.S. Forest Service. Searching for complementary talents the Forest Service and the Wyoming Game and Fish Commission have both recruited personnel experienced in ranching and outfitting as well as the graduated of professional schools. Subject--as are all human efforts--to occasional errors, the administrators of Union Pass surroundings have successfully protected and enhanced its natural environment.