Wyoming's Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem

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The other two major towns in the area, Dubois and Pinedale, are more distant. Dubois, 80 road miles east and north of Jackson over Togwotee Pass (9,658 feet) and on the other side of the continental divide, marks the eastern boundary of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. A classic western town, Dubois is sprinkled with log buildings. Be sure not to miss a fine example, Welty's, the general store, which carries everything from common nails to pitons. A little farther west on the main highway, you can't miss the Grub Wagon Cafe with its 20-foot-high cow's skull entrance.

Dubois has the typical western economic mix of tourism and agriculture. Outfitters and guides set out with hunters and fishermen to the south or west into Bridger-Teton Forest or to the north into the Shoshone. And valley agriculture gets by on irrigation from the Wind River and its tributaries.

But Dubois also has a major employer. Home to a Louisiana-Pacific lumber mill operating out of Bridger-Teton National Forest, the town is the hub of a controversy surrounding Forest Service plans for all seven national forests in the ecosystem. These plans set annual cutting limits for the next 15 years and will influence logging practices for the next 50.

Due out in final form in the spring of 1988, the draft plan for Bridger-Teton Forest reduces the harvest from 19 million to 15.8 million board feet per year. On one side, people worry that the reduced cutting will lead Louisiana-Pacific to pack up and go home to Oregon. On the other side, environmentalists insist that the harvest isn't sustainable and that wildlife populations are being adversely affected.

The power of nature here is almost palpable.

Pinedale is only 45 miles south of Dubois, but to get there by car most of the year, you have to drive all the way around Wyoming's highest point, Gannett Peak (13,804 feet).

Though you wouldn't guess it from the levels of emotion being shown over the Forest Service controversy, more of Bridger-Teton Forest lies in Sublette County, of which Pinedale is county seat, than in Fremont County, where Dubois is located. Pinedale's economy is based almost entirely on tourism and ranching, concerns which outweigh the benefit of timber payments amounting to about $60,000 per year, passed on by the Forest Service. Thus—much to the chagrin of people dependent on L-P for work—Sublette County is urging the Forest Service to reduce the annual cut to 12 million board feet.

Pinedale is the recreational gateway to the windward side of the Wind Rivers and profits from hikers on their way to the backwoods, boaters headed for Fremont Lake and snowmobilers taking to mountain trails. Between sights. It has a power that works even with your eyes closed. A short outdoors stroll will tell you that it's an extraordinary place. But take a solitary walk on a moonless night along a plowed track—snow piled five to six feet high on each side—and the power becomes almost palpable. Wyoming is wild; you get closer to an animal awareness here. After all, to be a human out here is to be very much in the minority. Maybe there's more to this feeling, as well: something that our rational side can’t sort out and, in fact, obscures.

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