Into the Big Empty

 

If the wild steppes of Mongolia could be transported to America's West, Wyoming's Red Desert would come close. This vast high cold desert, nicknamed the "Big Empty," is the size of Vermont, yet remains little known beyond the views whizzing by along Interstate 80. The Red Desert is home to pronghorn antelope 50,000 strong and contains some of the best remaining greater sage grouse breeding habitat in the West. Here, the largest active sand dune system outside the Sahara Desert rolls across a Martian landscape, only to rest against canyons full of hoodoos and archways that could rival Bryce Canyon and Arches National Park put together. But the "Big Empty" is filling up fast.

A network of oil and gas development already crisscrosses millions of acres in the Red Desert, and the Bureau of Land Management continues to auction more land for new gas drilling, including tens of thousands of acres near critical sage grouse habitat. It is the latest in a statewide boom to tap Wyoming's energy riches, a boom which also happens to threaten one of the country's most unknown and uncommon pockets of the West.

For the past ten months, I have been exploring the Red Desert photographing the wildlife, wild places and environmental dilemmas facing this enigmatic landscape. I have flown over the desert with conservation experts, met with the BLM agents charged with managing this land, attended land auctions and spoken with oil and gas representatives interested in this environment’s wealth. Every trip reminds me of how much we don’t know or understand about this landscape and how to take care of it. There will be no easy solution, but I do know that the Red Desert is worth the effort and attention.

The Red Desert has quietly undergone its existence and transformation in this forgotten pocket of the West, perhaps partly because it lacks the immediate iconic beauty of neighbors such as Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Park. But for those who brave the elements and are willing to travel further into the unmapped terrain of the Red Desert, this environment will awe you. It will reveal an astounding silence, the discovery of new tunnels, caves, fossils and archaeological ruins, not to mention an appreciation for the hardiness of the plants and animals that manage to survive in this challenging environment.

My hope ultimately is to engage viewers in a truly sensory experience, providing the public with access to these rare environments and giving them a behind the scenes look at how we manage our wild places. I have only just begun to present almost a year’s worth of work to the public through a new blog, The Red Desert Files, and a short multimedia trailer about the Red Desert. This winter I plan to join Joe Riis on a trip into the desert during what he hopes will be “the biggest baddest snowstorm” to look for large herds of antelope. And right now, I am working for High Country News on an article stemming from work on the Red Desert about BLM oil and gas lease auctions.

All of this will culminate this spring with the release of an internet multimedia documentary about the Red Desert – part of my master’s project at the Center for Environmental Journalism at the University of Colorado in Boulder. This documentary will be chock full of imagery, recorded interviews, ambient sounds and other information on the Red Desert.

This project has made me call on all my experience as a zoologist, photographer, and journalist, and challenged me to remain diplomatic as I learn about everyone’s stake in the desert from environmentalists to land managers and industrial reps. I hope it will be but the beginning of our learning about the Red Desert, of people working together, and I hope it will serve as the jumping off point for new efforts that will encourage others to become stewards in the conservation of our planet.

By Morgan Heim

Photos in order of appearance (all photos copyrighted by Morgan Heim):

Antelope on the Rails: An antelope pauses while walking up the train tracks in Wamsutter, Wyom. Antelope must frequently contend with more human made barriers and hazards along their migration routes.

Killpecker Dunes: The Killpecker Dunes are part of the largest active sand dune system in North America, and second largest in the world, beat only by the massive Sahara Desert. The dunes here bury snow, which in summer leaks out creating pockets of desert wetlands that support countless birds and other animals.

Natural Gas Well: The early morning sky illuminates a natural gas well leading out to drilling fields along the Great Divide Road in the Red Desert. The BLM estimates there could be enough natural gas in the Red Desert to heat 4 million homes for about a year.

Boar’s Tusk: The Boar's Tusk is the remnant of an old volcano caldera. It is perhaps one of the most iconic landmarks within the Greater Red Desert, a six million acre high cold desert in southwestern Wyoming

Oil Rig: An oil rig gleams and chugs slowly in the falling light of the Red Desert. Oil is nearing depletion in the Red Desert, but rich supplies of natural gas promise a continued energy boom in this fragile environment

Morgan's website: http://www.moheimphotography.com/

Blog: http://reddesertfiles.wordpress.com/

Red Desert multimedia: http://moheim79.webng.com/Red%20Desert%202/