Author: uweagnews

A new wildlife documentary gives an unprecedented view into how Yellowstone bison recovered from near-extinction and relearned to migrate. “What Bison See: Restoring Yellowstone’s Lost Migrations” features exclusive footage from the first high-definition camera collars deployed on bison in the national park.

The Wyoming Wool Initiative, in partnership with the University of Wyoming College of Agriculture, Life Sciences and Natural Resources, is now accepting applications for its 2026-2027 Lamb-a-Year program. This flagship program offers UW students valuable industry experience and provides regional sheep producers with individualized lamb quality data.

For more than a decade, University of Wyoming botany Professor Ellen Currano has been collecting fossilized remnants of trees and plants that thrived about 56 million years ago in what is now Wyoming. Now, Currano’s findings are part of a new scientific paper that reconstructs the forest canopy of 56 million years ago, during a massive and abrupt emission of carbon into the atmosphere during the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM).

At the edge of the University of Wyoming’s Prexy’s Pasture Thursday, July 30, people gathered around a rare sight in Wyoming for this time of year—a broad-winged hawk. The uncommon bird of prey was found on campus in June with a fractured beak and a significant parasite load. A month later, the young hawk, healed and ready to resume its journey, flew from UW’s lawn to the trees between the S.H. Knight Geology Building and the Engineering Building before heading southeast.

The start of the growing season has been dry, brown, and disappointing for many agricultural producers around Wyoming. Add to that the stress of navigating complex commodity markets and the strain of daily operational and family dynamics, and it’s shaping up to be a very challenging season.

Designed to broaden perspectives and foster meaningful cultural connections, Washakie County 4-H’s 2026 “Courage to Explore: Across Cultures” program combined immersive activities, educational exploration, and personal growth opportunities. The program recently concluded, leaving a lasting impact on the 4-H youth, chaperones, and community members who made the journey possible.

A newly launched framework for migratory big-game conservation by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has its roots in efforts piloted by Wyoming and informed by the state’s university.

Observations in the Big Horn Basin and Sheridan County indicate that there is high alfalfa weevil pressure this year, the University of Wyoming Extension reports. With alfalfa weevil control in full swing across the state, UW Extension encourages producers to make time for post-treatment scouting.

A water-wise gardening workshop will be held by University of Wyoming Extension and the Johnson County Master Gardeners on Saturday, June 20, from 9 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at the Buffalo Community Garden (across from 30 Fairgrounds Rd). Participants will learn the principles of water-wise gardening, sometimes called xeriscaping, and will help install native perennial plants in a new demonstration garden bed.

Throughout the spring, members of the University of Wyoming College of Agriculture, Life Sciences and Natural Resources have been celebrated for their exceptional efforts and accomplishments. Read more about UW’s outstanding awardees below.

The National Science Foundation (NSF) Great Plains I-Corps Hub, of which the University of Wyoming is a partner, is recruiting teams for a special entrepreneurship training cohort focused on agriculture-related technologies. The cohort, dubbed Ag45, is open to individuals and teams developing agriculture-related technologies who want to better understand their path to market.

A University of Wyoming academic professional has been named a recipient of the prestigious UW Foundation Stewardship Award for 2026. Alison Doherty, an associate research scientist in the Department of Veterinary Sciences, was one of two UW employees recognized for exceptional leadership in fostering strong relationships with donors.

Housing development is expanding, pushing homes into wild landscapes at an unprecedented pace. Yet, as residential development moves into previously undeveloped areas, those same species face more than the direct loss of land under a building’s footprint—they also can lose access to the habitat surrounding those homes, multiplying the effective impact of each new structure.

When it comes to University of Wyoming faculty recognition, it’s hard to beat the past two years for Department of Ecosystem Science and Management Professor Scott Shaw. After receiving the 2025 John P. Ellbogen Lifetime Teaching Award that recognizes the long, distinguished, and exemplary career of one senior faculty member who has excelled as a teacher at UW, Shaw has been selected as the recipient of the 2026 George Duke Humphrey Distinguished Faculty Award, the university’s top faculty honor.