Category: The Latest News

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.

Starting Thursday, June 11, the University of Wyoming Extension will host a free three-part webinar series focused on caring for gardens, trees and turf during drought. According to the U.S. Drought Monitor, much of Wyoming is currently considered to be in moderate to extreme drought conditions.

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.

For those interested in connecting with local artists and agriculturalists, the University of Wyoming Extension will lead a free, self-guided Ag & Art tour this June. Two Albany County agricultural venues will host art and educational booths for attendees to explore.

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.

For more than a decade, Jennifer “Jenny” Ingwerson-Niemann, a senior lecturer in the University of Wyoming’s Department of Animal Science, has served as UW’s only equine science instructor. For her dedication to hands-on education and the UW community, Ingwerson-Niemann is among 10 recipients of the 2026 John P. Ellbogen Meritorious Classroom Teaching Award.

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.

A new perspective article in the journal Biological Conservation argues that virtual livestock fencing could reshape how ranchers and conservationists manage working lands. The article was led by Drew Bennett, the Whitney MacMillan Professor of Practice in the University of Wyoming’s Haub School of Environment and Natural Resources, and co-written by Haub School colleagues Temple Stoellinger and Jacob Hochard, and UW Department of Zoology and Physiology faculty members Jerod Merkle and Kurt Smith.

This year, the weather has been very challenging across most of Wyoming. Despite some recent welcome precipitation, many of our communities are still dealing with drought and/or water use restrictions. The tips below can help you make the most of the water you have.

Owen Funk, a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Wyoming in the Department of Molecular Biology, was recently awarded a highly competitive National Institutes of Health (NIH) Pathway to Independence Grant. The five-year grant from the NIH’s National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS) began March 2026.

April marked the Month of the Military Child, a month where military youth are recognized for their courage, sacrifices, and service to their communities, country, and their world. While navigating childhood and pre-adolescence can be challenging for all youth, military youth face additional challenges as their families serve. must they be recognized for their resilience and service. The University of Wyoming Extension recognizes and appreciates how much these youth do for their communities.

The University of Wyoming’s Institute for Managing Annual Grasses Invading Natural Ecosystems (IMAGINE) has released two short films highlighting cheatgrass management efforts in Carbon and Sublette counties. These films are the latest installments in an ongoing seven-part series highlighting collaborative efforts to “defend the core” from invasive annual grasses like cheatgrass, medusahead, and ventenata.

The University of Wyoming Extension has re-opened its Plant Diagnostic Clinic, which assesses plant samples that may harbor diseases. Based in Laramie but serving communities statewide, the Plant Diagnostic Clinic supports county extension educators and community members by diagnosing possible diseases in any type of plant, including houseplants, turf, row crops, forages, and even trees.