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Red states and blue states are drifting further apart, ideologically. Rural youth are migrating faster and faster to urban centers. Small town newspapers and radio stations are going silent. Families can't even carry on a respectful conversation at the 4th of July potluck! Never has it been more important for the media to step forward and moderate conversations across divides.

Agreeing To Disagree Over Public Land Transfers, A Solution Takes Shape

Tom Koerner, USFWS Mountain-Plains

 

Last winter, protestors packed committee meetings after lawmakers proposed a constitutional amendment to allow the state of Wyoming to take over management of federal lands. Republican Senator Larry Hicks supported the idea, but he was open to other options. So, he reached out to Shane Cross and the Wyoming Wildlife Federation and challenged them to come with a compromise.

As part of her series, “I Respectfully Disagree,” Wyoming Public Radio’s Melodie Edwards sat down with Senator Hicks at the dining table of Wyoming Wildlife Federation President Shane Cross on his ranch near Douglas. Hicks said, there is one thing they do agree on: forever protecting access to Wyoming’s wild places.

Join us next Friday, December 15, for a special edition of Open Spaces when Melodie Edwards travels to Gillette to break bread and talk to people on all sides about the coal layoffs, hate speech and divisiveness they’ve been struggling with there.

Melodie Edwards is the host and producer of WPM's award-winning podcast The Modern West. Her Ghost Town(ing) series looks at rural despair and resilience through the lens of her hometown of Walden, Colorado. She has been a radio reporter at WPM since 2013, covering topics from wildlife to Native American issues to agriculture.
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