Here we are at the last day of 2019. I hope it was a good year for you, and I hope 2020 will be even better.
For me personally, it was a better year than many of those that have come before. I finally got to take my youngest son out for a deer hunt, and he got his first deer with his first shot. He ended up getting another license and filling that one, too. I can look forward to more deer hunts in the future with both of my boys.
It was a pretty good year for Wyoming as a state, too. After two years of planning, building and moving, Weatherby officially opened its new headquarters in Sheridan in June. And it wasn’t simply a symbolic move. The company brought its entire operation here. It even fitted its new manufacturing facility with tools that have allowed it to make more of its components in Sheridan and rely less on parts it used to have to have made overseas.
Stag Arms announced it will be moving from Connecticut to Wyoming in the coming months. There are rumors several more firearms manufacturers may soon be announcing moves to Wyoming, as well.
On the wildlife front, Governor Gordon released his draft executive order to give some protection to big game migration corridors. While I’d love to see even more protection for these migrating deer, elk and antelope, as long as we rely on oil and gas for energy, we have to find a balance. Governor Gordon’s order is not yet finalized, so there’s still time to speak up about it. But it’s a good start, and I hope it helps us reverse the decline in our big game populations in the southwest region of the state.
Here’s hoping 2020 is an even better year for Wyoming and our wilder spaces than 2019 was. Happy New Year to you all.
