By Molly Jacobson for Tri-State Livestock News
When water is scarce, most producers just try to make the best use of what they’ve got, typically by making structural improvements like installing tanks or drilling wells. At the University of Wyoming, Ellen Yeatman wondered if there was another way – a way to prevent water scarcity from becoming a dire issue in the first place – and she won the Western Agricultural Economics Association Outstanding Master’s Thesis Award for her work.
“Over the past century and a half, water infrastructure projects, such as dams, trans-basin pipelines and canal systems, have been built to capture and distribute limited water supplies. Now, infrastructure-based solutions have been exhausted,” says Yeatman. “Water managers of the 21st century are turning to more creative water management solutions to deal with the growing water demand and supply imbalance.”
May 3, 2021
State, national and international media frequently feature the University of Wyoming and members of its community in stories. Here is a summary of some of the recent coverage:
UW will receive nearly $3 million from the U.S. Department of Energy for research focused on expanding and transforming the use of coal to produce coal-based products using carbon ore, rare earth elements and critical minerals. Oil City News and County 10 published UW’s release. Green Car Congress, World Coal and Electric Energy Online published similar articles.
The New York Times noted that UW is offering incentives to members of the university’s community who receive their COVID-19 vaccines. The article focused on the number of U.S. colleges that are requiring vaccinations for their employees and students this fall.
April 30, 2021
Ellen Yeatman
A study by a University of Wyoming agricultural and applied economics student exploring a proposed water demand management program on the Upper Green River Basin has received the Western Agricultural Economics Association (WAEA) Outstanding Master’s Thesis Award.
The thesis by Ellen Yeatman, a College of Agriculture and Natural Resources master’s student, titled “Ranch-level Economic and Ecological Tradeoffs of Water Demand Management in the Upper Green River Basin,” examines a program that would try to alleviate the water supply and demand imbalance within the Colorado River Basin.
“The Upper Basin states are currently working right now to figure out what are the best ways to meet their obligations to the Colorado River Compact to the Lower Basin states to not deplete the river,” says Kristi Hansen, an associate professor in the Department of Agricultural and Applied Economics. “Basically, Ellen is looking at a new kind of conservation