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New Map App To Help Birders Flock To Best Wyoming Viewing

flickr: Old Man Travels

When Community Naturalist Zach Hutchinson moved to Wyoming three years ago, he had trouble finding updated guide books for where to find the best places in the state to view birds. So in his spare time, he started creating a map. This summer, in collaboration with the Rocky Mountain chapter of the Audubon Society, he plans to release an app called the Great Wyoming Birding Trail.

“Let’s say you’re coming to the National Parks in the northwest corner to see the great grey owl, but you have no idea where to start. This is going to put you in the place to see that great grey owl.”

The app will take people on loops around the state’s various natural regions: the High Plains, the Great Parks, the Southern Rockies, the Great Plains, the Wyoming Basin and the Black Hills. Hutchinson says the benefit of an electronic map is that it can be updated often.

“The nice thing about having this electronic versions of a map, this app, is that then it is fluid. It can constantly be added to; things can be subtracted. So if a site closes we can subtract. If, hey, we realize we overlooked this great area, we can add that to it.”

He says they plan to release the app this summer in conjunction with the 100th anniversary of the National Park system.

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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