2003 WACD Annual Convention

"Wyoming - Conserving the Best"

Outstanding Reporter

The 2003 Outstanding News Reporter of the Year is Cat Urbigkit.  Cat has an innate ability to know what is newsworthy and is not afraid to tackle the journalistic mine fields surrounding contentious conservation issues. 

Cat became a writer when Pinedale Roundup editor, Janet Montgomery hired her to cover the government beat in 1996.  She had focused her writing efforts on environmental and agricultural issues since then.  In 2001, when the Pinedale Roundup was sold, Cat and three former Pinedale Roundup employees started a new community newspaper, the Sublette Examiner.

Cat has earned numerous awards and recognition for her writing.  She won the Wyoming Press Association award for coverage of a variety of issues, including brucellosis and disease conflicts between domestic sheep and bighorn sheep.  In January 2003, The Sublette Examiner won Wyoming Press Association awards for Cat’s coverage of the RS-2477 Road issue, a series she authored on the instream flow issue, and her coverage of the proposed bear food storage order.

Under Cat’s leadership, the Sublette Examiner covers natural resource issues in a fair and objective way.  The paper reports on many of the current issues that are so important to our western way of life and rural economies.