Jill Morrison | 30 Years of Protecting Wyoming's Land, Water and Air

 Jill Morrison grew up on her family’s farm in Western Nebraska. The farm fell victim to the 1980s’ farm crisis, forcing the family to sell off sections of the land, piece by piece. “My connection to the land comes from my heritage. I come from farmers and ranchers on both sides of my family,” said Jill.  She spent her childhood mostly outdoors, running around in the hills and spending time on tractors and horses, gathering up cows, pulling up weeds, irrigating crops and being connected to the land.

It was her heritage and connection to the land that led Jill to spend three decades of her life protecting the environment from irresponsible and unchecked development. Jill went to school at Arizona State University for English. While there, she also volunteered as an organizer against the licensing and building of the Palo Verde nuclear power plant west of Phoenix. “It's really important to engage in civic society. That's one of the big things that I've really tried to focus on in my work as a community organizer, is how important it is for people to understand the democratic process and to engage in it,” said Jill. Her interest in helping others through education and community has remained constant throughout her different careers. She worked for several years as a journalist focusing on investigative pieces and human interest stories. Several of the pieces she worked on were animal and environmentally focused from following the illegal smuggling of exotic birds into the States to working undercover at a race track covering the drugging of race horses. Alongside her drive to do good was her drive to be around horses. Growing up on the farm with them, wherever she landed later in life she always found a horse that needed exercising. In a search to reconnect with her rural roots, Jill was offered a position with the Powder River Basin Resource Council (PRBRC) and packed what would fit into her car and left L.A.to return to her rural roots in Wyoming in 1990.

One of the many highlights of her long and impressive career was working with citizens to stop a pump storage hydro project in the Bighorn Mountains along the Little Horn River. This area is known for its critical calving ground for elk and is home to a diverse array of wildlife. The Bighorn Mountains run from northern Wyoming to southern Montana and are valued for their recreational and pristine character. The company wanted to dam the river and pump water uphill and then shoot it back down hill through turbines to create energy but studies showed that the process would inevitably use more energy than it would produce. When Jill came into the issue, her coworkers and community members had been fighting the project for ten years, since 1982. 

“Of course, cell phones didn’t exist at the time and I don’t even think there was a fax machine,” recalled Jill. Her team did the work in the field and from one single computer that they all shared in the office. They organized meetings, hearings, field trips and sent letters to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), “I remember the post office got so many letters that it filled two or three large bags to go in opposition of the project,” said Jill. The leaders at Powder River had the expertise and scientific background to explain to the public why the project didn’t make sense.  The group also  allied  with the Crow tribe, who have the water rights downstream of the project. The groups organized tours of the site with officials, and got the EPA and FERC involved, which all led to the project eventually being rejected by FERC in 1999. 

While this effort was happening, Jill connected with members of Powder River Basin on the coal bed methane boom that was beginning in the area. This process of developing gas involves pumping water off the coal aquifer and then proceeding to drill into those aquifers to release gas. Not only did this process drain drinking water wells that the community relied on, but then the companies were discharging the water on the surface down drainages. The water had a higher sodium absorption ratio which turned the alkali soils people were grazing or farming into hard-pan,  causing native grasses to die off and flooding in neighboring fields. “Industry proposed 50,000 coal bed methane wells. And the impacts on people were tremendous in terms of power lines, pipelines, well drilling, losing water, discharging the water and creating erosion,” explained Jill. The impacts of this process changed the character of the Powder River Basin with thousands of miles of power lines, roads, pits, compressor stations and by industrialization of the rural ranching landscape. Jill and PRBRC organized many landowners throughout the area, from Sheridan to Gillette and joined with ranchers in Montana at Northern Plains Resource Council; this fight went on for 15 to 20 years. “We're still working on getting the damage reclaimed and the wells plugged. But the boom part of it probably went on from about the mid 90s and ended at about 2006, when the bust came. But in that time, we got the split estate law passed, which gave landowners more rights in negotiations and we got the eminent domain laws strengthened,” explained Jill.  They also got dozens of rancher’s water wells replaced by industry, bonding for large water disposal pits and treatment required before discharge of produced water.

To protect the natural resources of the area and go up against big corporations for the wellbeing of the people, land and wildlife, Jill said you simply can’t give up. “It's always two steps forward and one step back in this work when you're up against these giant corporations, and really big industries who hold our regulators captive, basically,” said Jill. The Ramaco Brook coal mine was one such example of perseverance and the silver lining that comes even when organizing couldn’t stop unsustainable development all together. The Ramaco Brook mine was proposed during the decline of the coal era. While Jill and PRBRC weren’t able to stop the mine from receiving a permit, they stalled the permitting process for 10 years. “ We made them have to adhere to really strong standards to protect the surrounding area, which is the Tongue River Valley as you head up to Montana,”explained Jill, “You have wins, you have half wins, you have losses, it takes years and years of effort to accomplish your goals. The most important thing I've learned in this work is that you've got to be in it for the long haul. It is about building so much effort and respect and using science.” 

Reflecting back on her 30 years in community organizing, Jill said that working with the local women and helping them find their voice and watching them become leaders in their communities was one of the most rewarding parts of the job. “I think it’s just seeing that you can make a difference. We have better regulations, much better laws in Wyoming to protect our environment, and people's homes and land, water and air, than we did before. We have to be vigilant the whole time to continue to keep that effort up,” said Jill. 

Jill retired in the summer of 2021 but plans to continue to volunteer as a member of the community moving forward. “I came because I love Wyoming. I love the land,” explained Jill,  “But I stayed here because of the people in the community and the people that I worked with and the dedication to responsible development.” 

Powder River Basin Resource Council