Engery Land Building Donation To 4-H

Gov. Matt Mead is among those scheduled to speak at the grand opening near Pinedale of land and facilities valued at $400,000, and donated by QEP Energy to Sublette County 4-H.

The program is from 12:45-2 p.m. Tuesday, April 15, at the Sublette County 4-H Agricultural Center at the Rose Skinner Preserve, located two miles south of Pinedale along U.S. Highway 191. Joining Mead on the program are QEP officials; Frank Galey, dean of the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources at the University of Wyoming; and representatives of Sublette County, 4-H and FFA.

4-H members and volunteers will help serve during the event. 4-H is the youth education arm of UW Extension, and its state offices are in the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources.

The facilities allow 4-Hers who live in town or in subdivisions to have market livestock projects. Range and forage studies, horticultural programs and livestock management, grazing and health programs will be offered at the facility and surrounding land. The area also will be available for UW Extension research and other programs.

“This barn will enable kids who live in town to participate in livestock projects and get some of the great benefits those projects offer youth -- learning budgeting and marketing skills; learning responsibility through daily care of the animals; and, of course, the therapeutic nature of animal and human interaction,” says Robin Schamber, Sublette County 4-H educator.

QEP deeded the land to Sublette County in 2012. The company’s involvement in the natural gas industry in the Pinedale area dates to the drilling of its first well more than 50 years ago.

“QEP is proud to support Sublette County 4-H with the land and livestock facility donation,” says Shane Schulz, director of government affairs for QEP Resources Inc. and a member of the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources advisory board.

“The agricultural heritage of this area is important to Sublette County and to QEP. This donation will help allow youths in Sublette County 4-H to help carry on that agricultural legacy as well as honoring former Mayor Rose Skinner’s years of public service to the area.”

The building cost $119,000, and the land is part of a parcel purchased a few years ago by QEP. The company built an office on a portion of the land adjacent to the center.