A conservationist and a businessman considered the dreaded "P" word - planning - and all its implications during the opening round of a free lecture series sponsored by the University of Wyoming and Casper College.

Bob Budd, executive director for the Wyoming Wildlife and Natural Resource Trust and Mark Willis, chief operating officer of the Wyoming Business Council, spoke eloquently and passionately Thursday night about the challenges facing Wyoming's citizens, and the chance that Wyoming might yet get it right when so many other states have gotten it terribly wrong.

Budd, a member of an old ranching family, who has worked for both the Wyoming Stock Growers and The Nature Conservancy, called upon Wyoming citizens to be truly mindful of what we're doing and the consequences of our actions.

"We need to think in (terms of) complete strategies about development, from beginning to end," said Budd. Take the natural-gas rich Jonah Field, for example, he said. It is obvious that close spacing of wells has an impact on sagebrush and sage grouse. "But what about the workers buying homes in Pinedale, which dramatically expands the footprint of energy development? … Do we mitigate for that? Where does that push the rancher, if a key part of his business plan is occupied? It's going to push him into (selling out and subdividing )35-acre parcels."

Wyoming has to do a better job considering the economic, environmental and sociological consequences of development, said Budd, whether it is energy or housing development.

Environmental problems tend to sneak up on Wyoming's citizens, incrementally, said Budd. "Have you ever driven into a place you haven't seen for years, and you wonder 'What happened?'" asked Budd. That recently happened to him when he drove through Star Valley, a place where his best friends from college grew up on dairy farms. Instead of farms, he found burgeoning housing developments.

A big impediment to thinking things through is the fall-back position of "That's how we've always done it," said Budd. The entire coal-bed methane industry is predicated on doing things in new and different ways, he said - using water well drilling rigs instead of massive oil and gas rigs to go after methane gas in Wyoming's massive coal beds.

Long-held assumptions need to be challenged, according to Budd. At the same time, common sense needs to be recognized and valued.

Budd cautioned that "just stopping activity doesn't automatically produce the Garden of Eden. Conservation costs money. It is not free. It costs somebody money. Whether you want to restore a river, or a mountain-it costs money.

"We're ahead of most states, but we need market-based strategies to get the conservation work done."

That also means fairness, he said, that if oil and gas are expected to fund conservation efforts and they can't develop a lease they already own, "then in fairness, they should get their money back," said Budd.

He praised his Wildlife Trust board for taking the kind of long-range planning view that's needed throughout the state, from local government to state and federal government. The board encourages those with good conservation ideas to take longer and broader views into their planning process, thereby coming up with even better projects, he said.

Business view

Willis cautioned that his opinions are not necessarily those of the Wyoming Business Council, and noted that he wasn't supposed to mention the word "zoning."

He warned the audience of students and Casper residents that Wyoming can anticipate future fights over water from more populous and downstream states.

"Groundwater isn't the answer, because groundwater is a finite resource," said Willis, as the suburbs of Cheyenne are learning to their sorrow, with ever-deeper wells.

A veteran of the oil business in Texas and Oklahoma, Willis has seen communities exhaust their groundwater through a lack of long-range planning. Most alarming, said Willis, Texas oilman T. Boone Pickens is busy buying up water rights, making a major shift from oil to water. "I can do without oil, but I can't do without water," said Willis.

He said living south of Fort Worth taught him the hazards and penalties of bad or no planning and poor management of land and water. "Wyoming still has a chance to look at what's happened elsewhere and do it right here," he said. He praised the value of planning, as seen in the counties between Tulsa and Oklahoma City, where it has been efficiently used to avoid problems and enhance quality of life.

Two weeks ago, Willis visited a planned development outside Albuquerque, N.M., which has things planned out to a 20-year horizon and will accommodate 100,000 residents in a community that conserves water, energy, provides efficient public transportation and encourages lone-eagle, Internet-based businesses with broadband access and neighborhood business centers that have a Kinko's and Starbucks downstairs and offices upstairs.

Budd and Willis said Wyoming needs a range of creative incentives and disincentives to encourage government and businesses to take longer views on planning.