The federal government’s plan for managing a large chunk of land in southwest Wyoming is going through its final edits. And whether or not they reflect Wyoming Gov. Mark Gordon’s latest feedback will likely shape any future litigation.
The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) released an updated draft of its Resource Management Plan (RMP) for the Rock Springs Field Office this summer. It came one year after the first draft that leaned conservation heavy sparked outrage amongst the energy industry, ranchers and many politicians. The latest draft was an attempt to reflect that feedback – striking a balance between conservation and energy development on the 3.6 million acres spanning from the southern reach of the Wind River Range to the Colorado border.
But, Gordon said the BLM didn’t strike the balance. Nor listen to locals.
“Moving from an untenable to an unworkable decision does not make their decision any more consistent,” said Gordon in a press release.
As part of the federal RMP process, Gordon submitted his 39-page ‘consistency review’ to the BLM this week. This is where he highlights discrepancies between the federal plan, state and local laws, as well as needs for the areas.
A top economic driver in southwest Wyoming is energy. Gordon said more needs to be done to protect that in the BLM’s plan. He specifically highlighted three of his biggest concerns in a recent interview with Saratoga’s radio station Bigfoot 99.
The first is the increase in ACEC’s – or Areas of Critical Environmental Concern. It’s a special designation that protects important historic, cultural and scenic areas. The plan proposes to more than triple that from 286,000 to 935,000.
“They just extended that well beyond what anybody ever testified to whatever makes sense,” said Gordon. “And we've pointed that out to them, they did it without really a lot of analysis. They just seemed to ham-fist it.”
Gordon especially took issue with the northern part of the field office’s ACEC’s. This is where the southern end of the Wind River Range meets the Big Sandy Foothills. It has been coined the “Golden Triangle” partly for its sea of sagebrush, big game migration corridors and concentration of sage grouse.
To protect that, conservation groups maintain that this area is protected from energy development. One report shows the area might not actually have much natural gas potential.
Gordon’s second glaring issue he highlighted deals with National Historic and Scenic Trails.
The BLM proposes putting a 10-mile radius around some of the trails. It would limit energy development to help with impacts to the trails.
“This is particularly important in the trona patch, because it really affects their development,” Gordon said. “We’ve got to make sure that the valid existing rights have the opportunity to be developed.”
His third concern is how this land use plan will measure up with other federal guidance for the area. That’s because the BLM is also working on a Sage Grouse Management Plan that will have wide-reaching implications for southwest Wyoming too.
“There needs to be consistency between the two, and they need to be workable,” Gordon said.
The BLM will release its final plan for the Rock Springs area, called a Record of Decision, likely by the end of the year. And if the state’s concerns aren’t addressed? Likely litigation. Gordon added that’s regardless of the presidential election outcome, as this process has been years in the making.
“Wyoming is going to be well positioned to be able to litigate, well positioned to be able to continue to negotiate and make sure that Wyoming's interests are safeguarded,” he said.
But, several conservation groups pointed out that they think the BLM has already listened. They compared the recommendations made by a Gordon-appointed task force last winter to the BLM’s most recent draft. Wyofile reported that the groups found 85 percent of those requests were included.
Also, the Center for Western Priorities made a public records request for the more than 35,000 public comments made on the BLM’s first, conservation-heavy draft. In a random sample of 5,000 comments, they found 92 percent of people supported the conservation approach to managing the land.
And for the BLM’s part, they said nothing is set in stone. Edits can still be made between now and the final plan.
“We're not covering our ears and closing our eyes to that type of feedback,” Micky Fisher, BLM’s public affairs specialist, said previously. “Ultimately, we're going to continue to leverage what we receive and what we have currently to try to get to that happy medium.”
