This story is part of our Quick Hits series. This series will bring you breaking news and short updates from throughout the state.
The Department of the Interior has purchased a 640-acre parcel of state school trust land from Wyoming.
The announcement comes days after Gov. Mark Gordon determined that the conditions for the state to sell the Kelly Parcel to Grand Teton National Park had been met.
Earlier this year, the state Legislature tied the fate of the Kelly Parcel to the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) resource management plan (RMP) for about 3.6 million acres of public lands around Rock Springs. Lawmakers required that the BLM not choose a conservation-oriented set of management priorities known as “Alternative B.” While the agency initially listed Alternative B as its preferred plan, a later draft somewhat backed off the conservation focus and increased the amount of land available for energy development. The BLM released a Record of Decision [ROD] for its final management plan on Dec. 20.
Gordon said he worked with the state attorney general in determining that the final plan did not select Alternative B for certain rights of way actions and fluid mineral leasing.
“The legislature required my review of a narrow set of actions proposed within Alternative B, and whether those proposed actions were selected, in whole, in the ROD,” Gordon wrote in his certification letter. “I point out that many parts of the ROD clearly selected other segments of Alternative B, but the legislature limited their conditions to those proposed actions listed above in connection with the sale of the Kelly Parcel.”
Gordon said he will seek the complete withdrawal or substantial amendments to the plan once the Trump administration takes office.
“I have instructed the Attorney General to pursue every legal remedy,” Gordon wrote in a statement. “In addition, I have been in contact with Wyoming’s Congressional delegation and potential members of the incoming Trump Administration to fix the mess an ideological Biden Administration is leaving for southwestern Wyoming.”
Gordon re-stated his concern that the Rock Springs plan doesn’t align with local input and policies. The Wilderness Society said the plan incorporates 85 percent of the recommendations made by the group of local community members that the governor assembled this year to suggest improvements. A Center for Western Priorities analysis of 35,000 public comments found that 92 percent supported the conservation measures in BLM’s first proposed management plan for the area.
The $100 million sale was funded by an Interior Department and National Park Service (NPS) public-private partnership with the Grand Teton National Park Foundation and additional support from the National Park Foundation. The Department used $62.4 million from the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF), with another $37.6 million in private donations raised by Grand Teton National Park Foundation. All $100 million from the sale will directly benefit Wyoming’s public education system.
