public lands

Restrictions are often implemented during the summer months when fire and drought conditions are the most severe and are often lifted in the fall and winter, though they can remain in place during these times as well. Protecting lands for hunting, preserving public access, and preserving wildlife habitats are major reasons that restrictions are put in place.

Heading into midterm election season, a new poll focuses on what voters in Mountain West swing states think about the outdoors and public lands.

Officials in New Mexico recently celebrated the purchase of about 54,000 acres to create its largest state-owned recreation area, and it’s one of the biggest public land acquisitions in the U.S. this year.

As part of Wyoming Public Media’s ‘I Respectfully Disagree’ series, four panelists discussed issues surrounding wild horses in the state on a Facebook live.Stakeholders spoke for an hour about topics like herd management, fertility control and holding facilities. Wyoming Public Radio’s Caitlin Tan mediated the conversation.

The addition has more than quadrupled the size of the Marquez Wildlife Area and re-established tribal access to religious sites in the area.

Wyoming’s oil and gas lease sales of public land concluded June 30. It was the first sale to happen since late 2020 – typically they are four times a year.Two-thirds of the total parcels offered were sold, which is 67,627 acres of Wyoming public land. The other third went unpurchased.

Oil and gas lease sales on public land resumed this week in eight states, including Wyoming, after a year and a half hiatus, and conservation groups are displeased that the federal government is allowing it.

Interior Secretary Deb Haaland is launching an Indian Youth Service Corps with new guidelines. The corps was established in 2019 as part of an amendment to the Public Lands Corps Act. Now, Haaland has published actual guidelines. One of its goals is fostering natural resource and land stewardship skills for young tribal members aged 16 to 30, or 35 if you’re a veteran.

The money targets at least 277 high-priority polluting wells on federal public lands in nine states, including Utah.

A new report shows that Western states vary widely in how much federal public lands within their borders have been protected from extractive uses over the last decade – with some surprising discrepancies.