public lands

Two bills being proposed in state legislatures in the Mountain West differ completely on how to manage the region’s wild horse and burro population.

Two measures in the House of Representatives new rules package are regionally significant. One measure makes it easier to transfer federal public lands and the other supports oil and gas development.

A lot of Wyomingites have horses or at least have ridden a horse. Well, Lisanne Fear of Sublette County took it to the next level. She recently rode her five wild horses, also known as mustangs, across the country on the American Discovery Trail. Fear is a horse trainer who specializes in training wild horses, and she wanted to use the cross-country ride to raise awareness about wild horses in holding corrals across the country. She recently sat down with Wyoming Public Radio’s Caitlin Tan.

This new rule aims to limit leaking, flaring and venting of the potent greenhouse gas, while wringing more in royalties from the companies extracting natural gas.

The Mountain West News Bureau researched two possibilities for why certain hunting spots on public lands are getting crowded while the number of hunters remains fairly stable.

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is having to backtrack on a land acquisition in Natrona and Carbon counties that was announced in May.The state of Wyoming filed an appeal in June saying that the agency did not involve the public and that the environmental assessment was not adequate. Some of the concerns include how the recreational setting and fishery would be impacted.

When Yellowstone National Park was first founded 150 years ago, it was a landmark move. It was the world’s first national park signed into law by President Ulysses S. Grant, and in the years since, it has represented America’s efforts to protect the outdoors.However, Adam Sowards, a professor emeritus of history at the University of Idaho, recently wrote an op-ed for the Los Angeles Times detailing America's troubled history with public lands. Sowards spoke with Wyoming Public Radio’s Caitlin Tan.

The federal government will move forward with leasing some public land for oil and gas drilling in Wyoming, New Mexico and Kansas as part of a mandate from congressional action.

Several recent conflicts over public lands access have made headlines in our region. One of those cases involves a practice called corner crossing, and it could determine whether recreationists can access millions of acres.

National Park Service locations report how many people visit, how much tourists spend and how many jobs that creates every year. In 2021, those visitors spent more than $20 billion.