Cheney bill would release WSA designations in 3 counties including Big Horn

WORLAND – A bill introduced in September by Representative Liz Cheney (R-WY) would remove wilderness designations from Lincoln, Sweetwater and Big Horn counties, and effectively restrict the designation of further lands in Wyoming with wilderness characteristics without federal approval. Entitled “Restoring Local Input and Access to Public Lands Act,” House Resolution 6939 was moved forward last week in a vote of 19-11 House Committee on Natural Resources.

After the vote, Cheney issued a statement. “Today’s [Friday, Nov. 16] passage of the Restoring Local Input and Access to Public Lands Act in the Natural Resources Committee is a win for the locally driven efforts to resolve the status of Wilderness Study Areas (WSAs) in Big Horn, Lincoln, and Sweetwater counties. Congress is responsible for designating WSAs, listening to local input, and ultimately legislating on whether these lands should be returned to multiple-use sustained yield management. For over 40 years, federal land in Wyoming has languished in WSA status. Recreation, ranching, and other economic activities have been negatively impacted by the decades-old WSA designation, which prevents access, locks up land and resources, restricts grazing rights, and hinders good rangeland and resource management. I am pleased the Natural Resources Committee passed my bill out of committee [Friday]. This is a crucial step towards finally bringing resolution to this long-standing issue.”

According to a summary memorandum from the Committee on Natural Resources, H.R. 6939 releases land within certain Wilderness Study Areas (WSA) managed by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and U.S. Forest Service (USFS) in Lincoln, Sweetwater, and Big Horn counties, Wyoming, and requires that these lands be managed according to multiple use and sustained yield mandates. The bill further requires that no additional land within Wyoming be designated as wilderness or WSA, unless enacted by federal statute. Finally, it requires that any lands identified by BLM or USFS as possessing wilderness characteristics shall no longer be identified as such.

The Wilderness Act of 1964 (16 U.S.C. 1131 et seq.) established the National Wilderness Preservation System to maintain some of America’s wildest areas for the “use and enjoyment of the American people in such manner as will leave them unimpaired for future use and enjoyment as wilderness.” The Act described wilderness lands as areas “where the earth and its community of life are untrammeled by man, where man himself is a visitor who does not remain.” It required that the Secretaries of Agriculture and Interior review within 10 years most of the public lands under their purview and evaluate “primitive” road-less areas greater than 5,000 acres in size for their wilderness character and prepare suitability recommendations for the President to share with Congress. Under the Act, Congress reserves the sole authority to designate federal lands as wilderness. Generally, the Wilderness Act prohibits commercial activities, motorized uses, and the building of roads, structures and facilities in designated wilderness areas.

In general, even though they have not been designated by Congress as part of the National Wilderness

Preservation System, lands identified as WSAs are managed as if they were wilderness.

H.R. 6939 intends to release all WSAs in Lincoln, Big Horn, and Sweetwater counties. If enacted, this bill would release approximately 400,000 acres of BLM and USFS land for broader multiple use, ensuring greater diversity of access to public lands and a wider array of management options available to land managers. This bill would also prohibit any future wilderness designation in Wyoming, unless enacted by law. The bill also directs that any BLM or USFS land in Wyoming inventoried as “Land With Wilderness Characteristics” or that was identified as having wilderness characteristics will no longer be inventoried or identified as such and shall be managed under multiple use and sustained yield mandates. Finally, the bill prohibits BLM and USFS from conducting any new wilderness inventories or identifying land as having wilderness character in Wyoming.

Last December, Representative Cheney introduced a piece of legislation that would amend the Wyoming Wilderness Act of 1984, expanding the definition of authorized recreational uses in Wilderness Study Areas in Teton County, effectively circumventing some recommendations made by the county’s Wyoming Public Lands Initiative (WPLI) working group.

Cheney’s proposed amendment, H.R. 4697, stated in part, “all recreational uses occurring within such Wilderness Study Areas on the date before the day of the enactment of this Act, including horseback riding, snowmobiling, dirt bike riding, mountain biking, and helicopter skiing, shall be permitted in such Areas;” and “with respect to helicopter skiing in the Palisades Wilderness Study Area, the Secretary shall authorize the number of permitted days of helicopter skiing to be at least the number of days specified in the High Mountain Heli-Skiing Final Environmental Impact Statement for certain national forest districts in Wyoming and Idaho issued on June 30, 2005, by the Forest Service; and no recreational access points shall be constructed in such Wilderness Study Areas after the date of the enactment of this paragraph, except by express authorization of Congress.”

In response, the Teton County WPLI group, as reported by the Jackson Hole News and Guide, reacted negatively to proposed amendment, threatening to quit the recommendation process altogether.

H.R. 4697 is still in the Subcommittee on Federal Lands.

According to the Wyoming County Commissioners Association (WCCA), Wyoming is currently home to 15 designated wilderness areas, covering more than 4 million acres. The Bureau of Land Management also manages 42 WSAs for a total of 577,000 acres of public land. The Forest Service manages three WSAs, adding another 130,000 acres.

Across the state, county WPLI working groups spent the better part of a year studying best use for Wilderness Study Areas in the state, with recommendations to be submitted to the state next year. Once committee recommendations have been formalized and approved by each county commission, the final recommendations of the WPLI will be sent to a federal delegation for introduction in the U.S. House and Senate in 2019.

Wyoming County Commissioner Association Executive Director Pete Obermueller predicts no change to the WPLI process with the introduction of H.R. 6939.

“In terms of policy recommendations, it really won’t affect our decisions,” said Obermueller. “Our goal from the start has been to support each county’s decisions, so if it [the bill] has support from the counties in question, then we are comfortable with it.”

Obermueller explained that the nest step in the WPLI process is for the association to consolidate recommendations made by the WPLI groups and introduce them to Congress in the first quarter of 2019.

H.R. 6939 is supported by Lincoln, Big Horn, and Sweetwater counties. It also enjoys support from the Wyoming Stock Growers Association, Advocates for Multiple Use of Public Lands, Wyoming Mining Association, Petroleum Association of Wyoming, American Farm Bureau, Sweetwater Snow Pokes Snowmobile and ATV Club, Wyoming State Snowmobile Association and Teton Freedom Riders.