Transfer of Public Lands

[shootbrownelk]

Dr. Taylor Haynes, former candidate for governor, has a letter to the editor in the Cheyenne paper this morning. As many of you may know, he ran on the issue of transferring federal lands and lost the primary election in August. In the letter he claims the state could increase its wealth and "reach its full potential" if they took over federal lands.

Seems to me he is making the point that I and others on this forum have made many times: If the state gets control, they will emphasize for-profit activities while paying only lip-service to recreation. I find it scary that the state "may reach its full potential" when he is clearly referring to economic potential.

I hope you all have contacted your elected officials and will continue to do so.

I intend to keep e-mails going to Enzi, Barrasso and Lumis until they get sick of hearing from me. Their wishy-washy replies don't cut it. You forgot to include RANCHER in Dr. Taylor Haynes' title. That one word explains a lot on his stance on the issue.

 

[highplainsdrifter]

By my count, the following organizations have come out against the transfer of federal lands to the state(s):

The Casper Star Tribune
The Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation
Backcountry Hunters and Anglers
The Wyoming Wildlife Federation
Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership
Trout Unlimited
The Wyoming Wilderness Association
The Wyoming Outdoor Council
The Powder River Basin Resource Council
Outdoor Life Magazine (at least two articles)
Petersen's Hunting Magazine
The Sweetwater County Commission

Any additions or corrections?

 

[Bitterroot Bulls]

You can add the

Montana Wildlife Conservancy,
Montana Wilderness Association,
Montana Nature Conservancy,
Public Land Water Access Association,
and many more...

 

[highplainsdrifter]

New poll results, released today, show the vast majority of Wyoming residents are in favor of retaining our public lands:

https://www.coloradocollege.edu/dotAsset/a6bc2b87-0a10-43ec-b15f-9d3739cc687c.pdf

 

[In God We Trust]

It shows they want to keep public land public. It also shows those polled in all six states want the same, protected public land. I wish they would have done a survey of how many support turning the land overt to greedy local vulture politicians that would love to fill their own pockets.

 

[highplainsdrifter]

Those of you who have been following this discussion, know that I have been watching the two land transfer bills like a hawk as they move through the Wyoming Legislature.

Based on developments over the past week, I now believe that there is a pretty strong likelihood that HB0209, which calls for the outright transfer without a study, is not going to become law this session.

While I could be wrong, and we need to continue to oppose HB0209, I suggest we now focus our attention on SF0056, the study bill. As identified earlier, numerous organizations oppose the transfer of federal lands to the state. With so many opposing the transfer, what is the point of spending $100,000 to study it? Please contact your elected officials specifically objecting to SF0056.

As you may recall, SF0056 has already passed the senate. It has now been assigned to the House Minerals Committee. That committee must vote whether to forward it to the full House. So we have an opportunity to try to stop the bill in the House Minerals Committee. Members of that committee include:

Thomas Lockhart R Chairman
James Byrd D
Richard Cannady R
Harlan Edmonds R
Gerald Gay R
Norine Kasperik R
Lloyd Larsen R
Albert Sommers R
Tom Walters R

If it makes it out of the Minerals Committee, we will have additional opportunities to oppose the bill as it is read three times in the House. Let's hit them with opposition each step of the way!!! When you contact them, I suggest you mention some of the organizations that oppose it. That will make it more difficult for them to continue to say that most of the opposition is from a bunch of radical, out-of-state, anti-gun environmental groups.

 

[go_deep]

Those of you who have been following this discussion, know that I have been watching the two land transfer bills like a hawk as they move through the Wyoming Legislature.

Based on developments over the past week, I now believe that there is a pretty strong likelihood that HB0209, which calls for the outright transfer without a study, is not going to become law this session.

While I could be wrong, and we need to continue to oppose HB0209, I suggest we now focus our attention on SF0056, the study bill. As identified earlier, numerous organizations oppose the transfer of federal lands to the state. With so many opposing the transfer, what is the point of spending $100,000 to study it? Please contact your elected officials specifically objecting to SF0056.

As you may recall, SF0056 has already passed the senate. It has now been assigned to the House Minerals Committee. That committee must vote whether to forward it to the full House. So we have an opportunity to try to stop the bill in the House Minerals Committee. Members of that committee include:

Thomas LockhartRChairman
James ByrdD
Richard CannadyR
Harlan EdmondsR
Gerald Gay R
Norine KasperikR
Lloyd LarsenR
Albert SommersR
Tom WaltersR

If it makes it out of the Minerals Committee, we will have additional opportunities to oppose the bill as it is read three times in the House. Let's hit them with opposition each step of the way!!! When you contact them, I suggest you mention some of the organizations that oppose it. That will make it more difficult for them to continue to say that most of the opposition is from a bunch of radical, out-of-state, anti-gun environmental groups.

I heard the same thing on Tuesday. You have been doing a great job highplainsdrifter keeping everyone in the loop it's great that your willing to take time out to give timely updates, appreciate it.

 

[highplainsdrifter]

I heard the same thing on Tuesday. You have been doing a great job highplainsdrifter keeping everyone in the loop it's great that your willing to take time out to give timely updates, appreciate it.

Thanks. I am retired so I have some free time on my hands. Also, I worked for the legislature for four years in a different life so I'm familiar with the process.

Folks, keep writing letters and emails. Let's not let up until these bills are dead!!

 

[highplainsdrifter]

By my count, the following organizations have come out against the transfer of federal lands to the state(s):

The Casper Star Tribune
The Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation
Backcountry Hunters and Anglers
The Wyoming Wildlife Federation
Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership
Trout Unlimited
The Wyoming Wilderness Association
The Wyoming Outdoor Council
The Powder River Basin Resource Council
Outdoor Life Magazine (at least two articles)
Petersen's Hunting Magazine
The Sweetwater County Commission

Any additions or corrections?

You can add:

The National Wild Turkey Federation
Pheasants Forever

 

[highplainsdrifter]

Those of you who have been following this discussion, know that I have been watching the two land transfer bills like a hawk as they move through the Wyoming Legislature.

Based on developments over the past week, I now believe that there is a pretty strong likelihood that HB0209, which calls for the outright transfer without a study, is not going to become law this session.

While I could be wrong, and we need to continue to oppose HB0209, I suggest we now focus our attention on SF0056, the study bill. As identified earlier, numerous organizations oppose the transfer of federal lands to the state. With so many opposing the transfer, what is the point of spending $100,000 to study it? Please contact your elected officials specifically objecting to SF0056.

As you may recall, SF0056 has already passed the senate. It has now been assigned to the House Minerals Committee. That committee must vote whether to forward it to the full House. So we have an opportunity to try to stop the bill in the House Minerals Committee. Members of that committee include:

Thomas Lockhart R Chairman
James Byrd D
Richard Cannady R
Harlan Edmonds R
Gerald Gay R
Norine Kasperik R
Lloyd Larsen R
Albert Sommers R
Tom Walters R

If it makes it out of the Minerals Committee, we will have additional opportunities to oppose the bill as it is read three times in the House. Let's hit them with opposition each step of the way!!! When you contact them, I suggest you mention some of the organizations that oppose it. That will make it more difficult for them to continue to say that most of the opposition is from a bunch of radical, out-of-state, anti-gun environmental groups.

The House Minerals Committee will likely vote on SF0056 on Tuesday or Wednesday (Feb. 17th or 18th). They are off tomorrow and Monday for President's Day weekend. The next few days would be a good time to send the committee members an email objecting to the study (SF0056).

 

[highplainsdrifter]

There is a rally on February 25th in Colorado against the transfer of federal lands:

http://events.r20.constantcontact.com/register/event?oeidk=a07eaic3bz966c9438c&llr=euieaamab

I wish we could get something like this going in Wyoming, but so far nothing has materialized.

 

[highplainsdrifter]

Those of you who have been following this discussion, know that I have been watching the two land transfer bills like a hawk as they move through the Wyoming Legislature.

Based on developments over the past week, I now believe that there is a pretty strong likelihood that HB0209, which calls for the outright transfer without a study, is not going to become law this session.

While I could be wrong, and we need to continue to oppose HB0209, I suggest we now focus our attention on SF0056, the study bill. As identified earlier, numerous organizations oppose the transfer of federal lands to the state. With so many opposing the transfer, what is the point of spending $100,000 to study it? Please contact your elected officials specifically objecting to SF0056.

As you may recall, SF0056 has already passed the senate. It has now been assigned to the House Minerals Committee. That committee must vote whether to forward it to the full House. So we have an opportunity to try to stop the bill in the House Minerals Committee. Members of that committee include:

Thomas Lockhart R Chairman
James Byrd D
Richard Cannady R
Harlan Edmonds R
Gerald Gay R
Norine Kasperik R
Lloyd Larsen R
Albert Sommers R
Tom Walters R

If it makes it out of the Minerals Committee, we will have additional opportunities to oppose the bill as it is read three times in the House. Let's hit them with opposition each step of the way!!! When you contact them, I suggest you mention some of the organizations that oppose it. That will make it more difficult for them to continue to say that most of the opposition is from a bunch of radical, out-of-state, anti-gun environmental groups.

The House Minerals Committee will likely vote on SF0056 (the study bill) tomorrow morning. If you haven't already done so, this would be an excellent time to send an email to the committee members objecting to the study . You can find their email addresses here:

http://legisweb.state.wy.us/LSOWEB/LegInfo.aspx

 

[shootbrownelk]

Thanks HPD, I just fired off a few e-mails to my Reps. telling them I'm opposed to the study of, and certainly the transfer itself.
I also told them why, I'm waiting for any replies. Thanks for the link, it made contacting them easy/peasy.

 

[highplainsdrifter]

Those of you who have been following this discussion, know that I have been watching the two land transfer bills like a hawk as they move through the Wyoming Legislature.

Based on developments over the past week, I now believe that there is a pretty strong likelihood that HB0209, which calls for the outright transfer without a study, is not going to become law this session.

While I could be wrong, and we need to continue to oppose HB0209, I suggest we now focus our attention on SF0056, the study bill. As identified earlier, numerous organizations oppose the transfer of federal lands to the state. With so many opposing the transfer, what is the point of spending $100,000 to study it? Please contact your elected officials specifically objecting to SF0056.

As you may recall, SF0056 has already passed the senate. It has now been assigned to the House Minerals Committee. That committee must vote whether to forward it to the full House. So we have an opportunity to try to stop the bill in the House Minerals Committee. Members of that committee include:

Thomas Lockhart R Chairman
James Byrd D
Richard Cannady R
Harlan Edmonds R
Gerald Gay R
Norine Kasperik R
Lloyd Larsen R
Albert Sommers R
Tom Walters R

If it makes it out of the Minerals Committee, we will have additional opportunities to oppose the bill as it is read three times in the House. Let's hit them with opposition each step of the way!!! When you contact them, I suggest you mention some of the organizations that oppose it. That will make it more difficult for them to continue to say that most of the opposition is from a bunch of radical, out-of-state, anti-gun environmental groups.

The House Minerals Committee has not yet discussed SF0056 (the study bill). It is not on the schedule for tomorrow either. Not sure what is going on here, but let's not let up on the pressure. You can find the email addresses for the committee members at:

http://legisweb.state.wy.us/LSOWEB/LegInfo.aspx

Even if you are a nonresident, I encourage you to email them. The federal land in Wyoming belongs to you as much as it does residents of Wyoming!

 

[highplainsdrifter]

The House Minerals Committee has not yet discussed SF0056 (the study bill). It is not on the schedule for tomorrow either. Not sure what is going on here, but let's not let up on the pressure. You can find the email addresses for the committee members at:

http://legisweb.state.wy.us/LSOWEB/LegInfo.aspx

Even if you are a nonresident, I encourage you to email them. The federal land in Wyoming belongs to you as much as it does residents of Wyoming!

The Wyoming House Minerals Committee will vote on SF0056 (the study bill) on Monday morning, February 23rd!! I had hoped that the delay may have been due to them not having enough votes to pass it. Sometimes if there are not enough votes, they won't bring it up for discussion. Apparently, that is not the case.

Let's hit them hard with emails over the weekend. This a bad idea. Let's end it now!!

 

[highplainsdrifter]

I just received an email from Senator Barrasso's Office. They have published a report entitled: Principled Stewardship of the American West

http://www.barrasso.senate.gov/public/Files/WesternCaucusPrinciplesReportFinal2015.pdf

While you can't argue with some of the report, one section on page 6 caught my attention. It states:

Creating a more sensible federal lands policy that reduces the size of the federal estate
and puts land in more capable state and local hands – The majority of the West is
federally owned. This places an economic burden on counties and local communities in
terms of lost economic activity and tax revenue to pay for things such as schools, police, and
emergency services. The patchwork of federal, state, and private land holdings also creates
inefficiencies and land use conflicts that remain unresolved while federal policy goes in only
one direction – more federal land. The Western Caucuses will work to reduce the size of
government by selling excess federal land suitable for disposal, making land management
more efficient, and creating opportunities for local economic development.

This report has the names of numerous elected officials from the western United States on it. Two Wyoming officials co-chaired the report. I fear that those of us who oppose federal land transfer or sale have not been effective in conveying our point of view to our elected officials. I suggest we need to get more vocal.

 

[Againstthewind]

Thanks for keeping us in the loop HighPlainsDrifter. A few of the things they were alluding to in the report would be really good for my local economy, which is probably why Campbell County looked like it voted for the transfer down the line. The coal ports on the west coast for shipping to Asia, the Keystone Pipeline, opening up areas for drilling, etc, would have a mini-boom effect I think. Like MM said before, I think, some of the areas that are leased and can't be accessed anyway, might be better of sold.

Maybe Mr. Putin wasn't being so paranoid when he accused the Saudis of a conspiracy with the West to keep oil prices low to pressure the Russian competition. I am not so sold on fracking, which was also not specifically mentioned, but there are huge environmental concerns with that. Just all the ponds everywhere for the water is a pretty big impact, not even going to get into the ground water (aquifers). I know there was some debate about those on here.

Anyway the report you could either look at as some one sided propaganda or take it for what they said it was, pretty much like all politics it seems like. They did talk about keeping some environmental controls in place and keeping access for the public and multi-use places, just making it easier to get the permits and not get shut down. Also the wolf issue might be revisited down the line if some of the regulatory reforms got through. It did address quite a few of the local concerns I have heard about federal land management, but not really any of the down side of state management.

 

[highplainsdrifter]

The Wyoming House Minerals Committee will vote on SF0056 (the study bill) on Monday morning, February 23rd!! I had hoped that the delay may have been due to them not having enough votes to pass it. Sometimes if there are not enough votes, they won't bring it up for discussion. Apparently, that is not the case.

Let's hit them hard with emails over the weekend. This a bad idea. Let's end it now!!

This morning, the House Minerals Committee voted to pass SF0056 (the study bill) on an 8 to 1 vote. The only dissenting vote was from the lone democrat on the committee.

I know that many of us wrote to the committee encouraging them to vote no. It is discouraging that we could garner only one no vote.

Next the bill will go to the House Appropriations Committee where they will decide whether to approve the funding for the study. If funding is approved, it will then go to the full House for consideration.

 

[highplainsdrifter]

Having passed the House Minerals Committee, SF0056 (the study bill) will now go to the House Appropriations Committee. Members of that committee include:

Steve Harshman, R, Natrona County, Chairman
Donald Burkhart, R, Carbon County
Cathy Connolly, D, Albany County
Mike Greear, R, Big Horn/Washakie County
Glenn Moniz, R, Albany County
Bob Nicholas, R, Laramie County
Tim Stubson, R, Natrona County

Three of these individuals voted no on HB0209 (the transfer bill). They are Connolly, Nicholas and Stubson. If they oppose the study bill as well, we would need only one more vote to stop the funding of SF0056. I urge you to contact all seven members of the Appropriations Committee. Their email addresses can be found here:

http://legisweb.state.wy.us/LSOWEB/LegInfo.aspx

 

[jjenness]

I just received an email from Senator Barrasso's Office. They have published a report entitled: Principled Stewardship of the American West

http://www.barrasso.senate.gov/public/Files/WesternCaucusPrinciplesReportFinal2015.pdf

While you can't argue with some of the report, one section on page 6 caught my attention. It states:

Creating a more sensible federal lands policy that reduces the size of the federal estate
and puts land in more capable state and local hands – The majority of the West is
federally owned. This places an economic burden on counties and local communities in
terms of lost economic activity and tax revenue to pay for things such as schools, police, and
emergency services. The patchwork of federal, state, and private land holdings also creates
inefficiencies and land use conflicts that remain unresolved while federal policy goes in only
one direction – more federal land. The Western Caucuses will work to reduce the size of
government by selling excess federal land suitable for disposal, making land management
more efficient, and creating opportunities for local economic development.

This is some scary language!