Governor Signs Wyoming Public Lands Day Bill

[highplainsdrifter]

Recently, I attended a bill signing ceremony where Governor Mark Gordon signed the Wyoming Public Lands Day bill into law (see attached picture). The last Saturday in September will be "Wyoming Public Lands Day"! We are the third state to declare a public lands day including Colorado and Nevada.

The Keep it Public, Wyoming Coalition (of which I am a part) worked hard for two years to get this bill passed. Last year we couldn't get it out of the House of Representatives. This year it passed the House easily, but squeaked through the Senate on a 16 to 13 vote.

While some might view this as somewhat trivial, it was our goal to make a statement to the legislature that public lands are valued by Wyoming citizens. In the past, there have been many bills that disparaged public lands (especially federal lands) and we wanted to force them to vote on a simple bill in favor of public lands. Nevertheless 13 senators voted against it.

I encourage you to plan something special for September 28, 2019. I suggest a hunt on public lands

 

[RICMIC]

I plan to be hunting on public lands in Wyoming on that date, so I'm fully on board until I no longer am able.

 

[go_deep]

Great job Earl!!!

 

[mallardsx2]

Tell your Governor and the Wyoming Coalition to fight to open up the wilderness to non-residents so I can hunt the land that is commonly owned by all of my united states citizen friends please.

 

[highplainsdrifter]

Tell your Governor and the Wyoming Coalition to fight to open up the wilderness to non-residents so I can hunt the land that is commonly owned by all of my united states citizen friends please.

I'm sympathetic. Wilderness Areas should never have been closed off to DIY nonresidents.

 

[shootbrownelk]

Recently, I attended a bill signing ceremony where Governor Mark Gordon signed the Wyoming Public Lands Day bill into law (see attached picture). The last Saturday in September will be "Wyoming Public Lands Day"! We are the third state to declare a public lands day including Colorado and Nevada.

The Keep it Public, Wyoming Coalition (of which I am a part) worked hard for two years to get this bill passed. Last year we couldn't get it out of the House of Representatives. This year it passed the House easily, but squeaked through the Senate on a 16 to 13 vote.

While some might view this as somewhat trivial, it was our goal to make a statement to the legislature that public lands are valued by Wyoming citizens. In the past, there have been many bills that disparaged public lands (especially federal lands) and we wanted to force them to vote on a simple bill in favor of public lands. Nevertheless 13 senators voted against it.

I encourage you to plan something special for September 28, 2019. I suggest a hunt on public lands

View attachment 23259

Who were the 13 Senators who voted against it? Do you know? I'd be interested to find out how mine voted.

 

[Bighorns]

Who were the 13 Senators who voted against it? Do you know? I'd be interested to find out how mine voted.

ROLL CALL
Ayes: Senator(s) Anderson, Anselmi-Dalton, Baldwin, Biteman, Case, Ellis,
Gierau, James, Kost, Nethercott, Pappas, Rothfuss, Schuler, Scott, Von Flatern,
Wasserburger
Nays: Senator(s) Bebout, Boner, Bouchard, Coe, Dockstader, Driskill, Hicks,
Hutchings, Kinskey, Landen, Moniz, Perkins Pres, Steinmetz
Excused: Senator Agar
Ayes 16 Nays 13 Excused 1 Absent 0 Conflicts 0

you can find the bill "digest" here: https://www.wyoleg.gov/2019/Digest/HB0099.pdf

 

[Bighorns]

Highplains: Do you have any insight on why the camping on State lands bill never made it out of committee? I find it rather ironic that we now have a public lands day, but we still can't camp on State lands. I emailed my legislator, who was a co-sponsor, back during the leg. session, but he never responded.

 

[Wyoming Hart]

Thank you!

 

[highplainsdrifter]

Highplains: Do you have any insight on why the camping on State lands bill never made it out of committee? I find it rather ironic that we now have a public lands day, but we still can't camp on State lands. I emailed my legislator, who was a co-sponsor, back during the leg. session, but he never responded.

I don't know why the camping on state lands bill didn't get out of committee, but I can tell you that many senators (and a few representatives) are reluctant to acknowledge the recreational value of state school lands.

For example when the Wyoming Public Lands Day bill made its way through the House, it was amended to include "state school lands". When it got to the senate, Senator Larry Hicks led an effort to take state school lands out of the public lands day bill. He specifically stated that he was concerned that it would convey the message that state school lands are for recreation. Many senators are adamant that state school lands are to be used for profitable activities only. They don't want recreationists telling the state how state lands should be managed.

As another example...there were repeated attempts to change the title of Wyoming Public Lands Day to "Wyoming Multiple Use of Public Lands Day". We resisted that change because that name wouldn't include areas that are not managed for multiple use such as state parks, national parks, national wildlife refuges, etc. By adding the words "multiple use", some legislators were trying to emphasize the importance of activities such as oil and gas development over recreational activities.

Clearly, there is resistance by some legislators to acknowledge the significance of recreation on public lands. In their minds, it is almost like recreation and other more profitable activities are in competition with each other.

And that is why we proposed the public lands day bill in the first place...to try to get them to acknowledge that recreationists have a legitimate claim to our public lands...certainly not an exclusive claim, but a legitimate claim.

 

[CrimsonArrow]

Good for you and everyone. Even a marathon starts with a single step

 

[Bighorns]

Thanks HighPlains....

I think Hicks also sponsored a bill to charge a fee to access State lands for recreation. I know it didn't get passed, but I have no heartache with that proposal. So, recreation on State lands would then be a $ maker for the schools. Probably be hard to enforce though.