Commissioners to take comments on Public Lands Initiative today
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WORLAND – Washakie County Commissioners will hold special work session and hear public comments on Tuesday, related to the Wyoming Public Lands Initiative, and the affect to Washakie County.
The Wyoming County Commissioners Association (WCCA) launched a major initiative in December 2015 to resolve issues with federal land designations the have existed across the state for more than 40 years. The Wyoming Public Lands Initiative (WPLI) will empower county commissioners to develop county-by-county agreements on the final designation or release of Wyoming’s 45 Wilderness Study Areas (WSA).
The final recommendations of the WPLI will be sent to a federal delegation for introduction in the U.S. House and Senate.
According to the 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 3 WSAs, adding another 130,000 acres.
Under the WPLI, all 23 counties have been invited to participate in the initiative, and each board of county commissioners will decide if their county will join the effort. Each county will create a county advisory team, made up of members from agriculture, conservation, energy, recreation districts, and county commissioners to review and designate the lands in their area.
Under the guidelines provided by the WCCA, the Washakie County Commission has until spring 2017 to evaluate the process, determine parameters for advisors, and develop an advisory team.
Washakie County will have a head start on the initiative research, as the County Commission has files on most of the sites to be reviewed. “We’ve got a ton of information already, from grass area studies, mining areas, and maps and locations of historic trails,” noted Commissioner Aaron Anderson.
Once the WPLI teams have been developed and county-specific WSAs have been evaluated, the WCCA will craft legislation for submission to the federal delegation for introduction to Congress in 2018.
The county commission will meet starting at 9 a.m. today at the Commission boardroom in the Washakie County Courthouse in Worland, with the Public Lands Initiative work session and public comment at 2 p.m.
All proceedings are open to the public; an agenda is available at sites.google.com/a/washakiecounty.net/wyoming/commissioners/agenda
