By Karla Pomeroy
Editor
Joint commissioner meeting today
Washakie, Hot Springs counties to discuss Cedar Mountain special committee
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COURTESY/BLM
Cedar Mountain WSA
WORLAND - The Washakie County commissioners will hold a joint work session with the Hot Springs County commissioners today at 1 p.m. at the commissioners meeting room in Worland regarding the Wyoming Public Lands Initiative.
Washakie County Commissioner Aaron Anderson said the commissioners interviewed potential members for WPLI advisory committee. He said the committee, which will be appointed at next Tuesday's regular commissioner meeting, will deal with the Honeycombs wilderness study area.
The advisory committee will help the county develop recommendations for Congress, on how to handle Wilderness Study Areas in Washakie County.
Anderson explained at a public meeting in December that the goal of the committee was to reach a consensus as to the use of Wilderness Study Areas (WSAs) in the county, through public input. The primary areas of concentration include the Honeycombs (located between Ten Sleep and Worland), Cedar Mountain (south of Winchester and shared with Hot Springs County) and Bobcat Draw (in the northwest corner of the county, shared with Big Horn County).
Anderson said the meeting today is to work on a structure for a "place-based" advisory committee for Cedar Mountain, which lies two-thirds in Washakie County and one-third in Hot Springs County.
According to the Wyoming Bureau of Land Management website, the BLM is recommending 10,223 acres of the 21,560 acres to be designated as wilderness. Cedar Mountain WSA is located solely within BLM-administered lands and is an area of "rugged topography characterized by deep, steep-sided drainages flowing toward the Big Horn River. Cedar Mountain is the dominant feature of the unit. It is unusual in the vicinity because of its elevation, the vegetation growing on it and the imposing rock escarpment which forms its southern side."
According to the BLM website, "Petrified wood and reptilian fossils are found in the Lance and Meeteetse formations in the southern end of the WSA. Mammalian fossils are found in the Fort Union Formation north of Cedar Mountain."
Anderson said Washakie County may have similar discussions with Big Horn County on Bobcat Draw, but noted there is only a small portion of that wilderness study area that lies within Big Horn County.
