 - The Wyoming Legislature passed a Joint Resolution last week calling on Congress to recognize “the protection of Wyoming’s freedom of access to public lands.”){kind=link}
(Cheyenne, WY) – The Wyoming Legislature passed a Joint Resolution last week calling on Congress to recognize “the protection of Wyoming’s freedom of access to public lands.”
Senate Joint Resolution 9 also asks Congress “to allow responsible development of resources, recreation, agriculture, hunting, fishing, trapping, and conservation under multiple-use frameworks, to protect local participation in land management decisions, and to keep public lands available to the people of Wyoming.”
The legislation received broad support from public lands advocates in Wyoming, like Traci McClintic of Dubois, who traveled to Cheyenne last month to speak in favor of SJ 9 when it came before the Senate Travel, Recreation, Wildlife and Cultural Resources Committee.
“(This) is a common sense bill,” McClintic told the committee. “Because public lands are valuable to the people of Wyoming and our culture and lifestyles across the state, there should be additional layers of protection, (and) these stop gaps should allow communities and individuals like me to provide input when considering impactful change – especially change that’s motivated by external pressures, ulterior motives, and those concepts that don’t align with Wyoming ethics and Wyoming lifestyle, and especially change that would have a permanent and irreversible ripple effect upon our wild lands, our wildlife and our wild Wyoming individuals.”
McClintic provided the same testimony remotely when the House Travel, Recreation, Wildlife, and Cultural Resources Committee considered SJ 9 later in the session.
That meeting also featured comments from Andy Blair, the Director of Public Policy for the National Outdoor Leadership School in Lander, who talked about the economic impact of his organization and others like it in Wyoming.
“A recent University of Wyoming economic impact study found that NOLS is one of the top 1 percent employers in the state of Wyoming and has an annual economic impact in the state of just under $19 million,” Blair said. “(And) NOLS is only one of Wyoming’s outfitter and guide community that supports the $2 billion industry – Wyoming’s second largest. …
“We all depend on public lands to run our businesses.”
After SJ 9 passed, unamended, through both the Senate and the House last week, the Lander-based Wyoming Wildlife Federation released a statement applauding the lawmakers who co-sponsored the legislation, including Wyoming Sen. Ed Cooper, R-Ten Sleep; Wyoming Rep. Lloyd Larsen, R-Lander; and Wyoming Rep. Ivan Posey, D-Fort Washakie.
The WWF also commended the “Wyomingites (who) showed up all along the way to help this bill get across the line.”
“This resolution reflects a practical, Wyoming approach to conserving wildlife while supporting working lands and multiple use standards,” WWF Government Affairs Director Jess Johnson said. “(It) reinforces the importance of keeping public lands public and managing them for wildlife, communities, and Wyoming’s generations to come.”
In a statement, the ‘Keep It Public, Wyoming’ coalition released after SJ 9 passed, McClintic said the resolution “demonstrates that our public lands are highly valued by all of us who take pride in our great state.”
“Hunters, 4H kids, teachers, business leaders, county officials, outfitters and many others all spoke up,” she said. “This resolution makes it loud and clear that our Legislature listens to us and understands how important public lands are for keeping Wyoming, Wyoming.”
Wyoming Gov. Mark Gordon signed SJ 9 this week.