Sponsors
The bill protects and clarifies management for large areas—boosting conservation, public recreation, and administrative predictability—while shifting land‑use limits onto local economies, renewable energy siting, and federal/local budgets and creating tradeoffs between motorized access and preserved wilderness character.
Visitors, nearby communities, and outdoor recreation businesses gain permanent protection for large tracts of public land (wilderness and special management areas totaling tens of thousands of acres), preserving scenic, wildlife, and non‑motorized recreation values.
State and local governments, land managers, and recreation users get clearer legal definitions, mapped boundaries, assigned agency roles, and deadlines (reports and travel management plans), improving predictability and coordination for land management and public use.
Motorized recreation users and adjacent communities gain designated motorized opportunities (study areas, a 367.72‑acre ORV area, Bobcat Draw planning deadline, and possible Fremont County recreation areas), increasing recreational access and related local recreation spending.
Local governments, taxpayers, and energy developers face significant new limits on development and energy siting (restrictions or prohibitions on wind, solar, overhead transmission, new leasing in SMAs and wilderness), reducing opportunities for renewable projects and some extractive leases across multiple areas.
Many motorized recreationists and some local residents lose motorized access where lands are designated wilderness or otherwise restricted, and the mix of new motorized areas and wilderness protections increases potential user conflicts (motorized vs. non‑motorized).
Taxpayers and federal/local budgets may incur new costs for studies, management plans, fences, signage, enforcement, and land transfers because many provisions require actions subject to appropriation or ongoing management funding.
Based on analysis of 10 sections of legislative text.
Designates new wilderness and conservation areas, creates motorized recreation and special management areas in Wyoming, releases some WSAs, directs land exchanges, and requires studies and management plans.
Introduced February 21, 2025 by Harriet Hageman · Last progress February 21, 2025
Designates multiple new wilderness areas and creates conservation, special management, and motorized recreation areas on federal lands in Wyoming, while directing land management changes, limited withdrawals from leasing and mining laws, and studies of potential new motorized recreation sites. It sets management rules for those areas—including travel management plans, continued grazing where already authorized, fire and insect control, and some exceptions for existing motorized routes and mineral rights—and requires the Interior Department to carry out land exchanges and produce several reports to Congress within two years. The bill also withdraws certain previously studied Wilderness Study Areas from WSA protections where not designated as wilderness, establishes a county implementation team for Fremont County, and directs development of specific infrastructure (a boundary fence and travel plans) for newly created motorized recreation and special management areas. Many actions are subject to valid existing rights and require coordination with State and local governments.