Sponsors
The bill trades expanded and clarified recreation access and substantial new land protections and local roles—strengthening wildfire planning and tourism potential—for limits on resource development, increased local industrial impacts in some places, and added administrative costs and management complexity.
Rural communities and visitors: the bill permanently protects and manages large tracts of public land (~80,000+ plus additional designated wilderness/conservation acreage), preserving wildlife habitat, scenery, watershed values, and long‑term outdoor recreation opportunities.
Residents, recreationists, and local businesses: the bill creates and clarifies designated motorized and non-motorized recreation areas and requires travel management plans (within 2 years in several places), giving clearer rules for access, reducing user conflict, and supporting outdoor recreation economies.
Rural homeowners, farmers, and communities: the bill requires an expedited wildfire, insect, and disease management plan and mandates coordination between the Secretary and state/local agencies, improving wildfire response clarity and protection.
Local workers, small businesses, and taxpayers: designations and withdrawals (wilderness, special management areas, and acreage protections) significantly restrict mineral, geothermal, timber, wind/solar surface development and new roads, limiting local energy, mining, and timber opportunities and potential jobs/revenue.
Rural residents, wildlife, and quiet recreationists: expanding or designating motorized recreation areas (and related development that the studies may enable) increases noise, dust, traffic, erosion, and habitat disturbance, degrading wildlife habitat and non-motorized recreation experiences.
Nearby residents and local environments: authorizing oil and gas leasing and underground rights-of-way in specific areas could raise industrial activity, noise, and local environmental and health impacts where development occurs.
Based on analysis of 10 sections of legislative text.
Designates multiple wilderness, conservation, recreation, and special management areas in Wyoming; requires travel/fire plans, studies, and mapped land-exchange actions with site-specific management rules.
Introduced February 21, 2025 by Harriet Hageman · Last progress February 21, 2025
Designates multiple new wilderness areas and creates several local land-management units in Wyoming, including a national conservation area, motorized recreation area, and special management areas. It directs the Interior Department (through the Bureau of Land Management) to prepare travel and fire-management plans, study and report on potential motorized recreation development, pursue specified land exchanges, and manage the new areas under specified uses and restrictions while protecting valid existing rights. The law sets deadlines for plans and reports (most within 2 years), restricts or withdraws lands from certain mining, leasing, and disposal laws in designated areas, allows specific resource uses in some released areas (including oil and gas in limited places), and requires coordination with State and county officials and public input. Several site-specific rules (fencing, grazing, vehicle access limits, and planning requirements) are included for particular areas in Fremont, Hot Springs, and Washakie Counties.