Sponsors (2)
The bill secures and clarifies protections and management for many Wyoming public lands—providing habitat protection, clearer rules, fire planning, and some motorized‑use sites—at the tradeoff of restricting renewable and extractive development in those areas, limiting some motorized access, and imposing implementation costs and governance changes that could reduce future development and oversight.
Residents, visitors, and wildlife in affected Wyoming counties gain permanent federal protection for tens of thousands of acres (multiple new wilderness areas and special management areas), preserving habitat, scenery, and non-motorized recreation opportunities.
State and local governments, and BLM managers, get clearer statutory definitions, required travel/study plans, and site-specific management direction that reduce legal uncertainty and improve predictability for land use decisions.
Ranchers and permittees retain continuity of livestock grazing and other valid existing rights on many designated lands, preserving an ongoing source of local income and working-lands uses.
Utilities, clean-energy developers, and local economies lose potential sites because the bill prohibits or restricts wind, solar, mining, and new mineral claims on many designated lands, reducing local development opportunities and sites for renewable projects.
Motorized recreationists and some local users will face reduced access and fewer new off‑road routes because wilderness and other designations prohibit new motorized use in large areas, which may also concentrate vehicle impacts on the few areas left open.
Residents near areas opened to oil and gas leasing (including directional-drilling allowances) face increased risk of local air, water, and visual impacts because fossil-fuel development is permitted in some released or specially managed lands.
Based on analysis of 10 sections of legislative text.
Designates wilderness, conservation, special management, and motorized recreation areas on BLM lands in Wyoming, releases some WSAs, and requires land-exchange and motorized-use studies with planning deadlines.
Introduced February 20, 2025 by John A. Barrasso · Last progress February 20, 2025
Designates multiple wilderness areas, a national conservation area, special management areas, and a motorized recreation area on Bureau of Land Management lands in Wyoming; releases certain wilderness study lands from further wilderness consideration; and requires studies and land-exchange work to evaluate and establish motorized recreation opportunities in several Wyoming counties. It sets management rules for the new protected areas — including limits on motorized use, grazing administration, and withdrawals from mining and leasing — and requires travel-management plans, fire-management plans, and public input, with several deadlines tied to enactment (including reports due within two years).