Wyoming to Washington

Wyoming made its way to Washington recently, as representatives from Sweetwater Country traveled to the nation's capital to speak out about the need to protect a balanced approach to both conservation and development on public lands. 

First, Sweetwater County Commissioner Taylor Jones traveled to Washington, D.C., with Senators John Kolb, Stacy Jones, and Dan Dockstader to talk to Bureau of Land Management Director Tracy Stone-Manning about the Rock Springs Field Office Resource Management Plan (RMP) draft. They presented information from local industries, and received reassurance from Stone-Manning that Alternative B in its current form will not be the final plan for the RMP. 

The following week, Sweetwater County Land Use Director Eric Bingham traveled to Washington to testify about the RMP in a legislative hearing before the Federal Lands Subcommittee, in which Wyoming Representative Harriet Hageman also spoke out about the RMP and a bill she introduced to "nullify the implementation of this monstrosity of a plan."

Meeting with Stone-Manning 

While Commissioner Jones had been working with others to look into the possibility of a trip to Washington, the thought became a reality very quickly when they found out on March 11 that they could meet with Director Stone-Manning either in late April, or in three days. Deciding that sooner was better than later, the commissioner and the senators quickly got plane tickets, got the information they needed, and headed to the capital. 

Jones shared details about his trip with both the Sweetwater County Board of County Commissioners and the Green River City Council during their regular meetings on March 19. 

According to Jones, one of the main purposes of meeting with Director Stone-Manning in person was to bring information with a new approach and to create a more positive and personal connection. He explained that the delegation of representatives for Wyoming figured the BLM is already aware of how upset everyone is about the RMP, so the hope for the visit was "to try and move the ball forward instead of kicking the ball." 

The delegation put together a packet of information to give to Stone-Manning covering a range of topics connected to and impacted by the RMP draft plan, including the trona industry, oil and gas development, school districts, agriculture, and land use. 

"One of the goals of this trip was to highlight the good things that our industries do to help our communities and our environment," Jones explained. 

Trona industry leaders included information in the packet about the positive economic development in the area, as well as pointing out information about the trona industry, such as the fact that Wyoming trona is clean and natural, as opposed to synthetic trona from countries like China, which is bad for the environment. Regarding the oil and gas industry, the representatives shared information from a study done by UW graduate Dr. Michael Curran showing that land at reclaimed oil and gas locations flourished more than untouched land. 

"One of the goals was to show that we've all been good stewards of the land here in Sweetwater County and around the area, and so the desire for drastic changes really isn't necessary," Jones said.

The delegation had about an hour with Director Stone-Manning, and Jones noted that she met with them without having any other members of her staff present and that she took notes and asked questions. Overall, Jones felt that the meeting was a positive, open exchange of ideas that was professional and productive while also maintaining a cordial atmosphere. 

Director Stone-Manning also gave assurances that the BLM's preferred Alternative B would not be the option used in the final draft. 

"I did mention how detrimental Alternative B is to our county and state," Jones said. "She did commit that moving forward they would not be using Alternative B, it would be something different." 

Jones added that it's still too early in the process to know what different options the BLM will come up with and what the end result may look like. 

He also noted that Stone-Manning emphasized the fact that the planning on the RMP moving forward will be done at a state and local level, and they will simply keep her informed so knows what the final product is and whether she wants to sign off on it. Jones noted that he hopes there will be more meetings with BLM Rock Springs Field Office Manager Kimberlee Foster and Wyoming State Director Andrew Archuleta in the future in order to address things at this level.

Testifying to the legislature

About a week after the delegation's visit with Stone-Manning, another Sweetwater County representative was in Washington to talk about the RMP once again. Land Use Director Eric Bingham testified before the Federal Lands Subcommittee, part of the House Committee on Natural Resources, on March 20. He was invited to testify by Rep. Hageman as she shared information about the bill she introduced, H.R.6085, "To prohibit the implementation of the Draft Resource Management Plan and Environmental Impact Statement for the Rock Springs RMP Revision, Wyoming, and for other purposes."

While speaking to the subcommittee, Bingham explained that there were "significant issues" with the RMP and the BLM's choice of Alternative B as the preferred alternative relating to both the content of the plan and the process of developing it. The issues Bingham pointed out include the BLM's failure to comply with the Federal Land Policy Management Act (FLPMA), the failure to coordinate with local cooperating agencies in developing a preferred alternative, the proposed alternative's creation of development and access barriers associated with right of way exclusion areas and special designations, and the detrimental socio-economic effects of implementing the preferred alternative.

Looking back at the timeline of how the RMP was developed over the past 12 years, Bingham noted that the BLM spent a short time period in 2012 to develop alternatives B and C, but didn't focus on them.

"Both alternatives were conveyed as representing a bookend or placeholder versus being functional or reasonable," Bingham said.

After 2015, the BLM instructed cooperators to focus on developing alternative D, according to Bingham.

Hageman shared a quote from a former BLM employee from the Rock Springs Field Office, James Evans, who testified to Wyoming's Joint Federal Natural Resources Management Committee. Evans also explained the different work done on the alternatives as the RMP draft was developed.

"The science and the work was all done on D," Evans said. "We sat down and in one week we did Alternative B and C together. After that was done and we sat down with the cooperative agencies, we spent the next five or six years developing Alternative D." 

The BLM's choice of Alternative B as the preferred alternative was not only a surprise to cooperators and a violation of policies requiring meaningful cooperation and consensus, but it also creates problems coming from within the plan itself, according to Bingham. He pointed out how right of way exclusions would prevent access to critical infrastructure for new industry projects that would create thousands of jobs, and that the draft predicts a 74% reduction in public revenue, meaning ad valorem taxes could drop from $16.9 million to $4.3 million, which would hit school districts especially hard.

"Sweetwater County understands the importance and significance of public lands and the contribution these lands have to our customs, culture, and socio-economics," Bingham said. "We have long worked with the BLM to balance productive uses of federal lands, including solid conservation efforts. The current draft RMP requires significant additional work and further stakeholder input to balance managing multiple uses without compromising the economic health of the communities of Sweetwater County and Wyoming."

Rep. Hageman also spoke to the subcommittee regarding the RMP draft, and shared her belief that Alternative B "would have tremendous negative consequences for the state of Wyoming, our nation, energy independence, access to millions of acres of land, and national security."

She also said she believes the Rock Springs RMP is "one of the largest land grabs we've ever seen, and an all-out assault on every vital Wyoming industry and the rule of law," as well as being a "test case" by the BLM and the current administration to see if they can deny access to public lands.

"We need to put a stop to these illegal land grabs, administrative overreach, and outright violation of our federal land management laws," Hageman said.