We need your help as soon as possible to stop attempted land grab efforts in Wyoming. Now is the time to stop the land grab make your voice heard!
Two bills have been listed at the 2016 Wyoming State Legislature that aim to seize and privatize our national forests and other public lands. These bad bills are part of a multi-year, incremental strategy by some legislators to take over our treasured national forests, parks, and other public lands in Wyoming. Cloaked in proposals to “study” management or other aspects of land use, they set the stage for a pseudo-legal framework to seize these lands, increase development, and sell off our outdoor heritage.
We need to send a clear message that these bills do not reflect the will of the people of Wyoming. Help us by contacting your legislators now and letting them know that you strongly oppose House Bills 126 and 142. Read on for more details about these bills.
HB 142 – Transfer of federal lands:
- Is similar to past bills that have thankfully been killed in the State Legislature.
- Claims title to all national public lands (with a few exceptions) in Wyoming.
- Sets up a process for sale of these lands.
- Creates a special committee of eight legislators that will appoint its own “public lands commission” that appears to have authority to manage these lands.
- Invests in the eight legislators the authority to write legislation determining the rights and uses for these public lands.
- Requires additional legislative studies regarding prioritized management actions and taxation of these public lands costing $25,000.
HB 142 is an obvious effort to seize our public lands and have a small and select group of legislators determine future management and sale of these lands.
- Requires a study costing $100,000.
- Requires identification and description of all public lands in Wyoming since 1976; identification of all roads, trails, etc.; compilations of all reasons, laws, regulations, etc. affecting access since 1976; comparison of topographical maps; review of other data including newspapers and governmental agencies since 1976 and surveys of all county commission information since 1976.
- Requires a final report by November 2017.
HB 126 is a biased study designed to challenge the multiple-use and resource protective objectives of the Federal Land Management Policy Act , which Congress passed in 1976. This act determined that these national lands would remain in public ownership and it repealed the pre-existing Homestead Acts. HB 126 is a thinly-veiled effort to set the stage for state seizure and sale of our public lands.
Help us kill these bills! We suggest you write “oppose HB 142 and 126” directly in the subject line of any e-mails. Because 2016 is a budget session, a 2/3 super majority vote is needed to introduce these bills, so we can stop these bills before they gain traction.
You can call and leave a message for your Representative at (307) 777-7852, or send them an e-mail message.
Don’t know your legislators? Find them here.
Please contact your Representative by 10 a.m. Friday, February 12!