The Wyoming Legislature’s 2023 session is over. What comes next?
Join the Wyoming Outdoor Council staff to learn about key bills, review our Conservation Vote Report, and find out what’s to come for the legislature in the months ahead.
All events begin at 7 p.m. and drinks will be provided.
Please come out to say hello to the WOC team, enjoy a cold beverage with your fellow members, and hear all the latest news from the legislature!
This spring, John Mionczynski a local ethnobotanist, biologist, and historian, accompanied Citizens for the Red Desert into the landscape to help educate and inform tour participants about the natural wonders and uses of the desert ecosystem. Above, you can see him pointing out the geological anomalies of the Great Divide Basin as tour participants take in the dramatic expanse of badlands throughout the Honeycomb Buttes Wilderness Study Area. Off in the distance, stand the Oregon Buttes, another WSA. Part of Mionczynski’s knowledge includes the abundance of edible and medicinal foods that grow throughout the Red Desert. Pictured above, he digs up biscuit root for tour participants and explains how this root vegetable was a staple for an Indigenous diet, often ground into flour and made into bread. Later on the tour, near a bubbling spring, Mionczynski explained how water is a precious resource. This spring, and others like it, are scattered across the desert and attract wildlife from miles around and support a thriving habitat.
In late May, CfRD joined Southwest Wyoming Off-Road Trails on a tour to explore the motorized recreation potential of the area. This is one of many groups who add value to the desert and show that working together can simultaneously support the landscape, stimulate local economies, and empower our communities. Above, you can see the way these ORV enthusiasts spent their day in the desert, taking in the scenes near Oregon Buttes and the White Mountains.
On June 28, members of Citizens for the Red Desert spent another day in the desert, visiting three sacred petroglyph sites and the Boars Tusk. Yufna Soldier Wolf, the Tribal advocacy coordinator for the Indigenous Land Alliance of Wyoming, is pictured above, discussing ways in which we can better manage and protect these sites, especially within the context of the forthcoming Bureau of Land Management’s Rock Springs Resource Management Plan.
Each winter, members of the Wyoming Legislature gather in Cheyenne. The halls and side rooms of the (now newly-remodeled) Capitol buzz with conversations between legislators, lobbyists, staff, citizens, and journalists. Committee meetings are often standing room only, and people pack the public galleries above the House and Senate floors.
Each winter, that is, but this one. Almost a year into the COVID-19 pandemic, Wyoming still has a challenge left to tackle: how to conduct the 66th Wyoming Legislature’s 2021 general session.
The reality that citizens will be able (or, at times, required) to attend the session virtually brings some complications. Some are unique, such as roadblocks to public participation for people without reliable high-speed internet. Other ongoing issues, like the challenging pace of tracking bills, will be magnified. But there are also new opportunities: Virtual legislative meetings have given citizens the opportunity to participate in a meaningful way without having to miss work or drive across the state. And the state is installing video equipment in the Capitol’s legislative meeting rooms, so we hope that the public will have improved access to important committee deliberations.
This year at the legislature, we at the Wyoming Outdoor Council will be continuing our 54-year history of advocacy for public lands, wildlife, clean air and water, and quality of life. And we invite you to do the same! No matter how different this legislative session is, one thing remains unchanged: Your voice matters.
In early January, we finally learned details about the 2021 session. The legislature briefly gaveled in on January 12, just as Frontline was going to press. Committees met the week of January 18, and the full legislature will consider bills that pass out of those committees during an 8-day virtual session January 27 to February 5. Additional committee meetings will be held the week of February 22 and, if COVID-19 restrictions allow, the legislature will reconvene in person for the month of March.
There are only a handful of conservation bills that we know about right now. The most important is a bill sponsored by the Corporations Committee, SF 16, New Net Metering Systems. This bill would effectively kill the small-scale renewable energy sector in Wyoming, including rooftop solar. We will work to oppose this legislation and you can count on us to provide you with more details and action alerts on this topic in the coming weeks. We’re sure we’ll see more wildlife, energy, and environmental quality-related bills arise during the session and will keep you updated.
Here’s what you should know about testifying to legislative committees online, based on how it worked during the interim. The good news is that, regardless of whether you’re at the Capitol or on your couch, you can be a voice for conservation in Wyoming by following the same basic approach.
SIGN UP. Committee meeting schedules are available at www.wyoleg.gov. To sign up, click the “Testify” button next to the scheduled meeting. The button will take you to a form to register for that specific committee and meeting date.
GET INSTRUCTIONS FROM LSO. You’ll receive an email from the Legislative Service Office with information about how to join the meeting.
PREPARE YOUR TESTIMONY. Outdoor Council staff are always happy to offer advice if you aren’t sure where to start. More on this below!
LISTEN IN. When the meeting starts, you can join using the link provided by the LSO. You’ll enter the meeting as a webinar attendee. It’s always good to show up early so that you are aware of the committee’s discussion prior to the public comment opportunity. When public comment is announced, you will have the option to indicate you wish to make a comment. And when it is your turn to speak, you will be able to turn your camera and audio on so that the committee can see and hear you. Make sure your Zoom profile displays your full name.
BE STRATEGIC WITH SIGN UPS. If there’s a topic of interest to you that you may want to weigh in on, go ahead and sign up to testify. You can always decide not to comment.
GET COMFORTABLE WITH THE PROCESS. If you’re able, attend or listen to committee meetings before your bill is discussed to get a feel for the members and their priorities. Most importantly, sitting in will help you feel more confident when it’s your turn.
IT HELPS IF YOU CAN BRING SOMETHING NEW TO THE TABLE. Your case will be more compelling if you introduce a new perspective or find a new way to make a point instead of repeating comments that have already been made. Explain how you, or values important to you, will be impacted.
HAVE AN ELEVATOR PITCH. You might be asked to limit your testimony if there are a large number of people speaking. Be prepared to make your point in under three minutes.
IT’S OK TO BE NERVOUS! Citizen speakers have far more clout with legislators than paid lobbyists. These elected officials see the professionals often, but authentic citizen voices can be rare, so you’ll get special attention. Remember, however, to always be respectful in your demeanor and comments.
Sending an email to your legislator only takes a minute or two and can be a meaningful way to connect. But make sure it’s personal: If a group provides you with a pre-written form email, ignore it and write your own message.
During the interim, legislators may benefit from a detailed letter or email to help them understand your position on an issue. That’s not the case during the session — there simply aren’t enough hours in the day and legislators get hundreds of emails. To ensure your message gets read, keep it brief, straightforward, and respectful.
We suggest this three-sentence formula:
Introduce yourself and make a connection. (This is important to legislators who will read the first line and possibly discard the message if they think it’s a form email.)
State the position you want them to take (i.e. to oppose or support the legislation) and provide the title or subject of the bill as well as the bill number.
Explain why. Cite your personal experience or values.
Example:
“Hi Rep. Jones, I live in Sheridan and recently installed solar panels on my shop. I’m writing to ask you to please vote no on SF 16, the net metering bill. This bill would unfairly raise my utility costs and punish hard-working people like me who have invested in rooftop solar.”
Your legislators work long and hard on behalf of their constituents, but they can’t represent your values if they don’t hear from you. Whether you email your senator, testify to a committee, or offer to meet your representative for a cup of coffee once you’re able to do so safely, you can help give them the information and insight they need to be effective.
If you haven’t already done so, please take a moment to register for Outdoor Council email alerts by visiting www.wyomingoutdoorcouncil.org/signup. Like always, we’ll send timely updates about the legislature and let you know when you need to take action on a particular bill. And please reach out to our staff if you’d like any help preparing testimony or have questions:
Steff Kessler
stephanie@wyomingoutdoorcouncil.org
Kristen Gunther
kristen@wyomingoutdoorcouncil.org
See you at the legislature!
One day in mid-March, all of us on the Wyoming Outdoor Council staff found ourselves sitting at home. The safest thing to do was to stop all work-related travel and work remotely rather from the Lander office. Our office remained open a few hours a day for our administrative staff (thank you Maureen and Misti) to process mail, pay bills, and acknowledge new and renewing memberships, but things had changed.
Like you, we stayed awake at night worrying about the health of our vulnerable family members and friends. We tried to make sense of a rapidly evolving global pandemic while facing new, everyday challenges, like kids who could no longer go to school or how to safely get groceries. Overall, we did our best to stay positive.
Fortunately, most of our work continued from home offices, but other aspects — holding public events, attending legislative and state agency meetings, getting together with members and partners — evaporated overnight, and we were left wondering how to fill that gap. It quickly became apparent this situation wasn’t going to resolve itself anytime soon, and after just a few days of self-isolation our staff was eager to connect with one another and our members.
The first step was the easiest.
Even in normal times, the Outdoor Council offers a variety of trainings and resources for citizens who want to be better informed about conservation issues in Wyoming and empowered to participate in public processes that affect our public lands, wildlife, and environmental quality. We’d already planned to bring our citizen outreach and engagement work under a single banner, and took the opportunity this spring to launch FIELD: Fostering Impact through Environmental Leadership Development.
We dove in headfirst with a brand-new offering: a continuing series of video lessons for kids and teenagers that we dubbed Live from the FIELD. In each installment, students had the opportunity to learn from a Wyoming expert, then participate in a live Q&A session over Zoom. We heard about mule deer, big game migration, and wildlife ecology from University of Wyoming research scientists Samantha Dwinell and Rhiannon Jakopak, wildlife disease from Hank Edwards of Wyoming’s Wildlife Health Laboratory, the sagebrush ecosystem from Gina Clingerman of the Bureau of Land Management, and healthy streams from fly fishing guide and longtime member George Hunker. When we noticed many adults were tuning in as well, we took a bigger creative risk and put together a live, online variety show about the National Environmental Policy Act.
Was there an occasional technical difficulty? Of course. Was using a fireside monologue, game show-style trivia, and puppets to explain federal environmental law a bit corny? Maybe. But the response these events elicited showed us that people in Wyoming are eager to learn and excited to engage in new ways. If you missed the sessions, you can find recordings on our YouTube channel.
The next step was slightly more daunting.
What was to become of our flagship conservation leadership program — the newly renamed FIELD Training — if we couldn’t assemble the eight weeks of class meetings in person? As was so often the case during the first months of the pandemic, taking the program online was the solution. This proved to be as much of a benefit as it was a hurdle. Nothing compares to a face-to-face conversation, but delving into remote learning allowed many people from around the state to participate. How else could a dozen passionate citizens from communities as far-flung as Lusk, St. Stephens, Alpine, and Wapiti all get together for twice-weekly workshops?
It was evident from the start that the value of engaging with people through these online platforms went far beyond a temporary workaround. It’s not a perfect solution, but in this big, sparsely populated, mostly rural state, it’s a step toward bringing us all a little closer together. It’s our intention that these online offerings will continue and expand.
The past months have shown us new opportunities to reach people in Wyoming who care about conservation, and strengthen the type of community building we’ve always done. We’re proud to have a resourceful and energetic staff that can adapt and react quickly. And none of this would be possible without the unwavering support of members like you who took a chance with us and tuned in, demonstrating your commitment to protect Wyoming’s environment and quality of life. Thank you. When the next unexpected challenge arises, as it inevitably will, we’ll rise up to meet it together.
