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public lands

Field Notes


Should Energy Companies be Exempt from Environmental Protections During the Coronavirus Pandemic?

Posted on by John Rader

The global outbreak of Covid-19 has upended our lives. Economic activity around the world has slowed at an alarming rate as many of us stop traveling, shutter our businesses, and stay in our homes. In Wyoming, families are feeling the strain, including our energy workforce. Oil prices continue to tumble as demand slows, companies slash spending, and Saudi Arabia and Russia flood the oversupplied markets with cheap crude, furthering a massive oil glut. Across the nation and in Wyoming, major oil and gas companies are already laying off workers.

In these lean times, it’s important to take stock of and be responsible with our resources, support our communities, and plan for a secure economic future. But while individuals and industries across the country are tightening their belts, energy companies are requesting exceptions from basic environmental protections that protect public health — shifting the burden to the public and future generations in a time of crisis. 

Last week, the National Mining Association, the lead lobbyist for the coal industry, requested a temporary reduction or elimination of royalty payments and fees to the Treasury Department. Shortly thereafter, oil and gas companies asked the Environmental Protection Agency for a pass on regulatory requirements, claiming companies can’t afford to pay the employees who are responsible for ensuring compliance. 

On March 26, the EPA issued a sweeping and unprecedented suspension of its enforcement of environmental protections telling companies they do not need to comply with environmental regulations during the outbreak — including protections for water, air, and land quality that prevent pollution and protect public health.. The EPA has not set an end date for this suspension. The new policy would allow companies to both ignore environmental protections and avoid routine monitoring and reporting obligations with no penalty or repercussions for noncompliance. 

At the same time, the Bureau of Land Management is continuing to lease public land to oil and gas companies at unreasonably low prices, and is threatening to open up new lands to development in Resource Management Plans across the West during the pandemic. These actions raise serious fiscal and resource concerns. Should leasing and permitting be allowed to move forward if the energy industry has conceded it will be unable to meet its most basic environmental and public health obligations? Should it get special accommodations while the public faces additional roadblocks to participation? Should the public shoulder additional cleanup and public health costs to prop up an industry beleaguered by global markets?

In response to the pandemic, governors across the country have requested a halt to leasing, RMP revisions, and other federal actions on public lands. This week, conservative and taxpayer groups asked the federal government to suspend public lands leasing, calling it “fiscally reckless” in the current financial market. The financial return to taxpayers from public lands leasing is already far below the market rate, and the current oil glut is depressing returns even further. In BLM’s last Wyoming lease sale, only 61 percent of the acres that were offered actually sold — and 42 percent went for the minimum bid of $2 an acre for a 10 year right to develop. The parcels that weren’t bid on are now available noncompetitively for just $1.50 an acre. Conservation groups have also asked for a halt to leasing, concerned that the public can’t safely convene at meetings or even access important documents. 

Some federal actions, like RMP revisions, can dictate land management for decades. It is critical that local stakeholders can provide input on these plans, understand them, and ask questions of government officials. Based on our concerns about public participation, the Wyoming Outdoor Council and Powder River Basin Resource Council sent a letter to Gov. Mark Gordon on March 26, requesting a pause on public comment periods for state permits and rule changes. The Outdoor Council, along with other conservation and sportsmen’s groups, has also requested a delay of the Rock Springs RMP draft release until public meetings can safely resume. 

In Wyoming, we look out for one another in times of hardship. Many people’s livelihoods are on the line, and people in all lines of work are struggling. But cutting environmental regulations that protect the public’s health and leasing public land at bottom of the barrel prices is not a smart response to this crisis. It’s fiscally irresponsible, shortsighted, and jeopardizes the quality of life and natural resources Wyoming will need for a stable future.

Now is the time to come together and rally around our shared values, work for the well-being of our state, and protect its resources for future generations. That means not loosening the protections Wyoming people depend on for clean air, clean water, and abundant wildlife. In times of crisis, environmental protections are more important than ever. Public participation in government decision making is critical. And fiscal responsibility is even more essential. We should not rush to give away the resources that secure our state’s future — our public lands, our clean air and water, and our outdoor way of life. 

Field Notes


Public lands leasing at bargain basement prices

Posted on by John Rader

For the past nine years, the BLM has been revising its long-term “resource management plan” for more than 3.5 million acres of public lands in southwest Wyoming — including the Red Desert. Once finalized, this plan will dictate which lands are available for oil and gas leasing — and which will be protected because of their wildlife, cultural, scientific, recreational, or other values. And for nine years, the Wyoming Outdoor Council has been advocating strong protections that will safeguard invaluable resources like our big game migration corridors, historic trails, archaeological and scientific resources, and Native American sacred sites. But if similar plans around the West released under this administration’s “energy dominance” policy are any indication, we can expect the upcoming Rock Springs plan both to remove current protections and open even more lands to development. 

Where’s the balance?

Wyomingites walk the talk when it comes to strong ties to the land and natural resources. We recreate outdoors at far above the national average — hunting, fishing, camping, climbing, skiing, you name it — and the vast majority of us support conserving the landscapes we love and the wildlife that rely on them. We recognize that responsible industrial development on our public lands can benefit our communities, but only if it is done right, in places that don’t sacrifice Wyoming’s natural beauty, open spaces, and abundant wildlife. We might choose to develop our resources carefully, but we all tend to agree: our outdoor heritage is not for sale.

Today, the federal government is not respecting the balance Wyomingites have long fought for. Most of the 30 million acres of public lands in Wyoming are managed for “multiple use,” a congressional mandate to balance a wide variety of resources and values — from hunting and fishing, outdoor recreation, and conserving wildlife habitat to livestock grazing, and industrial uses like mining and oil and gas development. In the Federal Land Policy and Management Act, Congress instructs the BLM to manage public lands to

protect the quality of the scientific, scenic, historical, ecological, environmental, air and atmospheric, water resource, and archaeological values … preserve and protect certain public lands in their natural condition … provide food and habitat for fish and wildlife and domestic animals; and … provide for outdoor recreation and human occupancy and use.

This congressional act also directs the agency to prioritize designating and protecting “areas of critical environmental concern” — places with extraordinary historic, scenic, cultural, and wildlife values. In the Rock Springs Field Office, this designation protects some of our most treasured public resources including the Steamboat Mountain desert elk herd, Historic South Pass, the Killpecker Sand Dunes, and the Oregon and Mormon national historic trails.

Today, the federal government is not managing for multiple use or prioritizing our most treasured landscapes. That’s bad for Wyoming. Across the West, the BLM is leasing millions of acres of public lands for oil and gas development in places with low oil and gas potential potential, while risking other values, such as wildlife and recreation. 

Since 2018, the federal government has leased about 2 million acres of public land in Wyoming — an area the size of Yellowstone National Park — to oil and gas. Much of this leasing has occurred in sensitive wildlife habitat. In fact, in the past two years, the BLM has leased about 55,000 acres within Wyoming’s prized mule deer migration corridors, while roughly half of all leases since 2018 have been in core greater sage grouse habitat, undermining the collaborative West-wide effort that has so far prevented an Endangered Species Act listing for the bird.

The BLM’s forthcoming Rock Springs plan will reassess which lands are available for oil and gas development — including those currently designated as “areas of critical environmental concern” due to their outstanding wildlife, historic, or scenic values. Our hope is that these special places will retain these strong protections, but what we’re seeing in other plans across the West doesn’t bode well for Wyoming: the BLM has consistently removed  “areas of critical environmental concern” designations, ignored public demand for conservation and access, and opened up sensitive wildlife habitat to industrial development. 

In Montana’s Lewistown draft RMP, the BLM proposed removing almost 23,000 acres of ACECs. In a draft plan in Alaska last year, the BLM proposed removing almost 2 million acres of protections from the prior plan. We’ve seen the same story play out in Idaho, Colorado, and Oregon. And Wyoming is next in line. 

But here’s the thing. Despite its “multiple use” mandate, 90 percent of BLM lands nationwide are already available for development. These recent land-use plan revisions put even more public lands on the auction block every quarter, in the very places that need the most protection.

Selling our public lands for the price of a cup of coffee

It’s disheartening to see the BLM locking up our public lands for one industry’s use and jeopardizing our wildlife for dirt cheap. Under this administration, we’re seeing rampant speculative leasing in Wyoming, with oil and gas companies leasing many parcels for the minimum bid of $2 an acre. For the price of a cup of coffee, companies have purchased the right to develop within the longest recorded mule deer migration corridor and in the Golden Triangle, some of the world’s best sage grouse habitat. To add insult to injury, many of these parcels aren’t even bid on, and are sold after auction for as little as $1.50 an acre. And almost half of the leases in Wyoming are sitting idle — tying up our public lands without producing a drop of oil and gas. 

This is a serious policy failure. The “energy dominance” mandate coming from today’s White House, which prioritizes a single use of our public lands over all others, is a top-down policy that doesn’t respect local priorities or multiple use. It locks up lands for potential industrial development even when there is low oil and gas potential potential — and risks the very resources that make Wyoming special.

We’ll need your help to Protect the Red Desert

The BLM’s widely anticipated Rock Springs resource management plan, which will direct the management of more than 3.5 million acres in Southwest Wyoming, including the Northern Red Desert, could open up even more public lands to development when it’s released in early 2020. If past is prologue, this new plan will remove key protections that Wyomingites have worked for for generations, and make more land available for oil and gas leasing. That’s shortsighted, and it’s not good for Wyoming’s future.

Please stay tuned in the coming months to learn how you can weigh in and help us advocate for a plan that respects balance and protects our most important resources. 

Field Notes


Run the Red 2019 was the biggest on record, and it’s not over yet

Posted on by John Burrows

DECEMBER 2019 UPDATE: In early 2020, the Bureau of Land Management anticipates releasing the long-awaited draft land use plan for the Red Desert and surrounding areas. The plan will determine which resources are protected and which areas are open to industrial development. This means that important wildlife, cultural, scenic, and archeological resources — like Steamboat Mountain and its resident desert elk herd, the Red Desert to Hoback mule deer migration corridor, Native American petroglyphs and sacred sites, and historic trails like the Oregon and Mormon trails — could be at risk. Stay tuned for updates on the draft and for opportunities to tell BLM and Governor Gordon to stand up for balanced use and to protect the Red Desert. 

The Red Desert is a land of extremes and poetic contrasts. Depending on the time of year, you could find yourself panting for breath in oppressive heat, stuck axle deep in the mud, or shivering despite being bundled in every layer you own. These challenges — and the chance to test one’s mettle against them — are what make the rugged Red Desert the perfect place to host Run the Red, one of Wyoming’s emerging endurance races.

Run the Red is Wyoming’s only ultramarathon designed to raise awareness and advocacy for the Red Desert. This year’s race was held on the state’s first Wyoming Public Lands Day on September 28, with a newly designed course that started and finished at historic South Pass City. Two new distances were also added — a 45K and 90K — so that participants could experience the best of the Northern Red Desert:  imposing views of Continental Peak, the towering Oregon Buttes, and undulating high desert bisected by the Sweetwater River. Despite the challenging weather, which shifted from snow to rain to wind to sun, this year’s race was the most successful on record, bringing 155 runners from all over Wyoming and as far away as Texas and Oregon. 

“Wyoming people are tough,” said Shaleas Harrison of the Wyoming Wilderness Association. She organized this year’s race and the Wyoming Public Lands Day events that followed at South Pass City, along with partners from NOLS and the Wyoming Outdoor Council. The day was full of wet, smiling runners, laughs from hardy aid station volunteers, memories made around drum circles and banjos, and, most importantly, a deeper appreciation for a wild place many Wyomingites hold dear. 

Following the race, runners and locals from Lander and Rock Springs enjoyed a series of events  to celebrate the newly created Wyoming Public Lands Day. A range of speakers — including representatives from the Northern Arapaho and Eastern Shoshone tribes, state legislators, Red Desert experts, and sponsored athletes shared their perspectives about the importance of landscapes like the Red Desert in maintaining Wyoming’s quality of life, wildlife, and rich outdoor heritage. 

Although the race has changed over the years, the goal of Run the Red — to build a connection to a wild landscape — has remained the same. Jonathan Williams, Environmental Stewardship Coordinator for NOLS, couldn’t have said it better:

“The great thing about Run the Red is that it gives people the opportunity to create a deep sense of place for themselves and then carry that forward as advocates for the desert.” 

– Jonathan Williams,
Environmental Stewardship Coordinator for NOLS

In coming months, the Bureau of Land Management, will release its revised land-use plan for much of the Red Desert. There’s a lot at stake. Our hope is that all the runners, volunteers, and participants — along with anyone who cares about this wild landscape — will weigh in and urge the BLM to protect what makes this place so unique. Stay tuned … the race isn’t over yet!

Field Notes


Southwest Wyoming: A working landscape worth protecting

Posted on by Dustin Bleizeffer

Southwest Wyoming and the northern Red Desert are known for iconic geologic features and breathtaking landscapes that look much the same today as they did millennia ago: Adobe Town, the Killpecker Sand Dunes, Boars Tusk, White Mountain. The Golden Triangle at the base of the Wind River Mountains is one of the most important Greater sage-grouse habitats on earth, and the ancient Red Desert-to-Hoback mule deer migration — the longest in the world — is anchored here.

Wyoming residents have worked together for decades to find ways to protect these special places while enjoying a landscape that, at 3.6 million acres, is big enough to also support motorized use, grazing, and energy development. But now the U.S. Interior’s Bureau of Land Management is poised to strip the hard-fought protections that allow for multiple use in favor just one: oil and gas development.

“This is a landscape that can accommodate many uses,” Wyoming Outdoor Council Conservation Advocate John Rader said. “We have vast open spaces where families can recreate, where we can celebrate our outdoor heritage. There are also places where development is permitted right now. So we’re striking a balance. We have a working landscape that really applies the multiple use approach. We don’t want to sell that out for a single use.”

Local voices lost

Every twenty years or so, the BLM revises its “resource management plans,” which guide how the agency prioritizes uses and protections for particular places. The current plan, in effect since 1997, protects unique places like Steamboat Mountain, the South Pass Historic Landscape, and National Historic Trails, while allowing development in other areas. A revision has been underway for nearly 10 years, and the last time the public was allowed to weigh in was 2011.

 Unfortunately, amid continuous delays and changing administrations, the voices and values of Wyoming residents have been lost in the revision effort. Now, under a directive straight from Washington, D.C., the BLM has indicated it will throw out most of the existing multiple-use protections — which were developed in cooperation with Wyomingites over decades — to prioritize energy development alone. That means hunting, recreation, conserving vital wildlife habitats, and preserving cultural and historic sites will all take a back seat to energy development.

If you hunt those herds, if you hike out in those badlands, if you fish those streams, it’s going to affect you personally.”

— JOHN RADER, WYOMING OUTDOOR COUNCIL

 “Here we are almost a decade later, and we’ve got an administration that wants to strip all the protections for the whole area,” Rader said. The people of Wyoming have agreed that there are some places, some values, that are more important. We recognize the importance of energy development here, absolutely. But there are other values at stake. There’s our way of life.”

Tell local officials: top-down doesn’t work for Wyoming

Despite the slow, muddled revision process, the Outdoor Council continues to work with conservation partners, counties, and others to urge the BLM to honor our shared values in Wyoming. Your voice is crucial, too.

Right now, as the BLM prepares a final draft of the far-reaching plan that will guide how 3.6 million acres of Wyoming’s most special places are managed for the next 20 years, local governments and elected officials in southwest Wyoming have a seat at the table.

And they need to hear from you.

 If you live in southwest Wyoming, please contact your city officials, your county commissioners, and your conservation districts. Tell them that Wyomingites care deeply about the special places in this corner of the state, and that our livelihoods and our way of life here will be undermined by a major overhaul in favor of a single use. Ask them to let southwest Wyoming continue to be a working landscape that balances a full spectrum of uses. And if you live anywhere in Wyoming, consider sending Gov. Mark Gordon the same message.

“We like it the way it is,” Rader said. “We like being able to go out into the Red Desert and explore and hunt, we like being able to hike in the Big Sandy Foothills. And we don’t want a top-down approach from D.C. to come in and take those things away from us.”

To find out how to contact your local officials who can urge the BLM to maintain your outdoor heritage in southwest Wyoming, visit our Public Lands page.

Field Notes


Member Profile: Kathy Jenkins

Posted on by Stefani Farris

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One of the first things Kathy Jenkins did after retiring from her position as a staff attorney for a Wyoming Supreme Court justice was reach out to a Wyoming Outdoor Council board member to ask about volunteer opportunities. After a career in which she’d felt limited in her ability to get involved in advocacy and nonprofit work, Kathy was ready to roll up her sleeves to protect a place she loved.

That was back in 2016. Now Kathy serves on the executive committee of the Outdoor Council’s board of directors and has hosted two successful outreach events in her Cheyenne home with her husband, Mike Shonsey.

She has also become one of the Council’s staunchest supporters.

“The energy at WOC these days is palpable,” Kathy said. “Lisa McGee has pulled together a highly skilled, energetic, and committed staff and it’s exciting to watch them do their work at the legislature and in other public arenas around the state.”

Born and raised in Casper, Kathy’s passion for conservation stems from a lifelong connection to Wyoming first forged by her parents, who moved here in 1948 so her father could pursue a master’s degree in geology. Despite their different backgrounds — Kathy’s mother grew up in a comfortable home in Oakland, Calif., and her father on a small farm in the Appalachian Mountains with no indoor plumbing or electricity — they both embraced Wyoming’s wild places.

It was a shared love they passed down to their daughter. “Thanks to my father, I grew up learning about the unrivaled geology in Wyoming. And thanks to both my parents, I grew up camping, hiking, and fishing all over the state.”

Those firsthand experiences with Wyoming’s rugged backyard nurtured Kathy as a child, and they continue to nurture her today. An avid hiker, backpacker, and cross-country skier, Kathy understands the importance of preserving Wyoming’s special public lands, wildlife, and clean air and water — not only for her own enjoyment, but for the benefit of generations to come.  

She also understands just how much is at stake right now.

New policies out of Washington, D.C., that prioritize fossil fuel extraction over other uses of public lands have put millions of acres of wild lands and sensitive habitat — the heart of our state’s outdoor heritage — in the crosshairs. The same policies also threaten Wyoming’s clean air and water, and exacerbate conditions that cause climate change.

“These are perilous times for our environment,” Kathy said. “It’s urgent that we do all we can to protect what makes Wyoming unique.”

For Kathy, doing all she can to protect Wyoming means donating not only her time, energy, and experience to the Outdoor Council, but giving her financial support as well.

She understands the importance of ensuring that Wyoming’s homegrown statewide conservation group has the necessary resources — year after year — to advocate effectively for the issues she cares so deeply about. And she urges others who share her concern for Wyoming’s wild places to join her in making a meaningful gift to the Council.

“Do it,” she said. “Give as much as you can.”

“Every dollar you give will be thoughtfully, strategically, and carefully spent to protect the things you love most about Wyoming.”

— KATHY JENKINS, BOARD MEMBER

WOC is doing incredible work right now,” she added. “It’s great to be a part of that.”

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Field Notes


We’re shaping legislative policy year-round

Posted on by Steff Kessler
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Thanks to your quick action, the Joint Minerals Committee backed off from a proposal for the State of Wyoming to take over the federal process of evaluating and making recommendations for oil and gas developments and other industrial projects on public lands in Wyoming. Thank you!

Nearly 100 of you answered our call to write to members of the committee asking them to oppose the idea of the state taking primacy over implementation of the federal National Environmental Policy Act. This is the kind of positive influence we can have when citizens take part in the legislature’s formative “interim” period (the legislative work that happens between winter sessions).

To learn more about why NEPA primacy should remain with the federal government, read this fact sheet.

So far this month we’ve covered the Joint Revenue Committee in Lander, Joint Corporations in Casper, and Joint Minerals in Gillette. We’ll travel to Sheridan to cover the Joint Agriculture Committee next.

Stay tuned!

The legislature holds dozens of “joint” (House and Senate) committees throughout the year, around Wyoming. These meetings are open to the public, and they offer an opportunity for citizens to address the committee and to speak with legislators individually during breaks.

Check the legislature’s calendar for upcoming meetings and meeting agendas. You can also livestream meetings as they happen. To watch videos of past legislative meetings, go to the Wyoming Legislature’s website, click on the committee you’re interested in, and click on the “audio/video” tab.

We’ll have more detailed updates on the issues we’re tracking in our June newsletter.

 

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Field Notes


Teton County and the Wyoming Public Lands Initiative

Posted on by Lisa McGee
[et_pb_section bb_built=”1″][et_pb_row][et_pb_column type=”4_4″][et_pb_text _builder_version=”3.17.5″] More than two years ago, at the invitation of the Wyoming County Commission Association, Teton County and nine other counties opted to participate in the Wyoming Public Lands Initiative. This effort sought to resolve how wilderness study areas and other public lands on BLM and national forest land should be managed in the long term. Counties would appoint citizens representing various user groups (recreation, agriculture, oil and gas, conservation, sportsmen, etc.) to seek common ground and come up with a management recommendation for these public lands. If an advisory group reached consensus, its recommendations would be sent to the WCCA, which would package it, along with recommendations from other counties, into legislation that Senator Barrasso could introduce in Congress as a comprehensive Wyoming public lands bill.

Wilderness Study Areas and Their Uses

Many of the uses currently allowed in WSAs would be prohibited if these areas were formally designated as wilderness. An example is Palisades, straddling Teton and Lincoln counties. First made a WSA under the 1984 Wyoming Wilderness Act, Palisades is managed to maintain its wilderness character and its potential for inclusion in the National Wilderness Preservation System. The Act allowed the possibility of oil and gas exploration, and determined that snowmobiling could legally continue “in the same manner and degree” as it had before 1984. Today, of course, oil and gas exploration is no longer a threat to Palisades — but snowmobiling is popular. And despite not being an established or allowable use of these lands under the 1984 Wyoming Wilderness Act, mountain biking has gotten a foothold here. Wilderness supporters look to WSAs and other roadless public lands as places that could, in the future, be given formal wilderness designations — making mountain biking and snowmobiling off limits. Many mountain bikers and snowmobilers believe conservation gains are possible even without a formal wilderness designation. Within the conservation community, it’s a complicated issue with no easy answer.

The Committee: Shared Values and Different Perspectives

On the question of whether to recommend that Palisades be designated as wilderness, the Teton County advisory committee faced a zero-sum game. Because wilderness areas don’t allow for motorized or any kind of wheel-based recreation, one group could only “win” if another group “lost.” Recognizing that from the start, many committee members suggested looking beyond Palisades and Shoal Creek WSAs. Were there other public lands in Teton County that might be designated as wilderness — a solution that would allow biking and snowmobiling to continue in Palisades? Some members of the committee didn’t believe this was a fair outcome. For them, no amount of new wilderness elsewhere would make up for the lack of a wilderness designation in Palisades. Others believed Teton County didn’t “need” any more wilderness. They noted that even if the uses they enjoyed in Palisades continued, they didn’t like the idea that other places might be off limits to those uses. The Wyoming Outdoor Council sought areas of agreement among all 18 committee members. We asked: Does anyone want to see oil and gas development, hard rock mining, or large-scale commercial timber harvest on our public lands in Teton County? The answer was a resounding no. That’s significant: thirty years ago, such consensus would have been nearly impossible. We asked: Does everyone agree that our recreational uses shouldn’t hurt wildlife? A resounding yes. Clearly, the committee shared the most fundamental values.

What’s Next?

Finally, after months of discussion and hard work, the committee put forth a recommendation to prohibit oil and gas development, hard rock mining, and commercial timber harvest and the associated roads necessary for these industrial uses on the national forest lands in Teton County. Does this recommendation resolve the status of Palisades and Shoal Creek WSAs? It doesn’t. But it’s an essential first step to defining a vision for public land management in Teton County that prioritizes wildlife and recreation. Federal legislation is the only way to make this shared vision an enforceable reality. [/et_pb_text][et_pb_cta _builder_version=”3.17.5″ title=”Support recommendations that prioritize wildlife and recreation in Teton County” button_text=”Contact the Teton County Commissioners” button_url=”mailto:commissioners@tetoncountywy.gov” url_new_window=”on”] Please urge the Teton County commissioners to forward this unanimous recommendation to the Wyoming County Commission Association and Senator Barrasso. [/et_pb_cta][et_pb_text _builder_version=”3.17.5″] Please email lisa@wyomingoutdoorcouncil.org with questions. [/et_pb_text][/et_pb_column][/et_pb_row][/et_pb_section]

Field Notes


Energy Dominance: Wyoming is ground zero for ‘energy dominance’ mandate

Posted on by Dustin Bleizeffer

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A new “energy dominance” policy has made Wyoming ground zero for the Trump administration’s anti-regulatory, top-down mandate to promote energy extraction over all other uses on our public lands. And it’s affecting every aspect of the Wyoming Outdoor Council’s work.

Nearly half of Wyoming’s surface acreage is public land (Bureau of Land Management, national forests and parks) and the feds own and manage minerals underlying millions of additional acres of private land. During past administrations, the federal government has often served as a check on the oil and gas and mining industries’ wishes to forego a necessary balance of multiple uses. Now, the industry’s wish list is the federal mandate — and a strategy of systematically shutting the public out of decisions affecting our public lands is the new normal.

“Well established democratic processes — such as the ability to comment on proposed federal actions — are viewed by the Trump administration as impediments. This policy of ‘energy dominance’ seeks to remove those impediments,” Outdoor Council Senior Conservation Advocate Dan Heilig said. “These are our public lands, and we’re being shut out — project by project and policy by policy.”

Consider a few of the actions the administration has taken in the last year and a half that stem directly from an energy dominance policy:

• Issued an executive order in March 2017 calling for a review of all federal actions that could hinder the exploitation of energy resources and infrastructure, and immediately revoking many Obama-era measures to curb greenhouse gas emissions and protect against climate change.

• Removed regulations designed to improve the safety of hydraulic fracturing, as well as regulations seeking to reduce emissions and leaks of methane, a powerful greenhouse gas.

• Rescinded the BLM’s oil and gas leasing reforms.

• Convinced Congress to scrap the BLM’s “planning rule,” designed to increase citizen participation in land-management decisions.

• Issued guidance to federal agencies to “streamline” environmental reviews by imposing arbitrary page limits and timelines.

• Scaled back science-based protections in West-wide Greater sage-grouse conservation plans that protect habitat for some 350 wildlife and plant species.

• Offered oil and gas lease parcels in critical wildlife habitats, popular recreation areas, and culturally and historically important landscapes.

Fighting to Keep the Public in Public Lands


Among the hallmarks of the National Environmental Policy Act — our country’s bedrock environmental law — are its requirements for federal agencies to notify and respond to the public about actions affecting the air we breathe, the water we depend on, and the landscapes and wildlife that define our quality of life. These requirements are fundamental to ensuring that the public has a say in what happens to our shared resources.

Since January 2017, however, we’ve seen federal agencies give shorter notice for oil and gas lease sales and shorten the length of time the public can comment on actions related to energy development and the management of our public lands.

Conservation organizations and citizens alike have also found it more difficult to ensure that our comments are even being considered. This year the BLM reported it couldn’t account for tens of thousands of missing public comments submitted in response to the Trump administration’s revised sage-grouse management plan.

Even federal employees who live in Wyoming confide their frustration that the democratic institutions that have long ensured public participation in federal policies are now being whittled away. These civil servants say they are relying on the public’s persistence and continued engagement.

Add to this Rep. Liz Cheney’s tellingly titled “Removing Barriers to Energy Independence Act” (HR 6087) to slap exorbitant fees on citizens who wish to protest oil and gas lease sales, and Sen. John Barrasso’s ONSHORE Act (S 2319) that would give authority to states to approve applications to drill on federal public lands, and it’s clear there’s a concerted effort to aid energy companies and remove the public from public lands management processes.

“We’re seeing policies coming out of Washington, D.C., to benefit the oil and gas industry,” Heilig said. “And their primary strategy? Putting up barriers to meaningful public input in agency decision making.”

What Energy Dominance Looks Like in Wyoming


Today, the BLM is ignoring past agreements with the state and offering lease parcels throughout southwestern Wyoming — including many inside critical wildlife habitats in the Greater Little Mountain area, in sage-grouse core areas, and in parts of the Northern Red Desert that have long been understood to be off limits to oil and gas development.

Even Interior Sec. Ryan Zinke’s overture to sportsmen — an executive order “to enhance and improve the quality of big-game winter range and migration corridor habitat on federal lands” — rang hollow. No sooner had Zinke signed the order than the Interior’s BLM proposed oil and gas lease parcels for sale inside the Red Desert to Hoback migration corridor — the longest mule deer migration ever recorded.

Although Gov. Matt Mead has urged the BLM to reconsider leasing in Little Mountain and the Red Desert to Hoback corridor, he and other elected leaders in Wyoming support many aspects of an energy dominance policy — which influences the actions of our state agencies. For example, the state’s wildlife and environmental quality officials are often reluctant to hold the line — or even weigh in — on efforts to roll back detailed, science-based wildlife stipulations and air quality measures carefully crafted under previous administrations. This is particularly concerning to those who live and hunt in eastern Wyoming, where the 5,000-well Converse County Oil and Gas Project (and other big drilling projects) are slated for approval within the next year.

And in July, Wyoming’s Office of State Lands and Investments offered dozens of oil and gas lease parcels in the Northern Red Desert — home to crucial winter habitat for big game, national historic pioneer trails, wilderness study areas, North America’s largest sand dune complex, and dozens of other historic, cultural, and natural resources. One parcel was even situated in the shadow of the iconic Boar’s Tusk.

These federal actions and policy changes are coming fast and furious. And they complicate nearly every aspect of our program work. Read on to learn what the Outdoor Council is doing to address these challenges and why we need your help.

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The Energy Dominance Mandate at Work: WOC’s Response

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Problem: Rollback of BLM rule to protect air quality and curb greenhouse gases.

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Solution We Seek: BLM keeps its good rule and Wyoming adopts strong statewide guidance.

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In 2015 the BLM finalized rules to limit the venting and flaring of natural gas, and required inspections of leaky equipment for new oil and gas wells. Because the pollutant is also the product for sale, not wasting it makes sound financial sense. Many companies, such as ExxonMobil, agree.

An industry trade group and three states, including Wyoming, sued. We joined public health organizations, conservation groups, and the states of New Mexico and California to intervene in defense of the rule — and successfully stopped the attempt to delay the rule’s implementation.

End of story? Not quite. Under the new administration, the BLM turned 180 degrees and attempted to rescind its rule. We joined partners to successfully challenge this unlawful move and demand that the BLM follow the legally required steps to repeal an established rule. The BLM’s new rule (which we expect will indeed scrap nearly all of the good elements of the 2015 rule) will be announced any day.

In this case, there’s also a state-level solution. For years we’ve urged Wyoming’s Department of Environmental Quality to issue its own guidance requiring companies to regularly inspect and fix leaky infrastructure in all new oil and gas fields. Wyoming does have such a requirement — but it pertains only to wells in the Upper Green River Basin. Late this summer we were happy to learn that Wyoming DEQ finally proposed guidance to apply these best practices statewide, and we’re working to make sure the measure is adopted and implemented.

We also want to see Wyoming lawmakers remove the severance tax exemption for flared natural gas, which would generate real revenue for counties and local governments.

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Problem: Federal and state oil and gas lease parcels are being offered for sale in some of the most iconic places and most crucial winter big game habitat in the Northern Red Desert.

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Solution We Seek: The BLM and the state agree to withdraw and no longer offer oil and gas leases in special places and important habitats.

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In July, the Wyoming Office of State Lands and Investments offered dozens of oil and gas lease parcels for auction throughout the state, including 34 parcels in the Red Desert — in remote areas with no roads or infrastructure to accommodate development. The parcels are in or near designated National Historic Trails, BLM Wilderness Study Areas, and critical big game and sage-grouse habitat.

Wyoming’s July lease auction demonstrates the influence of an energy dominance policy on state actions. Once federal lease parcels are offered in undeveloped areas — such as the Northern Red Desert — operators are motivated to nominate neighboring state parcels to shore up congruent lands for development.

The Outdoor Council led an effort asking the state to withdraw the 34 lease parcels identified as a threat to wildlife, cultural, and natural resources. The state withdrew only one it had slated for sale — the iconic Boar’s Tusk. Twenty-one of the state parcels received bids in July. We led another campaign to urge the OSLI board of commissioners not to authorize their sale. Our efforts prompted dozens of residents to testify to the wildlife, cultural, and economic values that would be degraded if drilling in this landscape is allowed.

There is a better way!​ ​We’re reminding state leaders that an exchange of these isolated state parcels for BLM lands elsewhere that are more conducive to development would provide a better guarantee of revenue while protecting this landscape.

We continue to monitor leasing actions by both the state and the federal government throughout Wyoming, and remain ready to defend against shortsighted policies coming out of D.C.

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Problem: Proposed oil and gas leases threaten sensitive habitat in the longest mule deer migration corridor.

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Solution We Seek: The BLM does not offer oil and gas lease parcels here.

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Every spring, thousands of mule deer make a 150-mile trek between their winter range in the Red Desert and lush habitat farther north. In the fall, often with fawns, they retrace their steps south.

This February, Interior Sec. Ryan Zinke issued an order to “improve habitat quality” in migration corridors. We applauded the move. But then the BLM announced it would offer multiple parcels inside the Red Desert to Hoback corridor for oil and gas leasing.

That’s a problem. We reminded Sec. Zinke and the Wyoming State BLM office that science shows drilling in vital habitats like migration corridors is harmful to wildlife, and we urged them to pull the parcels before the fall lease sales. We also helped a coalition of sportsmen and conservation partners do the same. And, after thanking Gov. Matt Mead for his initial support of this special corridor, we asked him to be even more vocal in its defense.

We’re also making sure citizens are aware of the problem, and that they know how to help fix it. Participants at our annual Run the Red event and the Tour de Wyoming bike ride — which both intersect with the corridor — were eager to contact Gov. Mead and speak out in its defense. We provided postcards for participants to submit comments to Gov. Mead, and, thanks to the generosity of a WOC member, we provided felt antlers which cyclists donned in a show of solidarity with the migrating deer.

In early August, BLM agreed to defer nearly 5,000 surface acres from potential oil and gas developments that intersect this vital corridor. Although this isn’t everything we asked for, it’s a good start. Thanks to all of you who let Gov. Mead and Sec. Zinke know that Wyoming’s wildlife habitat is worth defending! We’ll keep pushing to protect this and other special corridors.

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Field Notes


Your voice makes a difference in wave of leasing actions

Posted on by Dustin Bleizeffer

This summer we asked you to weigh in on several oil and gas leasing actions that would degrade wildlife habitat and other special landscapes in Wyoming. You responded by submitting comments and letting officials know that some places just aren’t right for development. Thank you! Because of your quick action, we have a few successes to report.

But first some context.

In western states, U.S. Bureau of Land Management lease sales are growing exponentially in size. This year, the number of federal acres offered for oil and gas development in Wyoming ballooned from 170,509 in the first quarter to a whopping 700,000 acres in the fourth.

“I’ve never seen a lease sale in Wyoming of that size, ever. Seems like it’s a firesale,” Outdoor Council Senior Conservation Advocate Dan Heilig said.

Following the president’s “energy dominance” directive, the BLM is also offering shorter timeframes for the public to review and respond to lease sales, while also ignoring its previous commitments to not lease in areas undergoing planning revisions. This has led to leases being sold in areas that have less than adequate protection.

And the public isn’t even getting a fair return. Many lease parcels offered in these sensitive areas are selling for the federal minimum of $2 per acre, whereas parcels in developed areas “in play” can go for $3,200 per acre.

This year, the number of federal acres offered for oil and gas development in Wyoming ballooned from 170,509 in the first quarter to a whopping 700,000 acres in the fourth. (Wyoming BLM)

“It’s not benefiting the public treasury,” Heilig said. “They’re not getting the best value per acre for these parcels.”

According to a July 2018 article by Reveal, “Some energy experts say the Trump administration is trying to lease lots of federal land that oil companies don’t even want. Of the 11.9 million acres offered by the administration in 2017, 792,823 [acres] received bids, considerably less than the 921,240 acres out of 1.9 million under the Obama administration in 2016.”

The sale of a lease parcel conveys a legal right to develop. Because neither the state nor the federal government is carefully analyzing where it sells, or allows citizens time to comment, the public stands to lose.

Back in 2012, citizens rallied to help purchase and retire nearly 60,000 acres of oil and gas leases in the Upper Hoback of the Wyoming Range. These were leases originally bought on the cheap, which citizens then spent $8.75 million to purchase and retire. Today’s wave of federal leasing poses similarly costly threats far into the future, whether leases must be bought out in some places, or development robs the public of productive wildlife habitat and outdoor and tourism dollars.

Your voice matters

In the July Wyoming state lease sale your emails, letters, and phone calls to state officials helped result in a handful of lease parcels being pulled — one at the foot of Boar’s Tusk. This is fantastic news. Unfortunately, the State Board of Land Commissioners approved the sale of nearly two dozen other parcels that we and many partners opposed.

This shortsighted lease sale not only threatens critical wildlife habitat and rare cultural resources in the Red Desert, it also highlights several deficiencies in the state leasing process. First, the state’s public notice for oil and gas lease sales is woefully inadequate. The state allowed only 30 days for the public to review 187 proposed leases statewide. Second, although the public may access and comment on proposed lease sales, the state provides no formal avenue to do so.

With your help we will continue to push officials to resolve these deficiencies. And, recognizing that Wyoming’s constitution prioritizes uses of state lands to generate revenue for Wyoming schools, we’ll also keep touting a better alternative to leasing special state landscapes for energy development: exchanging those lands for BLM parcels better suited to industrial development.

On the federal front

The state’s July lease sale precedes two federal oil and gas lease sales that also include parcels in sensitive areas, such as Greater sage-grouse core areas, crucial winter range, and the Red Desert to Hoback mule deer migration corridor.

So far, the Wyoming Game and Fish Department has been reluctant to weigh in on recent federal leasing actions with its own expertise. We continue to urge the state to guide federal agencies on matters best understood by expert biologists citing the best available science.

The state has so far failed to note that federal stipulations attached to oil and gas lease parcels don’t take into consideration 15 years of published research by wildlife biologist Hall Sawyer. The research shows such stipulations do not adequately protect wildlife from oil and gas development.

Rather than keeping its foot on the gas pedal, the BLM needs to hit the brakes on oil and gas leasing in and near migration corridors. The agency needs to take time to adhere to the best available science and to amend existing stipulations to ensure protections actually work as intended.

This year we also asked you to submit comments on BLM oil and gas lease sales, and many of you responded. Thanks to your advocacy and the urging of Gov. Matt Mead, the BLM agreed to defer the sale of nearly 5,000 surface acres of federal lease parcels that intersect with the Red Desert to Hoback mule deer migration corridor. This is a good start to defending this corridor, and it showed the BLM that Wyoming citizens are resolute in protecting the state’s critical wildlife habitat.

Thank you for staying engaged and helping us keep the promise that we owe to future generations.

— Read the Wyoming BLM Third Quarter oil and gas lease sale protest letter filed (August 11, 2018) by Wyoming Outdoor Council, National Audubon Society, The Wilderness Society, and Wyoming Wilderness Association.

 

Field Notes


Ranchers rally for wilderness, against motorized use, on Copper Mountain

Posted on by Dustin Bleizeffer

There isn’t much traffic on Birdseye Pass Road just outside Shoshoni in north-central Wyoming, despite the fact that it carves around the southern and eastern borders of the Copper Mountain Wilderness Study Area — a place that the U.S. Bureau of Land Management proclaims has “outstanding” potential for “primitive and unconfined recreation.”

Traffic will pick up in September when hunters begin scouting the area for deer and elk. Meantime, there’s always the occasional out-of-town vehicle that’ll stray from county road to private. These drivers often avoid stopping to visit with a local rancher who pulls over for a quick hello, and to maybe offer some advice.

[learn_more caption=”What are Wilderness Study Areas?”] Wilderness Study Areas originated from the Federal Lands Policy and Management Act of 1976 which required the identification of federal lands with “wilderness characteristics.” As such, lands are either recommended for wilderness or a host of other potential designations. Only Congress has the authority to make the designation based on the recommendations of the Bureau of Land Management and the U.S. Forest Service. In Wyoming, there are 42 BLM WSAs. (Source: Wyoming Public Lands Initiative) [/learn_more]

“We call ‘em Lookie-Lous,” Garrett Herbst says as he grinds pickup and loaded horse trailer up this road toward the family’s old homestead. They’re mostly harmless and well-intentioned, the 31-year-old fourth generation rancher adds. There’s a common perception that ranchers are unapproachable, and maybe even downright grouchy toward the average person looking to recreate among the patchwork of public and private land in Wyoming.

Herbst says that’s a perception ranchers need to try to change, for their own survival.

“We gotta take just a little time to visit, and help people know where they can be and do it right. That’s the type of thing we need to encourage, or eventually — ranchers are kind of a dying breed as it is — people are going to make it harder for ranchers if we don’t start helping them enjoy what’s around us.”

Garrett Herbst prepares for a ride through the northern portion of the Copper Mountain Wilderness Study Area where his family grazes cattle in the summer. For four generations, the Herbst family has packed in salt for wintering horses and summer cattle. (photo: Dustin Bleizeffer)

The Herbst family, and many ranchers like them, depend on grazing allotments on public lands. The Herbsts, for example, have grazed cattle here every summer for 100 years. Ranchers know these public landscapes better than most, yet Garrett Herbst worries they risk alienating themselves from other public land users when it comes to land management planning for the future.

Those risks are at play right now for the Copper Mountain Wilderness Study Area and 42 other WSAs in Wyoming currently under consideration for permanent land management changes. For the past two years a handful of counties have taken part in the Wyoming Public Lands Initiative, an effort to find broad-based consensus on the future management of WSAs as the basis for congressional legislation to move all or some of the WSAs in Wyoming from a temporary status to a mix of wilderness and other management priorities.

[learn_more caption=”What is the Wyoming Public Lands Initiative?”] The Wyoming Public Lands Initiative is a voluntary, collaborative process led by counties regarding the future management of Wilderness Study Areas in the state. The goal is to find local stakeholder consensus for how each Wilderness Study Area is managed, and to send those recommendations to Congress for potential new legislation guiding the permanent management of the WSAs. (Source: Wyoming Public Lands Initiative)[/learn_more]

Existing grazing allotments in the WSAs — such as the Herbsts’ in the northern portion of Copper Mountain — are grandfathered in the existing plans, and won’t be revoked. But a wide range of new uses are under consideration, including off-road vehicle use and new motorized vehicle trail systems.

Rock crawlers in a roadless area?

There’s no water to fish here, but a scramble to any hilltop provides stunning views of a desert-like plains to the south, Boysen Reservoir and the Absaroka Range to the west.

Copper Mountain offers a wealth of geologic and cultural resources, and challenging terrain for hikers and backpackers. There are rockfaces to climb and deep gullies rumored to hide ancient cedars. Garrett complains there’s too many mountain lions and rattlesnakes to his liking in this dry sagebrush- and juniper-covered landscape. But it provides critical refuge for the deer and elk that move into the northern and eastern parts of Copper Mountain to survive especially harsh winters, earning a portion of the WSA critical winter range habitat protections.

It’s all of these qualities, after all, that earned Copper Mountain the designation of Wilderness Study Area decades ago. This is a place that is remarkably untouched and wild. There are no roads. Anyone is free to come here and enjoy a sense of solitude — by foot or by hoof. It’s the landscape people think of when they imagine Wyoming. But the Herbsts fear these qualities may one day be lost.

There’s a lot for people to enjoy on Copper Mountain where the BLM Wilderness Study Area spans 6,858 acres of hilly, rocky terrain wedged between the Wind River Canyon to the west and the rest of Copper Mountain to the east, nestled at the southwestern edge of the Bighorn Mountain Range. On a horseback tour of the area in June, Garrett Herbst and his father Tom Herbst spotted tepee rings and mountain bluebirds darting over steep slopes speckled with budding Indian Paintbrush. (photo: Dustin Bleizeffer)

So far, the Fremont County Public Lands Committee still implicitly includes the “bottom-third” portion of the Copper Mountain WSA — just 2,000 roadless acres among 2.1 million BLM acres across the larger north-central portion of the state — in its recommendation for a motorized use study. Garrett, his father Tom Herbst, and many other locals worry that recommending such a study may be interpreted as a mandate to accommodate off-road vehicles — ATVs and even “rock crawlers” specifically designed to maw and mount rocky crags and other rugged but sensitive terrain.

While riding horseback through the “bottom-third,” Tom Herbst noted that the reason there are no roads here is because the terrain is too hilly and the soils are too delicate. A track carved by motorized wheels — even a groomed trail — would cause erosion, likely leading to another route that encourages even more erosion.

The Herbsts’ grazing allotment is situated on the northern end of the Copper Mountain WSA, which comes with the WSA-wide restriction of no motorized use. For four generations, they’ve packed in salt for wintering horses and summer cattle, and they’ve packed in materials to maintain fences and to coax spare mountain spring watering holes. That’s how it’s been done for generations — even before the WSA guidelines were established decades ago.

Opening the area to off-road vehicles would damage every quality that earned Copper Mountain its wilderness study designation in the first place, the Herbsts say. They want the Copper Mountain WSA to be excluded from any recommendation for an ORV suitability study, and they’ve gathered more than 200 signatures from others — mostly locals — who agree.

Copper Mountain grazers like the Herbsts don’t want to see the roadless area opened to motorized use. For generations, the family has packed in salt for wintering horses and summer cattle, because the landscape isn’t suited for motorized vehicles. (photo: Dustin Bleizeffer)

“It’s not good for hunters, not good for hikers, not good for wildlife. It’s only good for the ORV user,” Tom Herbst said. “Here’s the other thing for ranchers: conservation is critical in an arid area like this. If we don’t kind of conserve it, we don’t have grazing. We’ve got to take care of it.”

As Garrett and Tom find allies among the ranching community and initiate conversations to elevate suitable recreation opportunities at Copper Mountain — such as climbing, birding, and hiking — they feel the Fremont County advisory committee hasn’t taken their wishes, concerns, and local knowledge into account.

Are public lands committees listening to the public?

The Wyoming Public Lands Initiative set out to resolve the temporary status of WSAs — in limbo for nearly three decades. Each county with a WSA was encouraged but not required to participate. The initiative recognized that a consensus set of recommendations created by a broad coalition of stakeholders stands the best chance of support for congressional legislation.

WPLI’s charter states that “County WPLI Advisory Committees will be expected to encompass a broad cross-section of public lands stakeholders.” The initiative’s Principles and Guidelines state that Public Lands Committees “allow for public comment opportunities at all of the committee’s meetings” — a charge that participating committees have honored; most provided multiple opportunities, and even online comment submissions.

But the guidelines do not say how public comments are to be considered by the committees, or integrated into the committees’ final recommendations.

Neil Long is a climber who lives in Casper in neighboring Natrona County. He’s among many local climbers who frequently scale granite walls inside the four WSAs that comprise the Sweetwater Rocks complex far south of Copper Mountain. Neil and many of his fellow climbers have read through committee meeting minutes and reached out to members of the Fremont County Public Lands Committee to share their input. Neil shares the same concern as the Copper Mountain ranchers — that the committee appears to listen, but then doesn’t seem to incorporate broad public agreement into its decisions.

“I reached out and got responses ranging from no response and neutral response, and that public opinion isn’t going to persuade some [committee] members,” Neil said.

Like the Herbsts, Todd Humphreys works a grazing allotment in the Copper Mountain WSA, carrying on a 90 year family tradition. In that time there have been dustups about land use, he said, but things have worked nicely the past few decades among local ranchers, the Bureau of Land Management, and the public under the WSA designation. Humphreys says he shares the view that ranchers need to be partners with land managers and the general public that wants to enjoy the wild, roadless area.

“We have to learn how to share this,” Humphreys said. “Other people need to enjoy this too — the people who appreciate it.”

Copper Mountain grazer Tom Herbst said his family and the general public have benefited from the “wilderness” protections applied to the area for the past three decades. “I think the benefit of wilderness is it creates more respect for the land,” he said. (photo: Dustin Bleizeffer)

Humphreys acknowledged public land grazers sometimes butt heads with the BLM in some areas, but it’s working out on Copper Mountain. “The Wilderness Study Area is no problem with us,” he said. “Even if it’s [permanently] made a wilderness area, we can work with that, and we can work with the BLM. We just don’t want motorized vehicles in there with trails and trash.”

Humphreys attended several Fremont County Public Lands Initiative committee meetings, wrote comments, and helped organize with other locals, and said he appreciates the task and the manner in which the committee has worked.

“But when it came down to recommendations for this area, it seems like they protected other [WSAs in Fremont and Natrona counties] but backed off of Copper Mountain. I think there are some interests there who are not concerned with Copper Mountain, and they blocked everything we tried to conserve.”

Two committee members refused to support the draft recommendation, in part because of concerns over the potential for motorized access to areas like Copper Mountain. But it’s unclear whether the Copper Mountain ranchers will be heard as recommendations move from committee to the county commission and perhaps to Congress.

“All 325 million people in the United States have the right to be on public ground. Now it’s just a matter of how are we going to use certain parts of it?” Garrett Herbst said. “Because certain places may be suitable for certain activities. Other places — especially like we feel about this — there’s absolutely no motorized trails. Why destroy this little piece?”

Over the next few months, committees around Wyoming will seek public input as they work to finalize sets of recommendations for this and other public landscapes. You can follow the progress here at wyomingoutdoorcouncil.org, and on our Facebook page.


NOTE: This is the first of a 3-part series about the Wyoming Public Lands Initiative, now in its final stages of approving recommendations to send to Congress.