Public Lands Open House in Encampment

The Carbon County Wyoming Public Lands Initiative (WPLI) committee invites the public to an open house from 4-5 p.m. on April 10 at the Grand Encampment Opera House.

During the open house, there will be a short presentation on potential options for management of the Wilderness Study Areas (WSAs), time to ask questions and an opportunity for the public to provide feedback to the committee.

The committee says it looks forward to hearing the public’s thoughts on how these wilderness areas are managed in the future. Timely public input is requested as the WPLI committee is at the point of forming their recommendations. The recommendations will then be presented to the Carbon County Commissioners.

The committee has been meeting regularly since late 2016 to discuss future management options for the four WSAs in Carbon County: Encampment River Canyon, Prospect Mountain Bennett Mountain, and Ferris Mountains.

For more information on these WSAs or to submit comments online go to www.carbonwpli.org.

The WPLI committee will also meet for a regular committee meeting from 2-5 p.m. on Tuesday. April 3 at the Jeffery Center in Rawlins. This meeting is also open to the public.

Background:

A Wilderness Study Area (WSA) is a special designation that applies to federal lands. WSAs are managed to protect the area’s wilderness characteristics until Congress designates the WSA as wilderness or directs the land management agency to manage the area for other multiple uses. Early in 2016, the Wyoming County Commissioners Association (WCCA) organized the Wyoming Public Lands Initiative (WPLI) to address the WSAs.

The WPLI is a collaborative, county-led process intended to result in one state-wide legislative lands package that is broadly supported by public lands stakeholders in Wyoming. The ultimate goal is final designation or release of some of Wyoming’s 42 BLM and 3 U.S. Forest Service WSAs in Wyoming.

The WPLI is a collaborative, county-led process intended to designate WSAs as wilderness, multiple-use or other management designations.

The Carbon County Board of Commissioners appointed the Carbon County WPLI Advisory Committee in late 2016. The advisory committee is composed of representatives of a diversity of interests and is instructed to develop designation recommendations for the county’s four WSAs. Recommendations may range from formal wilderness designation to full release or other management designations. Go to www.carbonwpli.org for more information.

The open house will be held from 5-7 p.m. April 10 at the Grand Encampment Opera House, 622 Rankin St. in Encampment.