ShareTrails | 12 Days of Legal Updates: Day 10 The Plan to Shut Down 3 Million Acres in Rock Springs, Wyoming

In September, the Bureau of Land Management released a proposal for a new Resource Management Plan for the lands they manage around Rock Springs, Wyoming. In our initial analysis, we knew it was bad, and we published an action alert on the plan shortly after it was released.This plan will affect 3 million acres of land, and it included proposal that would severely undermine Wyoming’s energy industries. It was also problematic for recreation.This plan was quickly denounced by local officials, and it didn’t take long for the Governor and the Congressional delegation to get involved. the comment period for the plan was extended to January of 2024, and the state has already preemptively threatened to sue the BLM over this plan if they go through with it.Shortly after this was released, the BLM also released their plan to close hundreds of miles of popular trails near Moab, and a lot of attention shifted to that plan.We wanted to remind everyone that this plan in Wyoming has the potential to be just as bad as what happened in Moab. There is still a chance to add your voice to tell the BLM to consider a better alternative. We are especially concerned that they will use this plan to create a precedent to designate millions of acres of Areas of Critical Environmental Concern, which will be managed as de facto wilderness.If the BLM decides to move forward with the worst iterations of this plan, we will want to makes sure that a large number of our members submitted public comments to improve our legal standing to challenge the plan.

Submit a comment and send a letter to your representative encouraging them to support legislation to defund the Rock Springs plan.