Commissioners Prepare to Protest BLM’s Rock Springs RMP Draft

Commissioners Prepare to Protest BLM’s Rock Springs RMP Draft

SweetwaterNOW file photo

SWEETWATER COUNTY — The Sweetwater County Board of County Commissioners is preparing to protest the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) Rock Springs Draft Resource Management Plan (RMP) in case the BLM refuses to withdraw the draft or does not extend the public comment period. 

On Sept. 27, Governor Mark Gordon requested the BLM withdraw the plan and resubmit a new preferred alternative and the commissioners are now making that request themselves. The group approved a letter during the Commissioners’ meeting today to be sent to the BLM that sets forth their request for withdrawal.

The letter states how Alternative B, which is the BLM’s preferred alternative, would be socioeconomically devastating in Sweetwater County. Furthermore, the letter points out that Alternative B does not align with the cooperator process or the Federal Land Policy and Management Act, which Eric Bingham, director of land use for the county, describes as a vital document that requires the federal government abide by when managing lands for multiple use. 

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However, if the BLM does not grant the request and moves forward with publishing the document, there will be a 30-day protest period immediately following the publication. The county is setting their sights on this protest period. 

According to Bingham, the protest procedures state “a protest may raise only those issues which were submitted for the record during the planning period,” which makes public comments all the more important. Bingham said that he has met with the Sweetwater County Attorney’s office to discuss how to best get substantive comments so they have standing in the protest period and for potential appeal, if it gets that far. 

In a memo to the commissioners, Bingham said, “it is the opinion of myself and Deputy County Attorney John DeLeon that we should prioritize specific areas of the Draft RMP that are of the most concern and review the draft to the BLM’s codes, regulations, and statutes.” 

He further added that “with the short deadline set by the BLM of November 16, 2023, I believe it is important to prioritize specific areas that have the most impact to our socioeconomics.” 

Bingham has highlighted the following categories as priorities: land with wilderness characteristics, energy and minerals including ROW (right of way), transportation-OHV (off-highway vehicles) and special designations. The county’s goal is to find errors specific to these categories and the BLM’s policies. 

“There are lots of errors,” DeLeon said. “I think Eric has found a lot of errors already, and is already starting to think about how to prioritize those errors.” He added that the focus has been on the BLM’s regulations and statutes because we’re finding that they’re not following all the policies and procedures.” 

DeLeon said that it is important to identify what regulations are specifically being violated. Then they can point to procedures to support their claims during the protest period. 

Sen. John Kolb, R-Rock Springs, who was present at the Commissioners’ meeting, said that the state is having conversations of bringing up $10 million of litigation money and using it to “deal with the federal government and the RMP.”

While he said the cost the state is willing to put into this to fight it legally is “justified”, the state is going to have to divert funds from elsewhere. 

“I want people to know that the money that we have to divert to fight this fight will directly take away from other services the state currently provides. There’s a cost to doing business, and obviously we don’t print money, we actually have a balanced budget unlike the federal government. So we have to divert money,” Kolb said. 

Issues With ORV Already Arising

What was called a mistake by the BLM regarding the removal of thousands of miles of roads from their transportation network is causing the Sweetwater County

Commissioners concern. 

Brad Purdy, the deputy state director of communications for the Wyoming BLM, said on KUGR’s “Let’s Talk” with Al Harris last week that the removal of the roads was a mistake caused by multiple reviews and rewrites of the document. He said the final document would not have the language related to removing thousands of miles from the transportation network. 

However, Chairman Keaton West said the off-highway roads are one of the biggest concerns, and that there isn’t a lot of trust in the BLM when they say they’ll redline that language. 

Additionally, the Commissioners said there are already reports of fines being issued to individuals traveling on two-track roads since the RMP draft has been released. 

“It seems a bit coincidental,” West said. “One of those was on the backside of Aspen Mountain and another was out in the sand dunes area … traveling on two-trackers that contain vegetation growth was the reason for the fine, which seems to be a bit of foreshadowing. I don’t know of too many two-track roads that don’t have vegetation in the middle of them.” 

Commissioner Mary Thoman said cooperating agencies went through zones and identified roads with the BLM, but this RMP draft does not include a transportation plan. 

“The only road you should be getting a ticket on right now should be in a wilderness area or wilderness study area,” she said. 

However, she said they can put stipulations on access, and that’s how they’re controlling it. This can include wildlife special areas or Areas of Critical Environmental Concern (ACEC).

Commissioner Island Richards said the ORV map included in Alternative B is the same for Alternatives C and D as well. 

“If this new map, and it’s the same map in (Alternatives) B, C, and D, it’s an identical map, then you won’t be able to ride an ORV on a two-track road anywhere on BLM land in Sweetwater County,” Richards said. “There had to be some kind of disconnect in the cooperator status to get that very same map across all three proposed alternatives.” 

The Commissioners have given the BLM until Oct. 17 to respond to their letter to withdraw the RMP draft before the county will begin more preparations to protest. The public comment period ends on Nov. 16. Public comments can still be submitted in-person or mailed to the BLM’s Rock Springs Field Office or emailed through the agency’s eplanning service until that deadline.

The complete letter the Commissioners have sent to the BLM can be viewed below.