Case Study

Wyoming Public Lands Initiative

The Wyoming Public Lands Initiative (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 Wyoming’s 42 Bureau of Land Management and three U.S. Forest Service Wilderness Study Areas (WSAs) in Wyoming. While WSA designations will serve as the launching pad and anchor for the WPLI, county advisory teams are encouraged to look more broadly at long-standing land use challenges and build consensus-based agreements using whatever tools at their disposal to reach agreement.

As the WPLI developed, AMPL saw the importance of ensuring the mechanized and motorized recreation communities had a voice with respect to responsible recreation on our public lands. Over the past two years, the Teton and Sublette County WPLI boards collected public comment on Wilderness Study Areas and debated the appropriate uses for public lands in our region.

AMPL asked the public to speak up and inform our representatives, including members of the county WPLI board, county commissioners, and federal delegation, about how we want to use these lands. Last summer, we worked hard to launch a comprehensive community outreach plan, involving digital, social, local event and grassroots education with a goal of collecting over 1,000 public comments on the study areas in our region.

We far exceeded that number, collecting over 2,000 handwritten public comments in support of continued multi-use recreation on the WSAs. After over two years of hard work, this past fall, the Teton County Board of County Commissioners voted 5-0 against a proposal which would have resulted in a loss of over 30% of the limited public lands open to mechanized and motorized recreation.

Read more about AMPL’s participation in the Wyoming Public Land Initiative →