• Federal officials aren’t sure they will release their decision before 2025, the ideal deadline needed to complete a high-profile land transaction 100 miles away in Grand Teton National Park.

 

By Mike Koshmrl, WyoFile.com

Two high-profile public land disputes in Wyoming advanced one step closer to tenuous resolutions following Gov. Mark Gordon’s formal appeal of the Bureau of Land Management’s resource management plan revision for 3.6 million acres of southwest Wyoming.

Although seemingly a small administrative step, the appeal — technically an appeal of the BLM’s response to the governor’s consistency review — moves the years-in-the-making plan toward a finish line with implications well beyond the BLM’s Rock Springs Field Office. 

The federal agency needs to complete its revision, and issue a record of decision, for its U.S. Department of Interior sibling, the National Park Service, to acquire the state-owned Kelly Parcel. The two public land issues became intertwined by the Wyoming Legislature’s most recently authorized budget.  

Gordon has already signed the $100 million Kelly Parcel sale agreement, but he won’t certify it until the BLM’s record of decision is signed, according to spokesman Michael Pearlman. That determination specifically hinges on the decision. 

“We need to look at the record of decision, according to statute,” said Nolan Rap, a senior policy advisor for Gordon. 

Outgoing Rep. Clark Stith (R-Rock Springs), who advocated for the Kelly Parcel sale, interpreted the BLM’s final plans as meeting the conditions of the budget bill, according to the Jackson Hole News&Guide.

The incoming Legislature, however, may yet manage to derail the deal. Rep. Chip Neiman (R-Hulett), a Freedom Caucus member and incoming speaker of the House, was clear about his cohort’s intentions regarding the Kelly Parcel.

“If the opportunity arises, we would take that [on] as a budget amendment,” Neiman said. “Basically go back in there and undo that [sale authorization] that was added to the budget previously.” 

Meantime, the governor’s appeal, signed on Friday, is the third-to-last step remaining in the BLM’s process.

“Now, the BLM Director [Tracy Stone-Manning] will have to address that appeal — that will include a letter and a Federal Register notice,” said Brad Purdy, BLM-Wyoming’s deputy state director for communications.

After that, he said, comes the record of decision, which will separately be noticed in the Federal Register. That decision would put the BLM’s plan — which seeks a balance of development and conservation — into effect, though it could potentially get thrown out by the incoming GOP-led Congress in 2025. Wyoming officials could also litigate. That was the move they made just last week in response to the BLM’s revision of its Buffalo Field Office RMP, which ends coal leasing in the Powder River Basin.

 

Defacto deadline?

Regardless, there’s pressure to get everything done in the next two weeks — by the end of the calendar year. The reason: The Grand Teton National Park Foundation is fundraising for the Kelly Parcel acquisition, specifically the amount that exceeds the appraised value. 

“We’ve been working hard to raise $38 million to round up to the $100 million to purchase this parcel,” President Leslie Mattson told the State Board of Land Commissioners in November. “If this transaction gets delayed I think we’re in real jeopardy of losing that funding, given tax year planning for many of our donors.”

It’s unclear if the BLM will wrap everything up before the calendar turns to 2025. 

“I’m not sure if you’ll get a [record of decision] by the end of the year,” Pearlman said. “We don’t know.” 

The Kelly Parcel acquisition timing is “not really” part of the discussion, Purdy said, around issuing a record of decision for the Rock Springs RMP. The plan, which is akin to a zoning document, lays out a vision for millions of acres of southwest Wyoming, from the Utah/Colorado state line north to the Big Sandy River and from the Green River east to the Adobe Town Wilderness Study Area.

“We’ve got to move through this process,” he said. “If we start making big concessions one way or the other, just to get the Kelly Parcel across the finish line, that’s really not what we’re looking to do. We want a solid resource management plan … for the Rock Springs Field Office.”   

Still, the BLM’s timing could shake out in favor of the wealthy Teton County donors whose tax year write-offs are part of the calculus in completing the Kelly Parcel sale. 

“I figure it will be right after Christmas, right after New Year’s, somewhere in there,” Purdy said. “I can’t really pin down an exact date, because headquarters is going to have to look at what the governor put in there.” 

What’s in the appeal? 

Gordon’s appeal to Stone-Manning alleges that BLM-Wyoming Director Andrew Archuleta treated his earlier “consistency review” as a “mere paper exercise instead of a meaningful process for soliciting the state’s input.” The appeal was also preceded by protests from state agencies that sought more commercial use of the landscape, like grazing and drilling. 

The governor’s appeal letter separates his displeasure with the BLM’s handling of the Rock Springs RMP into five categories. A couple of his demands would drag out the timeline for the federal agency issuing its final decision. 

“[A]ny new points raised in the Consistency Review must be reopened for comment,” Gordon wrote. “BLM must analyze the impacts of the proposed management actions in the final EIS for the sage grouse plan amendment and must stay its final decision on the Rock Springs RMP if it intends to keep the South Wind River Area of Critical Environmental Concern.”

Stone-Manning granting those requests, and delaying the Rock Springs RMP decision could put the Kelly Parcel sale in jeopardy. 

The deal is included in the biennial budget, so technically it’s authorized through June 30, 2026. But the Wyoming Legislature took a turn to the right during the 2024 elections. 

The Joint Appropriations Committee, which controls the state’s pursestrings, is now stacked with Freedom Caucus members — a bloc of lawmakers who opposed the Kelly Parcel deal. During the Wyoming Legislature’s 2025 general session, which starts Jan. 14, that committee will be tasked with shepherding a bill that revises the state’s budget. 

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