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Since the beginning of the second Trump administration, Bureau of Land Management resource management plans that balance resource extraction with other values like recreation and conservation have been on the chopping block. Congress has also been working to undo resource management plans using the Congressional Review Act. Conservation advocates across the West have warned that top-down interference with resource management plans, crafted over multiple years by broad sets of local stakeholders, would open Pandora's Box on public lands.
In Wyoming, a re-do of the Rock Springs resource management plan would have devastating impacts on areas like the iconic Red Desert, which is already facing the stresses of climate change. "We’re already on the edge of existence," said Tom Christiansen, a retired wildlife biologist who spent 33 years working for the Wyoming Game and Fish Department. "You can’t turn this into a wheat field."
Advocates agree, and argue that the area's many other values make it worthy of the protections that were negotiated during the process that resulted in the Rock Springs resource management plan, which Congress and the Trump administration are seeking to overturn. "When you look at the various values up there, including the recreational opportunities, hunting, fishing and the cultural resources, what you see is one of the highest quality landscapes to go out and enjoy the outdoors," said Wyoming Outdoor Council conservation director Alec Underwood. "It also happens to be one of the most ecologically significant areas in the United States of America. If that place isn’t worthy of protection, I don’t know what is."
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You should always be skeptical when the fox tells you the hen house doesn’t need to be locked anymore.”
