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Public Land Issues in Wyoming
What You Need to Know on Public Land Issues in Wyoming.
YOUR public lands have been reprieved from Republican attempts to steal them.
Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) dropped his audacious ploy to steal millions of acres of public lands June 28 from the Big, Ugly Bill the Senate has narrowly passed. He and fellow thieves Hageman, Barasso and Lummis claimed public lands must be sold to ease the housing shortage in the Mountain West.
However, it is also true that Lee has been on his jihad against public lands for years. He WILL try again. The Albany County Democrats, in alliance with other groups, will remain vigilant that public lands start in public hands.
Lee faced “insurmountable opposition from within his own party,” according to the New York Times. The four Republican senators from Montana and Idaho had pledged to strike the proposal from the bill. (Ironically, Lee’s bill had exempted Montana from the steal, in a blatant effort to woo the senators.)
The Times report added the plan had also triggered intense pushback from conservative hunters and outdoorsmen across the Mountain West. Republicans were among those attending a June 26 rally against the theft at the state capitol in Cheyenne.
Lee claimed there was “a tremendous amount of misinformation — and in some cases, outright lies — about my bill,” although the federal government has procedures in place and regularly buys, sells and trades public lands including for housing.
Lee and fellow thieves Hageman, Barasso and Lummis, in their claims about housing needs, failed to include the vital issue of water associated with any lands designated for housing. The truth is that the Bureau of Land Management has few meaningful water rights to transfer with any sales.
That leaves only benefiting mining, timber, and fossil fuel interests in profiting from the proposed sales.
Write or call your senators on your opposition to selling public lands.
Senator John Barrasso
307 Dirksen Senate Office Building Washington, DC 20510 202-224-6441 www.barrasso.senate.gov/contact/contact-form/
Senator Cynthia Lummis
127A Russell Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
202-224-3424
www.lummis.senate.gov/contact/contact-form/
contact/contact-form/
Support Democrat Rep. Karlee Solving State Corner Crossing Questions
The Wyoming Legislature’s Travel, Recreation, Wildlife and Cultural Resources Committee is open to state clarification of your rights to “corner cross.”
Rep. Karlee Provenza (D-Laramie), a committee member, has secured the committee’s support for such a bill.
“If we have it in our state statute, it’s just a lot clearer for law enforcement on the ground. It reduces disputes between law enforcement and landowners who are potentially trying to (prevent) sportsmen from being able to hunt on their public land,” Provenza told WyoFile.
“Is this complicated? Wildly,” Sabrina King, Wyoming Backcountry Hunters and Anglers lobbyist, said. “Do we probably need clarification at some point that says, ‘Corner crossing, if you don’t touch the surface of the private land, is not a crime.’ That would be helpful.”
“It’s wild that we have to lay out in statute that not committing a crime is not committing a crime,” she added, “but with the complication of this issue, that may be necessary.”
Corner crossing is stepping from one piece of public land to another in the “checkerboard” with its alternating public and private ownership. Corner crossers can avoid private ground but they necessarily pass through the airspace above it.
Corner-crossing public land users have had their legal access rights repeatedly affirmed in court.
Provenza introduced a bill during the 2025 Legislature. Republican Speaker of the House Chip Neiman, a Hulett rancher, killed the bill.
The county sheriff where the current corner crossing controversy started, around Elk Mountain Ranch, was asked if state changes could help his deputies.
Carbon County Sheriff Alex Bakken reported, according to Wyofile, that his officers are acting under the March 2025 federal 10th Circuit Court of Appeals’ decision upholding corner crossing’s legality while also being “very, very careful” to ensure that those public land users aren’t contacting or damaging private property. Current deputies are “fairly well versed in this issue,” he said.
“As time progresses and new deputies [come on board] and this issue becomes more and more prevalent, I think more clarification would be beneficial,” Bakken said.
Predictably, apologists for the state’s agricultural and livestock interests argued for delay.
“This issue is not settled at the federal level,” Wyoming Farm Bureau Federation lobbyist Brett Moline said in a Wyofile story, “Until it is settled, I don’t think there’s much that we can do.”
Moline referred to the possibility that the U.S. Supreme Court will take on the case. Lawyers for Fred Eshelman, the carpetbagger venture capitalist, who owns Elk Mountain Ranch in Carbon County, have until mid-July to file a petition with the high court.
Wyoming Stock Growers Association lobbyist Jim Magagna also urged waiting.
“If it is heard by the Supreme Court and upheld … ” Magagna said. “There’s going to be so many things that would need to be addressed from a Wyoming perspective.”
Tell Karlee you support her efforts.
Rep. Karlee Provenza
P.O. Box 1715
Laramie, WY 82073
307-977-0202
Sen. Bill Landen and Rep. Andrew Byron are co-chairs of the committee. Tell them you want a state solution.
Sen. Bill Landen
2010 Kingsbury Drive
Casper, WY 82609
307-259-4194
Rep. Andrew Byron
P.O. Box 4882
Jackson, WY 83001
307-690-2767
Want to know more? Check out these resources:
Click here for the Sierra Club.
Click here for Backcountry Hunters & Anglers.
Click here for Advocates for Multi-use of Public Lands
Click here for Utah State Attorney General
Click here for the Albany County Democrats platform, p. 8
Click here for the Wyoming State Republican Platform, 19. Water and Land Rights.
Click here for the Wyoming Outdoor Council.
Click here for the Trust for Public Lands - Wyoming.
Click here for the Nature Conservancy - Wyoming.
Click here for the Wyoming Chapter of the Sierra Club.
Click here for the Wyoming Wildlife Advocates.
Click here for the Defenders of Wildlife.
Click here for Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance.